Victoria Beckham
Victoria Beckham has had a big year. Some of the highlights include celebrating a decade in the fashion industry, winning the Fashion Icon award from the People’s Choice and even attending a Royal Wedding or two. But away from Beckham’s social connections with British Royalty, she’s killing it right now.
Her fashion label has been to many fashion weeks over the years, is sold in over five hundred stores and is continuing to grow and expand to more fashion pieces. This type of success does not come easy. We have seen many people in the public eye try their hand at designing a line and choosing not to move forward either out of a lack of success, the overwhelming challenges of the process or simply running out of ideas. So for Beckham to have established and created her lines each season coming from a limited knowledge of fashion when she first began is impressive and like all the other successful designers out there, she should be commended.
In terms of Victoria’s persona in the public eye though, there seems to be a unanimous respect for her. Having transitioned from so many different creative jobs in her life, she has gone from each one with a real grace and elegance. There is something really refreshing about a person who is a celebrity that goes about their business very quietly and simply, yet also with a good attitude about it. So I wanted to write about Victoria Beckham and a few reasons I felt really inspired by her as a creative person and a person in general.
Humble beginnings, but a strong awareness of her platform
In terms of starting her fashion career, Beckham has talked about how many people expected her to fail and being very conscious of this, she knew to start small and learn as much as she could whilst working incredibly hard. She began with only a few people in her team and made around ten pieces for her first ready to wear collection showcasing them to a curated group of fashion journalists and designers to view. Naturally it was a huge success due to the attention to detail and the choice of fabrics and tailoring.
Beckham then learned from each collection and pushed herself forward into the next one, never making her line about the fact that she was famous for being in the Spice Girls but simply for her buyer; who they were and if they would want to wear her designs.
Another element to this point is her philanthropic work. A few years ago she took on the role as an International Global Ambassador for UNAIDS, a role that she has taken very seriously and personally. She like many other ambassadors before her has travelled to many places where HIV and AIDS are still very prevalent among communities and raised awareness particularly for empowering women and children who have been affected by the disease.
2. Loyalty and Family
This one is a more personal quality that seems to really come across for Beckham and it’s her love for her family as well as her loyalty to them and others around her. Even when it was announced that Victoria would not be joining the other Spice Girls for their reunion tour, she took to instagram to communicate her support and well wishes to the girls always maintaining how much she supports them and will always have a special place in her heart for her time with them. Yes it’s pretty easy to write something on your social media account, but even when receiving awards for her solo work, she has thanked the other Spice Girls and continued their message of girl power. Props to her.
3. Creativity
As well as working tirelessly to make her fashion label, Victoria also preaches the importance of having fun with fashion and style and to experiment. She also doesn’t take herself too seriously which definitely creates that feeling that you can relate to her a little bit more. An example that comes to mind is when she had t-shirts made in reference to her lack of smiles on the red carpet. Or when she parodied herself in her behind the scenes video for Vogue celebrating her ten years in the industry.
Ultimately despite her stardom, she stays aware of the everyday woman’s priorities and concerns and reminds us to relax and dress in a way that makes us happy and confident. Something to finish on as well is how she has shown many up and coming designers that you don’t need to have undertaken education in the most exclusive school to follow your dream, you just need to have faith in your ideas and work as hard as you can on them. Also, enjoy the process.
Thanks for doing your thing Becks, can’t wait to see what you do in the future!
(I do not own this image)