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Victoria Beckham chooses glamour over fireworks for Paris fashion week

<span>Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

Can a Spice Girl pull off French-girl chic? Victoria Beckham has won over fashion sceptics in New York and London, but for her first catwalk show in almost three years she upped the ante with a jump to the quintessential style capital.

“Paris is the ultimate dream,” said Beckham before a show staged in the honeyed stone cloisters of the baroque Val de Grace church. “It’s a pinch-me moment to be here.” Although the designer insisted she was more excited than nervous, this is a challenging time for her brand. A work-from-home zeitgeist has been an ill wind for a name which trades on jet-set glamour. Prices have had to come down in order to boost sales. And the celebrity circus around the Beckham name – invaluable for bringing allure and piquancy to a relatively small fashion label – had threatened to overshadow the show with rumours of a ‘feud’ between Beckham and her daughter-in-law.

Models present creations for the Victoria Beckham Spring-Summer 2023 fashion show during the Paris Womenswear Fashion Week.
Models present creations for the Victoria Beckham Spring-Summer 2023 fashion show during the Paris Womenswear Fashion Week. Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

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The designer chose quiet glamour over catwalk fireworks for her Paris debut. Satin dresses were cut on the bias for a slinky walk, suspended on delicate spaghetti straps for drama, and fringed with silk tassels to kiss bare shoulders. Beckham believes that her customer wants what she herself wants: “A sexy dress that’s easy to wear. That’s what I like best, and I’m not going to agonise over it.” All was tasteful and serene in the front row, too, where the support of Beckham’s son and daughter-in-law, Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham, drew a line under gossip.

“A year ago, we weren’t in a position to do a show,” said Beckham. “We had to build a whole new team. As an independent brand, to have come through the pandemic and to be here, accepted by the French fashion community, feels like a big deal.” Marie Leblanc, who joined the brand as CEO in 2019, forecasts break-even for next year.

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“It feels more modern not to bury myself under wardrobe now,” said Beckham. This is fashion week speak for the oldest of adages: sex sells. A body-conscious aesthetic now runs through the Victoria Beckham brand, from a lower-priced VB Body line of stretch, block-colour jersey dresses to the lingerie styling on the Paris fashion week catwalk, where love-heart shaped cutouts reveal flashes of bare skin or black latex.

One of the lingerie-styled pieces in Victoria Beckham’s Spring-Summer 2023 collection.
One of the lingerie-styled pieces in Victoria Beckham’s Spring-Summer 2023 collection. Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

Lara Barrio, previously at Salvatore Ferragamo, was recently appointed design director at the brand, but Beckham said she was “still there in the studio all the time. I work on the collection every step of the way. This look is what I want to wear.” For the show, she wore a black version of a green draped and slashed gown worn on the catwalk by Bella Hadid.

US model Bella Hadid on the catwalk.
US model Bella Hadid on the catwalk. Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

Although Beckham credits spending time in Miami “where women with all different body shapes love to show them off” with reigniting her love of eye-catching dresses, she did not embrace the move toward body diversity that has been a feature of much of fashion month. Backstage, the designer defended her decision to cast only sample-sized models by saying that a show “is all about creating that character for the season,” and insisted that the casting was “diverse and interesting” in other ways.