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Victoria Beckham’s tears of relief at her Paris fashion show

This collection was full of variations of the long, pastel, silk, satin slip dress Victoria Beckham wore to her wedding - Left/right: Julien De Rosa/AFP via Getty Images | Centre: Sipa US/Alamy Live News
This collection was full of variations of the long, pastel, silk, satin slip dress Victoria Beckham wore to her wedding - Left/right: Julien De Rosa/AFP via Getty Images | Centre: Sipa US/Alamy Live News

“Paris – can you believe it?” Victoria Beckham, backstage before her show, had the look of a woman who had to keep pinching herself.

If London and New York Fashion Weeks – where she has previously shown – are Wembley Arena, Paris is the big shot stadium. This is where Chanel, Dior and Celine have their catwalks. Joining their ranks is a punchy move, especially from a small independent label that’s never turned a profit and which had a particularly hard time during the pandemic, culminating with a whole new creative, business and PR team joining Beckham.

Perhaps this explains why her entire family were out on the front row, including her parents Jackie and Anthony Adams who looked so smart they could have been attending a Royal wedding. Weddings will loom large over the next few paragraphs, so prepare yourselves.

Also in the family pews were her sister Louise, husband David, daughter Harper and son Brooklyn with his new wife Nicola Peltz Beckham – the very same couple from whom only last week she was said to be estranged.

Rumours of the family’s entente non-cordiale were sparked after an interview Peltz gave to Grazia last week in which she said her mother-in-law-to-be had promised to make her wedding dress, only to renege on the offer shortly after. Cue tantrums and tiaras – and Valentino couture (the dress poor Nicola had to settle for instead. Oh and, apparently, a peace mission from one David Beckham).

Brooklyn and Nicola joined the group for the show - Instagram: VictoriaBeckham
Brooklyn and Nicola joined the group for the show - Instagram: VictoriaBeckham

If tensions really did reach a crescendo after the couple’s Miami wedding last spring, they appear not to have been permanently scarring – at least not for Victoria. This collection was full of variations of the long, pastel, silk, satin slip dress she wore to those nuptials.

“It’s back to what I did at the very start. Body con dresses but more fluid and with more ease. It’s what I want to wear,” said Beckham, who was wearing a black drapy crepe wool dress with cap sleeves – a variation of a lime green one that came down the catwalk. “To be honest, this collection feels more more than some of my more recent ones.”

Fun and youthful, but something different - Julien De Rosa/ AFP via Getty
Fun and youthful, but something different - Julien De Rosa/ AFP via Getty

This sounds like her tongue running away with her. If those previous collections weren’t very her, then who were they? Answer: someone who needs more day than evening clothes, whereas this one, at least according to what we saw on the catwalk, is the other way round. Lots of sheer panels, scooped backs, Latex leggings and more fringe than the Edinburgh Festival.

It was fun and youthful but also a detour from her more wearable collections.

Underwear is for wimps seems to be the message. “The dresses won’t be quite so transparent when they end up in the shops, but yes, there’s still quite a bit of bare skin involved,” she conceded. What about women who are less body confident than she or Bella and Gigi Hadid, both of whom were in the show?

“Just embrace who you are,” she said. And embrace your family. She hugged David, blew kisses at everyone else, had a little weep and then everyone went off to down tequila. It always clears an atmosphere, don’t you find?