Victoria Beckham Spring 2022 Ready To Wear Collection

David Beckham emerged in a pale blue chambray shirt, the kind his wife had referenced in her collection because he wears them on their European holidays and she likes to steal them from his hotel wardrobe.

“The oversized chambray shirts feel quite David, with a loose-fitting pant and a beautiful belt. You wanna be that person,” she said. “David always dresses. He always makes an effort. When we’re on holiday in Europe, he has a very pulled-together look, and I want to wear those pieces as well. It’s a shared suitcase.”

The menswear gene has always been strong at Victoria Beckham. Following pre-spring’s brand restructure—which merged her two lines into one and reduced her price point by 40 percent—she is refining and enforcing those proposals, demonstrating to customers regular and new that restructuring isn’t the same as compromising.

It was clear in the instant gratification this collection offered in the tailoring she credited to her husband, but also in more subversive propositions like a (very elevated) string vest styled with a gold chain, which Beckham attributed to Ray Liotta. “There’s something a little Goodfellas there.”

You’d have to have seen her mood board—which also included a summer version of Leonardo DiCaprio—to recognize those references in the collection, but the work that goes into perfecting every corner of Beckham’s output at this stage in her brand’s life is highly researched and refined.

“It’s very considered but looks very natural,” as she put it. That was true for casual dresses that looked quite sporty from the front, only to reveal D-rings with long, formal grosgrain ribbons running down the back, suggesting a ballroom silhouette. Or the orange and black dresses vaguely imbued with memories of swimwear in sculpted cut-outs.

For all the sophistication that permeates her brand, however, Beckham will always be a daredevil at heart. We know it from her personal fashion history, but also from the kicks of directionality that pop up in her collections.

It was nice to see that a restructure won’t stand in the way of that, either. Here, silk dresses printed with images of other dresses created optical illusions—with slimming effect.

A pair of metallic bonded scuba jersey trousers looked like mercurial silver armour, and came in a knee-length skirt manifestation, too—her new hemline. They read like something out of a TLC video: a major compliment, but certainly not for the faint of heart.

“I don’t ever like to say ‘bad taste’ versus ‘good taste,’ because ‘bad taste’ has a bad connotation. But I like polarizing fabrics,” she said. “I’m really attracted to those more challenging fabrics, and to put something as challenging as an ice blue metallic skirt in, and show that with a beautiful piece of knitwear, I’m always attracted to that.

It’s part of our DNA, that element of surprise.” As for the collection’s inspirational element of surprise, her husband seemed pleased enough with his new place on the mood board that future collaborations could take place. With a fashion history like David Beckham’s, imagine the possibilities!

Collection