Brand Beckham: How The Celebrity Couple Influences Fashion

Brand Beckham: How The Celebrity Couple Influences Fashion

News that David and Victoria Beckham have been hitting our TV screens with a new Netflix documentary exploring their lives will not have escaped the notice of anyone with even a vague interest in one of the most high-profile celebrity couples of our time.

Their romance, which blossomed into marriage and has brought a family of four children, started out in 1997 when he was a young footballer and she was a pop star, key parts of Manchester United and the Spice Girls respectively, two of the defining elements of popular culture in the 1990s.

However, while the series reflects on these aspects, including David’s struggles with the mental health consequences of being vilified for his sending off in the 1998 World Cup, any mention of the Beckhams soon brings fashion into focus.

It is not simply that they had the income to buy any clothes they wanted; that’s true of loads of famous people. They did not just enter the luxury fashion marketplace as consumers, but as influencers and designers.

Rather, it is the way the ‘brand Beckham’ image was deliberately crafted and saw David become the fashion icon as much as the football star, as likely to be pictured in a sarong or modelling briefs as wearing a football shirt. At the same time, Victoria left behind her Spice Girl days to move into the world of fashion in a big way.

Indeed, with the Spice Girls embarking on a hiatus (they never officially broke up) in 2000, that same year saw Victoria make her catwalk debut at London Fashion Week. She had link-ups with Dolce and Gabbana and Rocawear, appeared on the catwalk at Milan Fashion Week in 2006 and, in the same year, launched the Victoriabeckham.com fashion website.

Whether it was jeans, perfumes, or glasses, she was determined to make her mark as a designer, all while her husband was one of the most sought-after models for any male products. Her site recently launched its Spring / Summer 2024 collection.

The Beckhams’ four children have inherited plenty of their parents’ good looks and fashion sense, but while sons Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz all had their moments of public attention, it may be their younger sister, 12-year-old Harper Seven, who becomes the real star.

Indeed, Hello Magazine recently claimed she “stole Paris Fashion Week” with her slinky white after-party dress, following the catwalk shows of her mother’s 2024 collection. Nor is it the first time her fashion sense has gained attention; last year Tatler ran a feature on the “emerging style star’s best fashion moments”.

Some may wonder whether she will be content with having her every wardrobe move scrutinised this way, but then again, the high-profile nature of her family means media attention and public interest comes with the territory of being a Beckham.

Indeed, whether any of the Beckham children seek major roles in the fashion arena in the coming years, the deep involvement in it of their parents will ensure that whenever their surname is mentioned, the fashion fans will be paying attention.