Victoria Beckham: ‘I obsess over every single detail. It’s great when people recognise that’
On the dozen or more occasions I’ve interviewed Victoria Beckham, she’s never been late, a rare quality in fashion and celebrity. Maybe it’s the discipline of the inner child performer (she studied dance at Laine Theatre Arts college in Surrey in her teens).
She stopped eating meat when she was eight. That’s focus. Or maybe it’s just common courtesy. Both Beckhams are sticklers for politeness. That goes for their children too. “I can’t bear kids who grunt,” she will tell me this time, in a rare open display of steeliness.
The Beckhams have just returned from a stint in the US. They live mainly in London and the Cotswolds, but David remains president and co-owner of Inter Miami. Their eldest son Brooklyn lives with his wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham, in LA. Meanwhile, the Victoria Beckham Beauty team is based in New York, while the fashion HQ, where we are today, is in Hammersmith, a couple of miles from the Holland Park villa.
Now 50, Victoria keeps up a pacy routine. Waking up early (when there’s a peachy sunrise she shoots content for her Instagram account), she does her weights workout with David and Bobby, their trainer, and sees their 13-year-old daughter Harper off to school before arriving at the office. At some point, either very early, or very late, when David’s in his ice bath, she’ll lie under her mega Dermalux near-infrared light for 30 minutes and meditate (or strategise).
So far, so beauty mogul. Since landing back from the US, she’s picked up a Harper’s Bazaar award for entrepreneurialism, presented to her by Harper, launched a new addition to her bestselling Satin Kajal eye pencils (one sold every 30 seconds) and four hand creams, and, although she doesn’t yet know it, just won The Telegraph’s inaugural Beauty Brand of the Year award.
On the dot of 4pm, I’m whisked upstairs to her glass-walled, plant- and crystal-filled office (glamorous) in her company’s headquarters on a busy road just off the Hammersmith flyover (not glamorous). “What a lovely surprise,” she says, looking slightly taken aback when I tell her about the Telegraph award. “This is so special. I’m really thrilled to get this recognition. The Telegraph was there at the beginning of my beauty brand.” She gave us an exclusive interview on the eve of its arrival in 2019.
Dressed head to toe in black (wide trousers from her winter collection, black polo neck, giant black platforms), hair in a loose-waved bob, this is Operation Cashmere. She’s also wearing a gold Patek Philippe watch inscribed ‘Mummy, we love you’, which David gave her when she got her OBE in 2017. Her whopping diamond and smaller emerald rings are also gifts from her husband (he gave Harper a matching emerald one).
She’s not remotely interested in wearing any of her old Y2K clothes. “OK, sometimes I wish I’d kept certain pieces but I sold them all off for charity ages ago – and that’s a good thing.”
So no low-rise bottoms or crop tops but rather executive-slash-creator mode: the British Gwyneth Paltrow, except Victoria Beckham’s brand is, finally, profitable, whereas Goop, Paltrow’s much-discussed lifestyle platform, is not.
