In some ways, it’s surprising that it has taken Victoria Beckham so long to deliver her first-ever high street collaboration.
With a profile like hers and the success of other celebrity partnerships with fashion lines, she probably could have done it years ago.
The fact that she has now paired with Spanish retailer Mango to deliver a cheaper, more widely-available iteration of her own style is an example of her growing confidence as a designer, and very business savvy.
Suit jacket without lapels, £180, suit trousers, £115 and sandals, £120
Victoria Beckham, pictured before her 50th birthday party in London last Saturday, has designed a new collection for Mango
Mass market collaborations can be a risk, diminishing the exclusivity of a designer’s name unless they are really established such as Karl Lagerfeld for H&M. And often they can turn a little trashy – Naomi Campbell for Pretty Little Thing springs to mind.
However there’s nothing remotely trashy about Victoria Beckham X Mango, which launched in the UK yesterday.
Victoria Beckham is now a designer first and celebrity second and clearly feels the Mango association can boost her brand name across the world. She won’t have done it only for the cheque.
Left: Bodysuit, £80, and semi-transparent trousers, £115. Right: Dress, £210. Both from Victoria Beckham X Mango at shop.mango.com
And what a long way Victoria has come from the young woman I interviewed in 2008 for her first ever Vogue cover story when she was just dipping her toes into fashion.
She was working on her dVB range where the brand initials included David, as she wasn’t thought of as strong enough to sell alone.
‘We didn’t know what else to call it’ she told me then, ‘The initials were on the towels in the bathroom.’
Godet dress, £170, Victoria Beckham X Mango at shop.mango.com
That first collection was focused on jeans and sunglasses.
Her first real, independent fashion range was a small number of body con dresses; the kind of dresses that Victoria wore herself at the time. I remember when we first met she wore a tight, black corseted number that emphasised her waist and bottom, with a little black mink shrug. It was more suitable for cocktails than lunch, but what did she care. All eyes in the restaurant were on her.
Some 16 years later, she is now widely acknowledged as a designer in her own right (having overcome the endless sniping that she did none of the work herself). She has created a definitive personal style, nabbed a slot on the prestigious Paris fashion show calendar, and is heading a fashion business that is finally beginning to break even – with an even more successful cosmetics line.
Everything about her range for Mango signals that Victoria wants to be seen as sophisticated and a real fashion player, which has its pros and cons.
Long trench coat, £300, shirt with cut-out, £90, trousers, £115 and sandals, £120
Left: White ruffle dress, £190. Right: Blazer, £180, trousers, £115, bra, £50, and chain belt, £90
There are a fairly limited number of pieces, a move which gives them a more exclusive feel but which reduces choice. The hiring of Emmanuelle Alt, former Editor-in-Chief of French Vogue, to style the imagery (working with British photographer David Sims) is a high-fashion choice. Alt is known for her monochromatic, pared-down but sexy Parisian style and the Mango images are steeped in her trademark aesthetic.
The campaign, based on the 1969 thriller La Piscine (I would hazard Alt had a role in suggesting this recherché film reference) sees the models styled in a spare, cool way alongside the striking turquoise of a Hockneyesque pool.
It’s not quite a fun girls’ night on the town you’d usually associate with the high street.
Asymmetrical dress, £190
Another view of the asymmetrical dress
And the clothes? Well how much you like the clothes on offer depends on how much you like the original Victoria Beckham range.
There is a sharp-lapelled, shoulder-padded ivory jacket (£115) teamed with a pair of her high-waisted trousers, flared at the knee and swampingly long (£180), as her favoured trouser always is. The viscose jacket is a good piece of tailoring; the trousers are frankly an almost impossible shape to wear. A similar tuxedo suit on her main line would set you back £1,290.
There are a number of the spaghetti-strapped, silky, slip evening dresses that Victoria frequently wears on the red carpet, including a dusty blue, asymmetric-hemmed number with a keyhole cut out in the bodice and side slits.
Crochet dress, £115
At £140, it’s a fraction of the cost of one of her own long cami evening dresses which cost nearer £1,300 and it’s a nice, weighty fabric.
A stunning white crochet dress with cut out back – definitely one for the holiday wardrobe – is £115, while a lovely blue silk shirt – one of the more wearable pieces is £140.
While the prices are substantially lower than Beckham’s own range, they are also substantially higher than Mango’s usual offerings – or a usual high street collaboration such as JW Anderson’s ranges for Uniqlo.
Draped halter dress, £170
Mango clearly feels Victoria is seen as enough of a luxury name by its customers to whack on a premium.
And it’s not only the prices that demonstrate this is not a collection for everywoman. Victoria has not made any of the compromises she might have to make the range more accessible to the average British woman.
Hardly any of the dresses can be worn with a bra, and let’s face it, the slip style has never been one of fashion’s most forgiving looks. Even what at first sight appears to be a classic trench has been reconsidered with side slits and a two-tone cape back.
Her take on the jumpsuit has a plunging neckline with ruched sides and transparent legs.
The sizes are also not mainstream. The collection only goes up to a maximum size 14 (many pieces only go up to a 12) rather than the usual 16 and above that Mango offers.
But then, let’s face it, Victoria isn’t everywoman. Victoria Beckham X Mango is not meant to attract the Boden customer. The point of this range is to shower a bit of fashion fairy dust onto Mango, and attract a customer who admires Victoria – a woman who just turned 50, celebrating with family, Spice Girls and Tom Cruise in a tequila-fuelled bash at Oswald’s, London’s most glamorous private members’ dining club, wearing a spectacular aquamarine chiffon gown she designed herself.
Will the Mango range be a sell-out by the time you read this? I doubt it. Will there be a waiting list within days? I expect not. Will the probably 30-something woman who invests in one of the evening dresses or the jacket be pleased with their purchase? Absolutely. The clothes deliver on their promise: they are undiluted VB.
The range isn’t meant for me. But I’ll tell you what I will be buying from the collection and that’s the beautiful triple-beaded chain belt, cleverly styled by Alt in one of the images as a necklace. A snip at £90.
