Victoria’s docu-lure

Victoria and David Beckham were in New York last night, seen here leaving an event hosted by Vogue to celebrate her Netflix docuseries, which I savoured slowly and finished last night. 

As I wrote ahead of the premiere, what was most interesting to me is that they spent time on the money issues. There have been countless headlines over the years about Victoria’s brand and how it wasn’t profitable. The Beckhams, on camera, were as candid as they could be about how stressed they were about the brand’s financial issues, and how much it weighed on Victoria that she was jeopardising David’s investment, in the millions. She was also pretty honest about not being a businessperson, taking accountability for how recklessly she and her team were spending until they were bailed out by private equity and then forced to tighten up. 

That said, this is a brand exercise, there’s no denying that the series is meant to promote the brand – and that’s probably why she agreed to it in the first place. To generate more interest in Victoria’s label, increase sales. I’m not mad at it, and she wouldn’t be the first to do so, but some are wondering if the point of the series was also to be like a lure… for either more investment or acquisition, in a conglomerate situation where she would retain the name and continue to be a creative force, but also have the infrastructure and, of course, more cash to support Victoria’s ambition. Because she is more ambitious than ever. That’s the note that the series ends on: Victoria’s emotional insistence that she has more to do, that she can’t stop, won’t stop, even as David implores her to confront why she’s so relentless. And who she’s trying to prove herself to. Ultimately she claims she wants to prove it to herself, but it’s not that convincing. And this is what I find most endearing about Victoria Beckham. She is Victoria Beckham, she’s been working for 20 years in fashion, she’s been famous for 30 years from the time of the Spice Girls, and she still cares so deeply, too deeply maybe, about what other people think. Even though, she must know by now, that what she’s chasing will never be possible. Universal validation? It’s a losing game. 

But this is how fame has shaped Victoria since it arrived at such a formative time in her life, when she was barely an adult, and was only amplified when she became a mother, literally rewiring her DNA. This was the biggest takeaway for me from the documentary. As driven and charming and creative and fun as she is, Victoria may never be able to set a standard of achievement for herself that isn’t shaped by outside influence. That part? Definitely universal. Which is how a lot of women can relate to her, though they may not be willing to see it. 

It's also what Victoria has in common with Jennifer Lopez, and I wish they were still friends because what both of them have been saying in the public sphere recently has a lot of overlap. The Beckhams took Marc Anthony in the divorce though, and gossip is poorer for it. Same goes for William and Kate. There, that’s my big criticism of the Beckhams today: that they pick the wrong side when their celebrity friends break up!