By the time you read this, the vivid green draped dress that was cut like an embrace of curves and worn by Gigi Hadid to terrific effect in Victoria Beckham’s spring 2025 show will already be available to buy. It was made so immediately after the show ended. Heck, maybe you’ve already bought it! Immediacy has been part Beckham s arsenal as a designer. She understands what she wants to wear, and that has by extension been a very reliable barometer of what a ton of other women will want to wear too. Ever since she launched her label with her distinctive form-fitting dresses way back in 2008 she has taken the lead and seen plenty of others happily follow suit—or dress, for that matter.
When it comes to spring, Hadid’s dress might have cleaved most closely to the origins of her label. But what’s been impressive about Beckham is that she doesn’t let the grass grow under her feet, or just let herself ever settle into the comfort groove. For spring, that intuition of hers was telling her to take more risks, push further, test the limits of what she can do—and very good it was too. This was, no pun intended, stretching what can be meant by body and conscious, and none of it typical or expected. “It’s all about silhouette and my obsession with silhouette,” she said of her spring collection at a preview the other day. “Each season we look at the brand codes, and how we can respect the brand codes, but challenge ourselves to explore new ways of expressing them.”
Beckham indicated a table on which were some pieces in a gossamer light silk chiffon which had been dipped into a resin so it looked like they had been molded directly onto the body, sculpted close to the torso or floating skywards, before letting the fabric flutter off in the breeze. Each took several days to make. It was a technique which was ethereal and romantic, with the series of floating floral dresses emphasizing the delicacy of the fabric, but the molded fabric was also striking when used for a wet look top which had a bit of a tougher attitude. (And they weren’t just for show; Beckham mentioned they’d figured out a way to make something very similar available in the showroom.)
Those looks opened the show, and from there on in, Beckham went full throttle, with a series of cool tailoring statements, like the bonded dove gray denim jacket and wide jeans which had tiny creases pressed into them, or slouchy pea green trousers with a deconstructed waistband over which sat a polished purple-y Bordeaux leather blouson. These all looked good. So too did the likes of a white deconstructed vest over a matching skirt which had been aerated with volume, its hem billowing outwards every so slightly.
What was intriguing was how Beckham manipulated all of this to flash a bit of skin or show off the body, which felt unexpected and not at all obvious when the prevailing culture has gotten us all fatigued by the all too expected and obvious ways to do so. “We talk about the relationship with our bodies and the process of getting dressed,” said Beckham, “but this time, it’s about what happens when we take our clothes off too; this idea of what we have against, or showing, our skin.” For her, that might mean slashing a trouser leg, say, revealing an expanse of thigh and the lining of the pocket; it gave a little bit of sass and attitude and, well, leg, and was less tricksy than I am making it sound.
Or, and this was a recurring motif here: skirts and pants whose waistbands were constructed to let them stand away from the torso. Beckham’s not been alone this season in doing this, but hers cleverly achieved it via the use of light corsetry. The silhouette was thrown into sharp relief by being worn with the likes of figure-hugging lurex or pointelle knits. She offered more tricks of the eyes with her shoes: pointy sheer mesh Oxfords, or transparent high pumps.
By the time the undulating but close to the body dresses with their wired curves spiraling around the body closed the show, Beckham’s audience was up and ready, but not necessarily to leave. She had chosen the exquisite Chateau de Bagatelle to show this collection, in a kind of temporary orangerie, and after that there was a party to celebrate the launch of her newest fragrance, 21:50 Reverie—something else to wear next to your skin.
