[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-post-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Black Han Sans|700||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”46px” header_letter_spacing=”4px” custom_margin=”25px||5px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
Words by Laura Antonia Jordan<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-1433099215-scaled.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”Celebrity Sightings In New York City – October 13, 2022″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n Ahead of her 50th <\/span>birthday this week, Victoria Beckham took to Instagram to express her gratitude. \u2018As I get ready to step into 50 (in heels, of course!), I feel so incredibly blessed to have reached this milestone,\u2019 she wrote to her 30+ million followers. \u2018Blessed, but also accomplished and deeply content. Not just of where I am as a woman, but of how far my fashion and beauty brands have come. My ambition was always to empower women and make them feel like the best version of themselves. To me, that meant trusting my instinct and never compromising on my creative vision\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n Since we first \u2018met\u2019 Beckham \u2013 when she was still Victoria Adams \u2013 she has been grafting away at her own \u2018best version\u2019 of herself, one shaped in the mould of her own particular, uncompromising vision. In the halls of the Midland Grand Hotel in London\u2019s St Pancras, where she and her Spice Girl bandmates smashed into the zeitgeist with the release of the Wannabe video, \u2018Posh\u2019 strikes an enigmatic, subversively sophisticated figure amid the feisty, frenzied chaos unfurling around her. Sleek bob, little black dress (made by a tailor for \u00a320 to Beckham\u2019s spec apparently; how\u2019s that for vision?), no solo. At 22 \u2013 younger than Brooklyn is now \u2013 perhaps she already knew that spangly jumpsuits, clodhopping platforms and hollering \u2018zig-a-zig-ahs\u2019 were not part of her own \u2018best version\u2019 narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n From the get-go Beckham was always vocally enthusiastic about fashion. It was Posh who introduced a whole generation of regional tweens to the word \u2018Gucci\u2019, and her (not Coco Chanel, nor Audrey Hepburn) who acquainted us with the concept and mythology of a little black dress. Nevertheless, an uncompromising creative vision is still one that shifts according to myriad factors, as hers has done over the years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Most of us do not arrive in our twenties, or even thirties, as people of fully formed and developed tastes. Beckham in that sense is Just Like Us. One of the most relatable things about her is that we have witnessed the gusto with which she has treid on different looks and trends for size. Is there is anyone who better illustrates the transformative power of clothes than her? I am not talking about being performative, but in the way that they ebb and flow with one\u2019s confidence levels and the demands put upon us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Consider some of these VB style chapters: the blonde-hair-n-bandage-dress LA era. The lip-ring, headscarf and Dane Bowers moment. The Roberto Cavalli dresses with their va-va-voom slits and deliciously lurid colours. The Juergen Teller-shot Marc Jacobs adverts. The forever iconic Baden-Baden World Cup appearances \u2013 hair extensions and studio apartment sized Birkin bags and weeny hot pants \u2013 \u00a0when Beckham birthed not a trend as much as an entire cultural phenomenon in the WAG. Boobs have gone in\u2026 And come back out again. Hair gone up and down; hemlines too. Consistencies? Heels have been pretty much a fixture \u2013 up to an including her SS25 show in Paris when she still managed one Ala\u00efa pump with a broken foot, now that is commitment \u2013 as has her general preference for avoiding smiling in photographs.<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps that is why she was for many years so consistently misread as miserable, standoffish or self-serious. In person, however, Beckham is funny, a bit naughty, warm (I cannot think why else I felt compelled to once tell her that one of her dresses had recently got me laid \u2013 a fact she seemed to love by the way). The give aways have always been there in the clothes, however. Do you think someone who was miserable, standoffish or self-serious would wear purple to her own wedding? Come on!<\/span><\/p>\n Although Beckham\u2019s genuine love of fashion has always been apparent, not many would have staked money on her going on to become both a financially successful designer and a critically acclaimed one, who shows in the loftiest environs of Paris Fashion Week. But that is exactly what she has done, against the odds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Beckham seems to have found her groove well into her forties. You can see it in how she dresses, and in how she designs: strange little quirks, loosened silhouettes. Her Paris Fashion Week show this March was one of her strongest to date. There is something genuinely thrilling about seeing a woman hitting her stride not in spite of her age, but perhaps to some extent because<\/em>\u00a0of it; drawing on experience and knowledge of a life lived. As Beckham has got older she has become sexier, more self-assured, more interesting than ever. What a great time to be reminded that, no, desirability and relevance and style are not limited to some arbitrary cut-off date. That I think is perhaps the most impressive thing of all about Beckham; it is her contribution to the Girl Power cannon. Don\u2019t be typecast. Do it on your terms. Keep on plugging away. Commit to being the metaphorical little black dress in a room full of sparkles. Or, as VB writes in her own pre-50th<\/span>\u00a0reflections: \u2018I believe that you can be many things. A pop star, a mother, a wife, a designer\u2026 My passion has always been to dream big, then dream even bigger! Believe in yourself first \u2014 everyone else will follow\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Victoria Beckham at 50: How she became the \u2018best version\u2019 of herselfWords by Laura Antonia JordanAhead of her 50th birthday this week, Victoria Beckham took to Instagram to express her gratitude. \u2018As I get ready to step into 50 (in heels, of course!), I feel so incredibly blessed to have reached this milestone,\u2019 she wrote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"akindell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2463"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2468,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2463\/revisions\/2468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}