Now here’s something you might not quite believe about Victoria Beckham, glam Spice Girl turned high-profile fashion designer: At theater school, they purposely put her in the back row. Because she was too heavy.
“It was really difficult,” she says now of the memory from her youth, sipping a sparkling water in a Manhattan hotel in between work engagements. “We were all judged on how we looked. I was young. I had bad skin, my weight was going up and down, I had really lank hair.”
Beckham was also bullied in school and told she was a bad learner, revelations that come in a new documentary, “Victoria Beckham.” The three-part Netflix series traces her career and especially her ascension in the fashion world — building up to a grand Paris runway show at a palace in front of 600 people.
That 2024 show — with a rainstorm threatening to scuttle the whole thing — is presented as a career pinnacle for a designer who spent years proving herself alongside giants of the field, showing she wasn’t simply a celebrity slapping her name on a label. ( Vogue’s Anna Wintour is among the fashion luminaries attesting to Beckham’s hard-won industry acceptance in the documentary).
Of course the show also features liberal doses of Beckham’s soccer legend husband David — just as Victoria appeared in his own recent, popular Netflix documentary “Beckham” (both were produced by David Beckham’s own Studio 99).
Some reviews have said Victoria’s documentary feels more guarded and less revelatory. In any case, Victoria Beckham says wanted to tell her own story, her own way. She focuses only briefly on what a certain generation knows her best for — the four years she spent as Posh Spice — and mostly on the two decades she’s been building her eponymous fashion and beauty brand.
Other revelations: While she was the richer partner when they married in 1999 and in fact bought their first house, it was David Beckham who later invested in her label and helped get it going.
She also talks about how her company almost fell apart due to bad business decisions — like spending 70,000 pounds (about $94,000) on office plants and 15,000 (about $20,000) more to water them — and how she learned, with investors, to right the ship.
Beckham, 51, sat down with The Associated Press this week during a visit to New York. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
AP: The other Beckham documentary appeared only two years ago. Why did you feel the need for your own?
BECKHAM: Well, his documentary wasn’t about me, you know. I was in the documentary as David’s wife and I’ve been part of his journey and I was so honored to talk about that. People’s response to me in that really surprised me, and there was something quite liberating about that because when I saw myself ... I didn’t like how I came across. But then I think I’ve always felt that way about myself. I suppose it gave me the confidence to do my own.
AP: What specific stories did you want to tell?
BECKHAM: I’ve been in the fashion industry for almost two decades. I was in the Spice Girls for four years — and have been so defined by that four-year period in my life. A time that I’m so proud of, but I’ve fighting preconceptions because of that period. I feel that only now is my brand in a place where me talking about my past will not affect the brand that I’ve built.
AP: You say this is an inspirational story. How so?
BECKHAM: I’m not ashamed to say I’m really ambitious. And it’s been the first time that I've ever looked back and, having that bird’s eye view on my journey so far, even I found it inspiring what I have done ... the fact that I have been told “No” so many times, told that I’m not enough, not good enough. And by the way, that started when I was a child, when I was at school. If anybody watches this documentary and I can give them the confidence to follow their dreams, that’s another really good reason to do it.
AP: Do you think people have misperceptions about you?
BECKHAM: Oh absolutely, I think that for many years I was misunderstood, before social media, you know, the media told the narrative, and then there were paparazzi pictures where most of the time I looked incredibly unhappy. And I think looking at the documentary telling my story from ME explains the why. I can’t blame people for looking at the pictures of me looking really grumpy.
AP: You talk about your weight struggles as a girl in theater class. Have you spoken about that before?
BECKHAM: Never quite like this. The opportunity has never really presented itself. And I know a lot of people can relate to my story because of all the messages that I’ve had since people have watched the documentary. ... From, yes, people that I know, but people that I don’t know, people who say, “I can relate, I have been through that.” It’s taken this process finally for me to feel at my age proud of what I’ve achieved and also to finally believe that I am enough.
AP: It seems like you spend relatively little time in the series on the Spice Girls years.
BECKHAM: I’m so respectful of my time with Spice Girls. I still see all of the girls now. I wouldn’t be who I am now ... the Spice Girls gave me the confidence to be me. I remember Geri (Halliwell) saying to me, “You’re funny, be funny.” I’m shy. And they really gave me my personality back. ... I think people would be surprised to know that I was only a Spice Girl for four years. I’ve been in fashion nearly two decades, but people like to pigeonhole.
AP: Two decades later, do you think there are still people who wonder whether it’s really you doing the designing?
BECKHAM: Maybe. I don’t know. … I think I’ve earned my place to be showing where I am. I think that I’ve more than proved myself and earned the right to be there. Now I have to work hard to maintain that.
AP: You talk about business mistakes you made, even when you were getting top reviews for your fashion.
BECKHAM: I’ve learned so much. I know what I know and I really know what I DON'T know. It got to a stage where my investors told me that we had to re-strategize not just the business side of things but the creative things as well. And that was difficult. ... We had to change a lot of things to fix the business and I took it on the chin. Of course that meant compromising, but I wanted to save the business.
AP: How is business doing now, both fashion and beauty?
BECKHAM: Fashion in its own right is profitable. And to be able to say that in this current climate is something I’m very proud of. I’m an independent brand as well, so I’m incredibly proud to say the fashion is making money. Beauty is also doing incredibly well. And now, it is about building the house that I really have always dreamed of.
AP: You speak about family in the show, going back to your father and his influence on your entrepreneurship. But does it annoy you that people like to write about your current family dynamics?
BECKHAM: I recognize that I am really blessed. I am very appreciative of the life I have. You have to take it along with the other stuff.
Picture Courtesy: Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP
