Fashion

Victoria Beckham documentary: Her complete style evolution in 50 iconic looks

As Netflix announces its Victoria Beckham documentary, Joe Bromley charts her style evolution from Spice Girl through WAG-hood into life on fashion’s front row

Victoria Beckham documentary: Her complete style evolution in 50 iconic looks
Victoria Beckham: Her complete style evolution in 50 iconic looks

Fashion

As Netflix announces its Victoria Beckham documentary, Joe Bromley charts her style evolution from Spice Girl through WAG-hood into life on fashion’s front row

Victoria Beckham is finally getting her own documentary — a woman who has enjoyed more eras than Taylor Swift and captured minds and hearts regardless of her hairstyle, which over the decades has morphed from perma straight to tumbling WAG extensions, the bleach blond ‘pob’ (Posh bob) and into to her current fashion mogul, blow-dried brunette locks.  

From the young, zig-a-zig-ah Ms Adams Britain met in the mid-nineties as Posh Spice (when the dresses came tight, black and slashed), it was out of the pan and into the fire as she joined her football beau David in a flurry of era-defining, double-trouble outfits — from their matching leathers at the 1999 Versace Club party in London, to all-white everything ensembles for 2003’s MTV Movie Awards; Halloween looks for time eternal, naturally. 

With David Beckham at the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles on May 31, 2003 Getty Images

A premonition of her catwalk destiny came in 2000, when she made her runway debut during Maria Grachvogel’s show — small step for Becks, huge step for London Fashion Week, etc. Lurid coloured, uber-cinched Roberto Cavalli gowns came in the years that followed — “I’ll go in a horsebox standing up if I have to – I want it tighter!” she told the late Italian designer, during in fittings for her Ming-vase inspired dress for the white tie and tiara ball in Elton John’s Windsor back garden in 2005 — as she settled contently into WAG-hood, Cheryl Tweedy in tow. Think: tan, tiny shorts, a great white Birkin and the odd gasp from the bleachers. Go, England! 

Group B  England v Trinidad v Tobago - World Cup 2006 With Cheryl Tweedy at the World Cup held in Germany on June 15, 2006 Getty Images

Following what can only be described as a fever pitch moment in 2007 — a whole 16 years before Margot Robbie came on the scene, Becks gave her best Barbiecore on a sports pitch in LA — the following year saw her follow her inner entrepreneur and launch an eponymous fashion label. She enthusiastically booted all things naff to curb in favour of black silk slips, roomy jumpsuits and the odd slick tux and a front row scowl (”I'm smiling on the inside. I feel I have a responsibility to the fashion community,” she would later tell Vogue). In 2014 she swept up Brand of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, and by 2018 had officially completed chic rehab, looking every inch a national treasure strutting it up to watch Prince Harry and Meghan get hitched at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle that May.

At her autumn winter 2024 fashion show in Paris on March 1, 2024 AFP via Getty Images

This brings us to her half century, which she celebrated earlier this year with a broken foot — but you better believe crutches aren’t enough to stop her. In fact, after hobbling out in a black pair to bow after her Paris Fashion Week collection this March, they enjoyed a 70 per cent sales boom. VB, a perennial arbiter of style. We can’t wait for what Netflix has in store for her — and us.

Here are 50 of Victoria Beckham’s most iconic looks:

At the National Television Awards, Royal Albert Hall in London on 8 October, 1996 Dave Benett With Emma Bunton at the Brit Awards, where the Spice Girls won the Best Video and Best Single, on February 24, 1997 Getty ImagesWith Emma Bunten, Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell and Melanie Chisholm at the premiere of Spice World in California on January 22, 1998 FREDERICK BROWN/AFP via Getty ImagesAt the Ivor Novello Awards in London on May 29, 1997 Getty ImagesAt the 'Versace Club' gala party in London on June 11, 1999 Dave Benett At the launch of Jade Jagger's jewellery range in London on September 20, 1999 Dave Benett With Dane Bowers from the RnB group Another Level performing at their new single 'Out Of Your Mind' during the Radio 1’s Big Sunday in Middlesbrough on August 6, 2000 PAWith Emma Bunton at the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards in New York on October 20, 2000 Getty ImagesAt Old Trafford in Manchester on 5 May, 2001 Getty ImagesWith David Beckham in New York on May 27, 2002 Getty ImagesWith Stefano Gabbana, Naomi Campbell and model Linda Evangelista at the Met Gala themed ‘Goddess: Costume Institute Benefit Gala’ on April 28, 2003 Getty ImagesWith David Beckham at the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles on May 31, 2003 Getty ImagesWith David Beckham at New Tokyo International Airport on June 18, 2003 Getty ImagesAt Heathrow Airport on July 24, 2003 Getty ImagesAt the Lycra British Style Awards in London on September 25, 2003 Dave BenettWith David Beckham after he received an OBE at Buckingham Palace on November 27, 2003 AFP via Getty ImagesAt 19 Management's 19th Anniversary Party held at the Royal Albert Hall on April 19, 2004 Getty ImagesAt the press night for the English National Ballet's performance of Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall on June 9, 2004 Getty Images At the UEFA Euro 2004 in Portugal on June 24, 2004 Getty ImagesAt the Laureus World Sports Awards in Portugal on May 16, 2005 Getty Images for Laureus At a promotion for her new VB Rock & Republic Jeans Collection at Kitson in Los Angeles on June 4, 2005 Getty Images At The Prince's Trust event during the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo, Monaco on October 17, 2005 Dave BenettAt the World Cup held in Germany on June 15, 2006 DDP/AFP via Getty ImagesWith David Beckham the Venice Film Festival to to launch their perfume ‘Intimately Beckham’ on September 7, 2006 Getty ImagesAt the Hassler Hotel in Rome before the wedding of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise on November 18, 2006 Getty ImagesAt the Bambi Awards in Stuttgart, Germany on November 30, 2006 Getty ImagesAt the Chanel Cruise show in Santa Monica, California on May 18, 2007 Getty ImagesAt the Glamour Women Of The Year Awards in London on June 5, 2007 Dave Benett With David Beckham at the F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 8, 2007 Dave BenettAt the Home Depot Center in California to watch a presentation ceremony for her husband on July 13, 2007 AFP via Getty Images At the Marc Jacobs New York Fashion Week show on September 10, 2007 Getty ImagesWith Jennifer Lopez at Marc Jacobs’ New York Fashion Week show on September 8, 2008 Getty ImagesAt the Met Gala, themed The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion, in New York on May 4, 2009 Getty ImagesWith Naomi Campbell at a British Vogue and Net-A-Porter.com London Fashion Week party on September 21, 2009 Dave BenettWith her family at a basketball game at Staples Center in Los Angeles on October 30, 2009 Getty ImagesWith Kate Moss at the British Fashion Awards at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on December 9, 2009 Dave BenettAt her Spring 2011 fashion presentation during New York Fashion Week on September 12, 2010 Getty ImagesWith David Beckham at the Royal wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011 Getty ImagesPerforming with the Spice Girls at the London Olympic Games closing ceremony on August 12, 2012 AFP via Getty ImagesWith Anna Wintour at Bergdorf Goodman in New York on September 6, 2012 Getty Images for Bergdorf GoodmanAt the Met Gala, themed Charles James: Beyond Fashion, in New York on May 5, 2014 Getty ImagesAt the British Fashion Awards at London Coliseum on December 1, 2014 Getty ImagesAt the British Fashion Awards, held at London Coliseum, on November 23, 2015 Getty ImagesWith David Beckham at the Royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018 POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesAt Scott's Mayfair unveiling the summer terrace on May 21, 2018 Dave BenettWith Sir Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley at the Argento Ball for the Elton John AIDS Foundation in Windsor on June 27, 2018 Dave BenettAt the British Vogue and Tiffany & Co. Fashion and Film Party at Annabel's on February 2, 2020 Dave BenettWith David Beckham at a Jacquemus fashion show at Chateau de Versailles on June 26, 2023 Getty ImagesWith David Beckham at the Netflix 'Beckham' UK Premiere in London on October 3, 2023 Gareth Cattermole/Getty ImagesAt her autumn winter 2024 fashion show in Paris on March 1, 2024 AFP via Getty Images