Victoria Beckham Charts Her Love Story With David Through Fragrance
The designer shares the personal moments that inspired her heady new trio of scents.
Victoria Beckham is always in the news for something. One day, it’ll be for riling up her neighbors in the Cotswolds for reportedly wanting to build a greenhouse on the grounds of her country home. The next, it’ll be for donning a pair of yellow Crocs, after she once famously said she’d “rather die” than wear them. Beckham, who’s gone from Spice Girl to acclaimed fashion designer, has gotten used to living a life in the public eye and having her every move scrutinized. Well, has she got some surprises for you. This fall, Beckham is releasing a trio of new scents inspired by several life moments, including the early days of her whirlwind romance with footballer David Beckham, and she’s opening her scrapbook here to tell the tales for the first time. “People all around the world feel that they’ve been on this journey with myself and David, and they think they know everything about our relationship,” Beckham says on a call from Florida, where she and her kin have just arrived to welcome Lionel Messi to her husband’s team, Inter Miami. “They remember us meeting, and then getting engaged and having children. But I’m telling stories that no one has heard before. I’m telling the story of my relationship through these fragrances.” Beckham recalls, for instance, the intense pressure she and David faced in the early days to keep their romance private. They met in darkened parking lots in Hertfordshire, England, for months (“My mum would drop me off, and I would sit in David’s car and we would just talk for hours and hours”), until they finally decided to dash off to Italy for a secret rendezvous. The excitement and intrigue of that trip is recalled in one of her new scents, Portofino ’97, with notes of citrus peel, black pepper, geranium, and a nice dash of salt. Beckham says it brings back the smell of the sea wafting through the open balcony door of their suite...and all that followed. Talk about spicing up your life!
“My dad [Tony Adams] was quite an entrepreneur and always worked hard. I would say he’s the one who helped instill that work ethic into me. This is a picture of me and my mom [Jackie Adams] and dad when I was a baby—this was obviously in the ’70s. They looked pretty cool, actually.”
Left: Beckham with her mother and younger siblings, Christian and Louise, on a family trip to Calais, France, in the 1980s.
“I’m still very close to my family. My sister has four children, all of similar ages to ours, and that unity and closeness is something that’s always been important, both to myself and David.”
“At the beginning, I had a passion for fashion, even though I didn’t know anything about the industry. But my naivete gave me an element of freedom, and I had fun with clothes,” says Beckham of her Posh Spice era. “The other girls had zero interest in fashion, so I would always take up the wardrobe budget for videos or performances. Tom Ford was the creative director of Gucci at the time, and I loved what he was doing.” Above: Beckham onstage at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997.
“Each of us was an underdog in our own right,” says Beckham of her Spice Girls bandmates, (above, from left) Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice); Emma Bunton (Baby Spice); Melanie Brown (Scary Spice); and Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice). Above: The group performing at the 1997 Brit Awards.
“We’d all struggled in our own ways. And I think to take five really normal girls, put them together, and have them travel the world—it was so exciting and not something that any of us took lightly.” Above: The Spice Girls after winning Best Selling British Album Act at the Brit Awards in 1998.
“Portofino was the first time that David and I had been away together. We stayed in the hotel Splendido, and I remember the smell of the clean sheets and the air. We had never been in a hotel like that. It was an incredible feeling, because it was just me and him for a couple of days in this amazing location. We weren’t hiding in a car park.”
“We met Harry in South Africa. He was sweet and smiley. I mean, he was a young boy, and he had the five Spice Girls showing him attention!”
“At the Royal Variety Performance, in London, we were privileged enough to meet the Queen,” Beckham recalls. “I don’t remember what I said to her, but I’m sure that Geri would’ve said something pretty cheeky because that’s what she normally did. I would usually be more focused on, um, what I was wearing, shall we say?”
“Vivienne Westwood was an inspiration as a British designer and someone I’ve always admired and respected, because she was not just a designer but an activist,” says Beckham, seen above at a 2006 brunch with Westwood, who died last December. “She was an incredibly strong woman.”
“When people knew that we’d started dating, the intensity of the paparazzi and the media was something that I’d never experienced,” says Beckham. “I suppose it wasn’t because of just the Spice Girls or Manchester United; when the two came together, it was absolutely crazy.” Still, the pair managed to keep their cool and got engaged in 1998. They’ve been married for 24 years.
“I have no fashion regrets whatsoever,” says Beckham, though she admits that the duo’s matching Gucci leather ensembles (above) might have been a faux pas, given they were attending a Versace store opening in 1999. “It wouldn’t even have crossed my mind. Why wouldn’t you wear Gucci to a Versace event? I mean, that is such a no-no, but I didn’t know it at the time.”
The couple at a Whitney Houston concert at Wembley Arena in 1999.
The Beckhams were among the most glamorous guests at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, at Windsor Castle, in 2018. “It was a really romantic wedding,” says Beckham. “I remember it was very, very hot in the U.K., and it was just lovely to be included in their special day.”
“I used to love to take the kids to watch the games. I’ve never been a fan of soccer, as you call it in America, but I was always adamant that we be there as a family unit,” says Beckham. “The fans are passionate, and sometimes it was tough, but it didn’t matter. This brings back happy memories because Brooklyn literally stood in front of the goal and kicked the ball, and he got a goal.” Above: Beckham and her eldest son, Brooklyn, watch Manchester United play for the Premier League Trophy in 2001.
“My family is a huge part of everything that I do and everything that David does as well," says Beckham, who attended a 2015 Burberry show in Los Angeles along with her four children (from left: Brooklyn, Cruz, Romeo, and Harper, on David’s lap) and Anna Wintour. “They can’t always be there because the kids are getting older and they have their own work commitments. But when we have the opportunity to all physically be together, it's lovely.”
“I got to know Karl Lagerfeld on many levels. He photographed me for the cover of a magazine,” says Beckham. “I mean, what an incredible man, and he was so funny. I have admired him for longer than I can remember.” Above: The two designers at the Chanel spring/summer 2006 show.
“Marc Jacobs is a good friend of mine, and I’ve been the subject of one of his ad campaigns, which was a lot of fun,” says Beckham, seen here with (from left) Jacobs, Naomi Campbell, and André Leon Talley at the 2008 CFDA Fashion Awards. "He is probably one of the smartest people I know, and incredibly humble. His knowledge of popular culture is remarkable, and I’ve learned so much from him. I feel blessed to have had him as a sort of mentor for many years.”
Suite 302, one of Beckham’s new scents, pays homage to the couple’s getaway trips to Paris with a heady mix of violet, musk, rose, leather, and black cherry. “I’ve always said Paris is our happy place,” she says. “Even after we had children, David and I would sneak off for romantic weekends that felt opulent and glamorous.” Why 302? That’s the number of the Coco Chanel Suite at the Ritz, naturally. Above: Victoria and David celebrating their anniversary last year in Paris.
“When we moved as a family to Los Angeles, in 2007, that was a time for me to get to know and love myself. I was meditating a lot and hiking and surfing. There was a real sense of freedom, and it felt like the start of a new chapter,” says Beckham. She captured that feeling in a scent named for the street on which the clan lived during that time: San Ysidro Drive. “We were so welcomed by America, and that’s when I started showing my collections in New York.”
“Paris is the dream,” says Beckham of her decision to show there for the first time in September 2022 . “It’s the ultimate stage, and I think that really has taken the brand to the next level. I had to restrategize during and after COVID, and I knew there would be a lot of pressure. It was also the first time I worked with Gigi and Bella, and what lovely girls! They spent time talking to my daughter, Harper, and my family. They also come from a close, caring family unit.”
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