It’s hard to believe that the same woman who once walked red carpets in tacky, sparkly Versace gowns and skin-tight leather mini dresses is now the poster child for fashionably luxe separates and dresses. While the designer, mother, wife of David Beckham and former Spice Girls member tries to keep her private life private, the relentless public interest in her family has made it difficult. Here are 10 things you should know, but probably don’t, about fashion icon Victoria Beckham.
- She’s more down-to-earth than the press often leads the public to believe. She even, on occasion, wears flats. “In person, there is something unexpectedly vulnerable about Victoria Beckham. Her slightness helps, though it gives her a delicacy in the flesh rather than the painful skinniness tabloid images frequently suggest. She’s also in flats – egads! – which brings her down to earth, literally and figuratively,” wrote The Independent‘s Alexander Fury.
- She has a thick skin and didn’t let the public flack she received when she was starting her fashion label get her down. “For a long time there, I was a bit of a laughingstock,” she admitted to The Business of Fashion. “And while everybody was busy laughing, what was I doing? I was laying the foundation to what I have in place now.”
- Timed to the opening of her first London boutique, Victoria answered 73 of Vogue’s quickfire questions in which she reveals that her spirit animal is a swan and that she lives next door to Valentino.
- She thinks about fashion day and night, even when she’s lying in bed next to her husband. “I know that I’m lucky to be in a position to plan my diary around the kids’ assemblies and sports days. I never miss those. But on the other hand, I don’t ever watch TV. After dinner I’ll catch up with emails. And when I’m lying in bed I think about the next collection. That makes me sound insane, doesn’t it? That I’m getting into bed with David Beckham and thinking about clothes.”
- Victoria has a fairly consistent routine. She explained to The New York Times that she usually gets up around 6:00 a.m., does her workout, gets her children dressed, gives them their breakfast and then either she or her husband takes them to school. She’s normally in the office by 9:00 a.m., where she has her breakfast (a cup of tea and some fruit).
- There is no chance of a Spice Girls reunion. “I’m very respectful of the Spice Girls. What we did was fantastic. Actually, I’m seeing all the girls tomorrow night, which I’m excited about. But fashion is my passion; music isn’t anymore. Everything I do revolves around my husband and my children.”
- You may think when she looks back at some of her fashion choices that Victoria would cringe, but she doesn’t. “Everybody changes. I love fashion, and I love changing my style, my hair, my makeup, and everything I’ve done in the past has made me what I am now. Not everyone is going to like what I do, but I look back at everything, and it makes me smile,” Victoria explained.
- Victoria believes that hard work trumps talent. “I was never a natural. I got there in the end because I did believe that if you work hard enough, then you can achieve a lot.”
- “I actually used to smile a lot in pictures. I think I only stopped smiling when I got into fashion. [Laughs.] Fashion stole my smile! I’ve created this person. And I’m not saying that’s not me, but I wouldn’t say that’s the whole me… It’s an armor that goes up,” the designer revealed to Glamour.
- The designer was recently named a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for its UNAIDS campaign. She sold 600 items from her personal wardrobe to raise money, but confessed that it took turning 40 to realize she has a responsibility as a woman and as a mother to help those in need.
