A decade on, Victoria Beckham wants her eponymous fashion brand to move into cosmetics
When a young Victoria Beckham, then Adams, joined the Spice Girls she told the group's manager Simon Fuller that she wanted them to "be more famous than Persil Automatic". Now, fresh from a £30m cash injection in her fashion house she holds the same ambitions for own business, and a decade after its launch she's eyeing other industries too.
2018 marks 10 years since Beckham, who "always wanted to get into fashion," launched her namesake monkier / Victoria Beckham
As well as making sure her eponymous womenswear brand is investing heavily in digital and e-commerce, Beckham has her eye firmly set on redefining the luxury in-store experience and moving into new categories like makeup.
"I want to get bigger and bigger. There are lots of other things I want to do [like expanding into] other categories, including beauty."
Having previously worked with Estee Lauder on high-end formulas and palettes, the popstar-turned-designer has now decided to go it alone.
"I've now decided I want to do that myself, as well as skincare and fragrance, and really go direct to consumer. I want to do kids clothes and mens clothes too. I just don't want to do anything too quick. I'm very hands on with everything from the design to the strategy of the brand so really it's when I have time to do those things," she said.
2018 marks 10 years since Beckham, who "always wanted to get into fashion," launched her namesake monkier, with online and in-store propositions. Still in charge of overseeing production and design, she said she wants to "build one of the greatest fashion brands of the future.
Despite having always been the most in-vogue of all the Spice Girls (Posh Spice was, after all, the only one who wore Gucci in the Spice World movie) the fashion glitterati greeted her debut range with a mixture of cynicism and surprise.
In 2008, Vogue exclaimed: "The woman formerly known as Posh Spice has launched a dress collection, and, believe it or not, it’s one of the hottest things going in New York this week."
Now, the business has now evolved to sell shoes, sunglasses, bags and "more conversational prints" in the form of a slightly less expensive VVB collection, available in stores like Selfridges. She's also collaborated with the likes of Reebok.
The most recent financial year it filed results for (2016), the Victoria Beckham label incurred losses to the tune of £8.4m due to "heavy" investments in design, production, sales and marketing. Revenues, however, clocked in at £36.3m and in February the brand welcomed £30m investment in from growth equity group Neo Investment Partners in exchange for a minority stake the firm.
#VVBPreSS18 now in stores and at www.victoriabeckham.com x VB #VBDoverSt
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While some consumers are likely to associate the brand with glossy, and sometimes controversial print ads, speaking at the Adobe Summit in London Beckham estimated she has around 75 million followers on social, and explained that Instagram was her favourite way of reaching eyeballs.
Followers of Beckham - who doesn't have a separate Instagram profile for her brand - will be used to seeing stylised fashion shots on her feed. These she said are devised by the label's social strategy team, but she also take the reins herself showcasing the life of her and her footballer husband David's more candid moments.
"I like to ads a little bit of personality and family to it. I am my brand, so yes it's about my collections but it's also about me and my family," she said.
Away from online, Beckham wants to use her exhibition-style physical stores in London and Hong Kong – which were designed by Farshid Moussavi – to make people think differently about luxury.
There are no tils, just iPads, and Beckham frequently exhibits other creatives' work on the walls and hosts events.
Discussing her flagship Dover Street store, where she occasionally pops up in the dressing rooms to consult women on their purchases, she said: "It's a very different shopping experience to one other luxury brands have to offer."
A "Pretty Woman"-esque moment during the Spice Girls era in which an assistant at an unnamed designer store told Beckham there would be nothing in the store for her, prompted her to operate an open-door, pared back philosophy.
"I want everyone to feel welcome in my store whether they're coming to buy something or they want to be nosey or buy something, or check out the architecture."