Victoria Beckham launches makeup range and targets wellness market

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/sep/15/victoria-beckham-announces-launch-of-own-makeup-brand

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Victoria Beckham’s pivot from Spice Girl to fashion designer was, it turns out, just the beginning. Her next ambition sees her poised to reinvent herself a second time as Britain’s answer to Gwyneth Paltrow. Paltrow is currently the unrivalled star of the increasingly lucrative wellness industry, as frontwoman of the brand and media empire Goop, but Beckham looks set to mount a challenge.

Launching her makeup collection at London fashion week, she revealed that her new beauty brand was “just scratching the surface. I always say that it’s about living a really healthy lifestyle. I like to have fun – I like a glass of wine and I like a glass of tequila – but I also really look after myself. I talk a lot on my channels about the vitamins I take, about the working out, about my whole lifestyle. So that’s what’s next – wellness. It’s not about skincare that makes you look younger, it’s about being the best version of yourself.”

The Victoria Beckham fashion show on Sunday lunchtime was a grand affair, held in the pomp and grandeur of the light-filled Durbar Court in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a stone’s throw from Downing Street, with Dame Helen Mirren in the front row. After Beckham acknowledged the end of show applause with a smile and a wave, Mirren sought her out backstage to offer some advice, insisting that “before next time, I’m going to teach you how to take a proper bow”. Beckham, however, seemed to be focused on how many eyeshadow palettes had been sold in the first day of online sales.

“The reaction has been huge, bigger than we dreamed,” Beckham said. “We had aggressive targets, and we’ve smashed them. It confirms there is an appetite for what I do.” The Tuxedo eye palette and Mink lid lustre both sold out within hours of going on sale.The collection on the catwalk was strong, channelling the 1970s bourgeois-chic aesthetic currently in vogue but with an added hit of juicy, vibrant colour. A check tweed kilt-styled midiskirt was worn with a lemon yellow silk blouse, layered over an ivory polo neck. Burgundy wing collars were spread over the lapels of a houndstooth trouser suit, and a slim chocolate skirt was elevated to evening wear with a ruffled silk blouse in Granny Smith green. Longline blazers hung over high-waisted straight trousers, while airy kaftan-styled evening dresses had heavy gold pendants at their plunging necklines. “I love how the ruffles dance around your body when you move,” Beckham said of the strikingly anti-body-con party dresses. You feel really sexy in them, without showing lots of skin.”

Victoria Beckham Beauty will be “active and effective, but clean and kind”, said Beckham. The brand will use no parabens or sulphates, “clean” being a buzzword that resonates with a young customer base priced out of Beckham’s catwalk fashion creations but who follow her on social media channels and are now able to buy into her brand.

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Secondary packaging of the makeup is made from 100% post-consumer waste, while shipping materials are either recyclable or biodegradable. Foundation will be available in 30 shades to match a wide range of skin tones. Beckham, who previously collaborated with Estée Lauder on a makeup range, has hired Lauder’s Sarah Creal as joint CEO of the beauty brand, which she has ambitions to grow at pace. “I feel like I’m about to give birth to another child,” she said on Friday at the Hammersmith headquarters of her business.

The expansion into beauty has rooted her business more firmly in London. “When we moved our show from New York to London, we didn’t know if we would stay. But now I can’t imagine being anywhere else. I’ve got my ateliers and my beauty team in the same building, and it’s nice to go home to my family at the end of the day,” she said at a preview on Friday.