A moment about Victoria Beckham

Because if we need to talk about something, it’s about Victoria Beckham. Her documentary – I actually think that’s a big word, it’s more of a corporate film – has been available since Wednesday Netflix and opinions vary. Many people find it strange that she doesn’t talk about the problems with Brooklyn (her son Brooklyn Beckham has drifted further away from his parents since he married Nicola Peltz and he is not seen in the documentary). There are also people who think she should have addressed her marital crisis with David Beckham (he had a relationship with the Dutch Rebecca Loos, their nanny, a long time ago). I actually don’t agree with that…

Personal experiences backstage with Victoria Beckham

And I really want to go through that with you. I have seen Victoria Beckham quite a few times in person. I got to be backstage at her show in New York, where Maartje Verhoef walked. Maartje is a top model affiliated with the agency of Micha Models, and Micha is one of my dearest friends. I got to support and look after Maartje, and that’s how I found myself, around seven in the morning, already at perfume-smelling distance from Victoria Beckham at Cipriani’s in the Financial District in New York.

Backstage in New York: models and preparations

Maartje had her birthday the day before and received a small cake from Victoria herself with a candle on it. This day was the day of the show and I saw Victoria moving casually among the models. If she saw someone with a coffee cup in hand, she kindly but clearly directed them out of reach of the clothing. Her speech before the girls went on the catwalk was warm: “I have worked for months on this collection and to see it worn by you now moves me.” Just before the show, she slipped into an elegant dress and inspected each model before they would present themselves to the critical fashion audience.

Interview about Victoria Beckham's beauty collection

Another time I interviewed Victoria Beckham, with a group, about her beauty collection that she launched together with Estée Lauder. She was funny, skilled, and inspiring, and afterwards I hopped over to Bergdorf Goodman stock up on everything.

Victoria Beckham and food: honesty about struggle

That is not a golden combination. She is also open about that in Victoria Beckham. When she was younger, she was a bit fuller than now and was criticized for that by her ballet teachers. Hurtful and harmful, terrible. And that was the starting shot for a lifelong struggle with food. For example, David offers her a chocolate in episode 1 (notice that I’m really doing everything I can to avoid the word ‘documentary’?) and then Victoria says: “I haven’t eaten chocolate since the nineties, so why would I start now?” I find that funny.

Furthermore, she says that she is a control freak and that her weight is one of the few things in her life that she can control.

Victoria Beckham financially: almost bankrupt

Maybe Victoria wasn’t open about her relationship with Brooklyn, but she was about her financial situation. Because no matter how successful her brand is in fashion terms (she strings one rave review after another and celebrities wear her brand during shoots for prestigious magazines), she still hasn’t made a euro from it. In fact, David kept pumping millions into her business every year, until even he started to see the bottom somewhat in sight. Victoria is also honest about that. It’s difficult to see your business in financial trouble, but when you come home and your husband is also your financier, you feel extra guilty towards him. That was an honesty that I, as a working woman, appreciated more than an awkward phrase about Rebecca Loos or the renewal of vows of Brooklyn and Nicola. That is private; this was a bigger life lesson.

Victoria Beckham: spending on office plants

In the meantime, Victoria Beckham has a business partner who also went through her household budget with a red pen. Victoria spent 70,000 euros annually on plants in her office. And those plants also needed to be watered. Someone was hired for the meager amount of 15,000 €. That had to come to an end, and it did, and the funny thing is: Victoria understood that. So Posh Spice got a lesson in humility.

What stood out further in the Victoria Beckham documentary

• Why didn’t we see her brother and sister in the documentary? I did some little detective work and saw that she follows @christianadams_79, her brother.
• We see her parents; there is talk about her childhood and how she was put in pajamas with her brother and sister in her father’s van to deliver goods from her father’s business. Strange that they are not seen at all.
• Victoria is really sweet to her models. She knows them by name, wraps them in a blanket before the show, and speaks to them enthusiastically.
• A funny moment: when David says he would be just as proud of her if she made a cheese sandwich, she laughs and says that everyone knows the chance of her making a nice cheese sandwich is pretty small.
• By the way, I also want a fridge drawer with drinks in it.
• I like that she climbs on the counter to grab a glass for her mother, and that David pours their wine into a Stanley cup so they can sip their drink on the way in the taxi.
• The final shots of the show, which you work towards in episode 3, just make you wish her well and want her to succeed. At least I do.