Remember, it was just two years ago: Netflix, with a lot of “teasers”, announced a series event soberly titled Beckham which proposed, in the space of four episodes, to look back at the life and work of the famous footballer.
The success was such that, quickly, the producers (including… David Beckham) came up with the idea of doing the same exercise, but this time focusing on Victoria, ex-Spice Girl turned fashion icon. Once again, the geniuses of the Netflix trailer succeeded in their bet since, facing the camera, the now fifty-year-old affirms that she was, for a long time, described as ” a sad cow who never smiles “.
Lonely little girl
But to understand how this label will be stuck on her back and how it will remain firmly stuck there for many years, we have to go back a long, long way into the past of the woman who was then called Victoria Caroline Adams. And, in terms of archive images, we’re in for a treat… Because Mrs. Beckham has opened her albums with relish, playing along to the point of presenting photos of herself that don’t particularly pay homage to her. It’s fair game: doing the opposite would have seemed highly suspect.
With images to back it up, we go back in time. A lonely little girl, rarely looked up to in the playground—” people thought I was weird ,” she says—Victoria dreams of becoming a dancer, an actress, a singer. Anything, as long as she’s noticed. Not the most gifted in the world, she pursues a schooling where the arts are always present.
It was in 1994 that the big bang happened: Victoria answered a classified ad looking for girls who were ” intelligent, outgoing, ambitious, and able to sing and dance .” Bingo. Along with Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, and Geri Halliwell, they would become the Spice Girls. When their first single, “Wannabe,” was released in 1996, the five of them were propelled into the stratosphere.
Each has her role to play in the “girl band” and Victoria will be “Posh”, the “Chic”, the one who looks people straight in the eye with a little arrogant pout. The image of the “sad cow who never smiles” has just been born. All this, it is sometimes sitting cross-legged, barefoot on her sofa, sometimes dressed in one of her (very beautiful) creations that she recounts in the documentary. Filmed up close, in her kitchen, her living room, behind the scenes of the fashion show she is preparing, Victoria speaks with restraint, certainly, but also with great sincerity.
Anna Wintour, feet in puddles
Her husband, David, appears from time to time, to recount their life together, their meeting, the birth of their children. Doubts, too, when, despite the tidy sums accumulated on the football pitches and in the charts, the money almost ran out. Because the sums invested by Victoria Beckham, who aims only for excellence in her collections, are increasingly abysmal. She will owe her survival—and then her rebirth—only to the investment fund Neo Investment Partners, founded by the Frenchman David Belhassen… whose wife is a big fan of Victoria’s collections.
Among the friends who appear in this documentary, there is still Eva Longoria, a long-time supporter. But also Anna Wintour who, feet in the puddles, attends the fashion show organized, in 2024, at the Château de Bagatelle. Rare and amusing images enough to make us bother to finish these three episodes which can be watched with tenderness and nostalgia. And probably a little more indulgence for “the cow…”
Victoria Beckham , documentary, Series created by Nadia Hallgren With Victoria and David Beckham, Eva Longoria, Anna Wintour… Netflix 3 x 60 minutes.
