Those looks opened the show, and from there on in, Beckham went full throttle, with a series of cool tailoring statements, like the bonded dove gray denim jacket and wide jeans which had tiny creases pressed into them, or slouchy pea green trousers with a deconstructed waistband over which sat a polished purple-y Bordeaux leather blouson. These all looked good. So too did the likes of a white deconstructed vest over a matching skirt which had been aerated with volume, its hem billowing outwards every so slightly.
What was intriguing was how Beckham manipulated all of this to flash a bit of skin or show off the body, which felt unexpected and not at all obvious when the prevailing culture has gotten us all fatigued by the all too expected and obvious ways to do so. “We talk about the relationship with our bodies and the process of getting dressed,” said Beckham, “but this time, it’s about what happens when we take our clothes off too; this idea of what we have against, or showing, our skin.” For her, that might mean slashing a trouser leg, say, revealing an expanse of thigh and the lining of the pocket; it gave a little bit of sass and attitude and, well, leg, and was less tricksy than I am making it sound.
Or, and this was a recurring motif here: skirts and pants whose waistbands were constructed to let them stand away from the torso. Beckham’s not been alone this season in doing this, but hers cleverly achieved it via the use of light corsetry. The silhouette was thrown into sharp relief by being worn with the likes of figure-hugging lurex or pointelle knits. She offered more tricks of the eyes with her shoes: pointy sheer mesh Oxfords, or transparent high pumps.
By the time the undulating but close to the body dresses with their wired curves spiraling around the body closed the show, Beckham’s audience was up and ready, but not necessarily to leave. She had chosen the exquisite Chateau de Bagatelle to show this collection, in a kind of temporary orangerie, and after that there was a party to celebrate the launch of her newest fragrance, 21:50 Reverie—something else to wear next to your skin.
