After the huge success of Netflix's Beckham back in October 2023, we were more than seated for the Victoria Beckham documentary.
The three-part series takes us through Victoria's Spice Girl days, her WAG era and finally her mission to make it in the fashion world, culminating in an ambitious show for Paris Fashion Week. With commentary from Donatella Versace, Anna Wintour and her pal Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria, we get a true insight from true A-listers into the life and work of Victoria Beckham.
GLAMOUR has pulled together the top 9 things we learn from watching Netflix's Victoria Beckham documentary, from powerfully opening up about her eating disorder to dealing with misogyny in the fashion industry.
The real reason for her “moody” look on camera
This was an absolutely fascinating revelation. Victoria has a theory as to why she has a reputation for looking “miserable” in pictures. And guess what? It's David's fault.
“I've looked miserable for all these years because when we stand on the red carpet, this guy [pointing at David] has always gone on the left,” she says. “I didn't realise when I smile – which I do – I smile from the left, ‘cause if I smile from the right I look unwell. So consequently, I’m smiling on the inside, but no one sees it!” At some point, David walks off camera during this story, looking very sceptical.
There was a method to her “attention-seeking” WAG madness back in the early Noughties
About 30 minutes into the first episode, the Spice Girls' split has already been covered. So don't expect a load of Spice flashbacks, fans. We quickly move on to 2006, where Victoria steps into her WAG era. While David's career soared, her new identity was to be a “wife and girlfriend” to a football star, instead of feeling like a star in her own right.
It was her big sunglasses, extensions, "big hair, big boobs" moment. But Victoria opens up about what that time really meant. “There was an element of attention seeking”, she says, explaining she didn't feel creatively fulfilled. “It was how I stayed in the conversation… I was trying to find myself, I found incomplete, sad, frozen in time.”
But to succeed in the fashion world, she then had to “kill the WAG”
Victoria sought the expert help of French fashion designer Roland Mouret, who advised her to completely destroy her image as a footballer's wife. AKA: “Kill the WAG” identity that she'd built for herself in the wake of the Spice Girls' split, so she could step into the fashion world as a new version of herself.
In answer to that Rolls-Royce meme from the Beckham documentary, we hear more about Victoria's upbringing
One of the most shared moments from Beckham was from Victoria insisting that she came from a working-class background, and David challenging her on it, forcing her to admit that her dad drove a Rolls-Royce.
In her documentary, you can really tell that Victoria wanted to tell her side of the story when it came to her upbringing. We learn that her parents' work ethic was a huge influence on her, that her dad worked in electrical wholesaling and would create a production line of her and her siblings as they helped him assemble electrical products. She also describes the financial sacrifice her parents made to send her to drama school, including remortgaging the house they built largely from scratch.
Victoria's eating disorder came from “being constantly told you're not good enough”
This is touched upon briefly and sensitively, making a huge impact on how we view Victoria's journey. She reflects on being told she was overweight during drama school and subsequently being put in the back of performances, and how that affected her.
“When you have an eating disorder, you become very good at lying,” she says. “It really affects you when you’re being told constantly that you’re not good enough… That’s been with me my whole life.”
Her issues were not helped, also, by the fatphobic world of the '90s that she was building a career in. She recalls being weighed on live TV six months after giving birth to Brooklyn. “I didn't like myself,” she says of the impact this had on her.
She is clear about the misogyny she faced within the fashion industry
Victoria reflects on the ways that her success was warped as she started to make strides with her Victoria Beckham fashion line, with the media speculating as to whether her mentor, Roland Mouret, was actually designing her clothes.
"Of course, there’s a man behind it, not a silly little popstar," she says of the speculation at the time.
Her fashion label was spending £85,000 a year on plants
The final episode of the documentary focuses heavily on the financial problems that Victoria's fashion line encountered, with losses reported of up to £66 million, causing David to be unable to keep funnelling money into the business.
She eventually persuaded businessman David Belhassen to come on board as an investor and advisor to turn things around. One soundbite stood out over all others: Belhassen's shock when he discovered that £75,000 a year was being spent on plants to be decorated around the business HQ, with an additional £15,000 paid to someone to water them. A rather extravagant example of Victoria's spending.
Victoria found it hard to ask her husband for money when her business was failing
The former Spice Girl opens up about how difficult it was to go to David for money, and he is also honest about the worries he encountered as the business went further and further into the red.
That said, though, when they were first together, the power balance was different as she had more wealth – David explains that Victoria bought their first house, still known by fans as Beckingham Palace.
Brooklyn is not in the documentary
As reports of tension between the Beckham family and the oldest son, Brooklyn, and his wife, Nicola, have swirled for a while, it's hard not to notice Brooklyn's absence from the documentary. While we see a fair bit of Cruz and Harper, certainly in the run-up to the fashion show, Brooklyn is not featured. All you see is blink-and-you-miss-it footage of him and Nicola from scenes filmed at Victoria's September 2024 Paris Fashion Week show.
There was speculation and suggestion he'd be more heavily included in footage of the preparations for the show, but you don't hear from the hot sauce entrepreneur, sadly.
Original article appeared on GLAMOUR UK
