Fame has created many a dynamic duo. Think ‘power couple’ and these names might land on your shortlist: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, David Bowie and Iman, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg. And while you could argue that the term ‘power couple’ is one used increasingly liberally (read: any two vaguely famous people in a relationship), no-one would contest the application of it to Victoria and David Beckham—or, as they’re more affectionately known, Posh and Becks.
Fashion and football: these were the two, titanic spheres of culture that Posh and Becks brought into amalgam. Now, their style is the picture of contemporary elegance; you can rely on David to suit up and gel his hair back, and on Victoria to cut a striking figure in something uber-sleek—a jewel-toned straight-leg trouser, say, or a pair of knife-sharp pumps. But in the late ’90s and early noughties, their couple’s wardrobe epitomised an era of chaotic, glittering, and semi-déshabillé chic. For Posh and Becks, that meant matching all-leather outfits, and corset dresses, and face-covering shades, and the whole gamut of hairstyles. Who could forget the looks they chose for their 1999 wedding, wearing ivory for the ceremony, and notoriously, bright purple for the reception.
“Everybody changes,” Victoria told Time Magazine in 2009 of her sartorial evolution. “I love fashion, and I love changing my style, my hair, my makeup, and everything I’ve done in the past has made me what I am now. Not everyone is going to like what I do, but I look back at everything, and it makes me smile.”
As Netflix’s new documentary series Beckham propels the couple back into the spotlight, we take a look back at Posh and Becks’s most iconic fashion moments, from their meeting in the late ’90s to the turn of the millennium.
