The first and best episode of this three-part documentary is pointedly titled ‘Who Does She Think She Is?’. It’s a snappy encapsulation of the fascination laced with disdain that follows Victoria Beckham, the fashion designer formerly known as Posh Spice.
Nearly 30 years after she shot to fame with the Spice Girls, the pre-eminent pop group of their era, Beckham’s private life remains tabloid catnip. Naturally, this classy Netflix series from David Beckham’s Studio 99 production house makes no mention of the couple’s rumoured “feud” with their eldest son, Brooklyn, and daughter-in-law Nicola Peltz.
Beckham has done TV docs before – and almost stole the show in her husband’s 2023 Netflix series – but this is a major level up from, say, 2007’s botched reality show Victoria Beckham: Coming To America. Directed by Nadia Hallgren, whose previous credits include an Emmy-nominated film about Michelle Obama, Becoming, it follows Beckham as she prepares for the most important catwalk show of her career – at Paris Fashion Week.
As Beckham and her team fret over fits and fabrics, it tracks her remarkable journey from ‘Wannabe’ pop star to respected high-end designer. The first three talking heads are Vogue legend Anna Wintour and fellow designers Tom Ford and Donatella Versace – a serious flex given that Beckham was written off as a celebrity interloper when she launched her eponymous label in 2008.
There are no contributions from the Spice Girls, which is a shame, and the band’s stratospheric success is dealt with briskly in the first episode. Beckham’s brief solo career is barely mentioned, so if you’re looking for the deeper meaning behind her 2-step banger ‘Out Of Your Mind’ – a song Charli XCX could cover – you’ll be disappointed. Having spent 17 years building her fashion brand, she’s clearly determined to showcase it here.
On camera at least, Beckham doesn’t really do spontaneity, and she can be an unreliable narrator. In episode one, she talks about dreaming of attending a fancy Hollywood stage school while actually taking dance classes in her local village hall. Only later, in episode two, does she mention that her parents remortgaged their house so she could attend Laine Theatre Arts College, a prestigious Surrey academy where she was cruelly body-shamed by a teacher.
Still, within her own carefully controlled parameters, she’s a compelling subject who doesn’t gloss over her mistakes. When Beckham admits that she once had specific chairs flown across the world for a fashion presentation, she winces at the needless excess – at one point, her business was “tens of millions in the red”.
It’s also endearing that the woman who famously nicknamed her husband “Goldenballs” has retained her earthy sense of humour. When she chats about David’s pet chickens with co-workers, Beckham can’t resist quipping: “You should see his magnificent cock!”
Hallgren includes some shocking clips of Beckham being mocked on ’90s TV – haughty art critic Brian Sewell calls her a “common little bitch” – but never really drills into the mix of snobbery and sexism that made her a target. Given the appalling way Beckham has been talked about over the years, it’s no wonder she likes to sculpt her own narrative now.
The series ends with a sweet but slightly stagey conversation between Beckham and her husband, in which she admits she can barely make a cheese sandwich, before a Spice Girls deep cut plays over the credits. Who does she think she is? On this evidence, a resilient grafter who fully understands her own brand and the transformative power of fashion.
‘Victoria Beckham’ is available to stream on Netflix now