Today at the Vogue Festival in
association with Vertu, Victoria Beckham not only reaffirmed
that she's the successful fashion designer and mother we already
knew she was - she also won over the audience with her famous sharp
wit and self-effacing humour.
Picture credit: Darren Gerrish
"I'm nice! Everyone thinks I'm going to be a cow,"
she said, smiling. "I understand it actually. I think the same
when I see the pictures."
Queues started forming two hours before the designer
took to the stage with Alexandra Shulman this morning - and
she did not disappoint as she discussed her life, career and how
she established her two fashion labels. She was supported by
14-year-old son Brooklyn and her parents, Jackie and Tony, who
watched from the front row.
"There are a lot of people here, I hope I'm
going to say something good now," she said, as she gazed around at
the full auditorium.
Addressing the cynicism surrounding her move into the
fashion industry, she revealed that it was hard work that
eventually made the fashion press take notice.
"At the beginning there were a lot of raised
eyebrows, from those who could raise their eyebrows," she laughed.
"When I started, I did one-on-one presentations, I'd talk for hours
to people who didn't even speak English. I think a lot of people
probably thought, 'Shut up, stop going on about a bloody grosgrain
waistband!' But I'm really grateful to the industry."
The designer, who currently shows at New York Fashion
Week, hasn't ruled out joining the London schedule in the
future.
"I'd never say never to showing in London, but
I've got a great thing going in New York. Maybe one day," she said,
following much encouragement from Shulman. "I am
looking into [standalone] retail too - the e-commerce has been
going really well. I get bored easily so it's time for something
new. London is where I want to have my first store."
But, almost despite herself, the topic Beckham
returned to most often was the importance of her
children.
"My children are my priority and always have
been. I'm up early in the morning doing spelling tests and maths
quizzes before the school run, then up late with a baby and a
14-year-old who refuses to go to bed - Brooklyn," she said,
gesturing to her son in the audience.
"I've got great people who handle my schedule and
everything does revolve around the children. If there's a parents'
night or an Easter bonnet parade or a nativity play, whatever it
might be, then I plan everything around that."
And even while she's at work, the children are never far from her
side.
"I love having children in the office, mine are
always running around," she said. "I had one of those swingy chairs
for Harper in my office and she'd bounce one way and swing into a
roll of fabric and then bounce the other way and crash into a bag
of samples."
Now at the helm of an ever-expanding empire, the
designer revealed that a high street collaboration is not out of
the question ("Maybe one day, but right now I don't have the
time"), and that a fragrance launch is something she would consider
in the future. She also explained how she copes with doing so much
travelling ("Dark glasses, Alex"); revealed her role model ("My
Mum. Don't cry, Mum"); and advised budding entrepreneurs on how to
make it in the fashion industry ("You have to be prepared to start
at the bottom and work up"), before answering questions sent in by
Twitter users to the @BritishVogue account.
As the talk drew to a close, Beckham seemed almost
surprised that she'd held the audience's attention for so long.
"Gosh, is that it?" she exclaimed. "Thank you so much to everyone
that came, I didn't expect so many people. If you'd told me
how many, I might have got up and sung a song. Now that would have
been a worry."
There
is something about the way the media and Beyonce are publicly duking
things out currently that bothers me so much I can't stop thinking about
it. I speak to the recent spate of media outlets who have gone to
great pains to print "unflattering" photographs of Beyonce performing on
stage.
As though it was a mortal sin that a woman should be caught "in public' looking anything less than perfect. I can't even begin to describe how utterly reductive, offensive and dangerous this kind of thinking is.
But what has bothered me even more than the media's relish in printing
unflattering photographs of one of our era's most accomplished
entertainers and one of the great beauties of our age was Beyonce's
reaction to the attempt to diminish her.
What did she do? She banned photographers from the pit. The ultimate checkmate in her mind no doubt.
However in doing so it feels to me like some kind of an apology. As
though she's ashamed of photos that portray her as anything less than
perfect. As though in not being perfect at all times she is failing us
and herself.
At seeing the aforementioned "unflattering"
press.......why she didn't flick her famous mane and say "Blow Me" is
anybody's guess. Who knows what her motivations were but I am
somewhat baffled to even begin to understand why this unstoppable force,
this incredible performer, this fully empowered business woman and
successful star has allowed herself to be flapped by what the media has
deemed "unflattering" images.
It is almost as though she is allowing herself to be tempered and controlled by petty bullying. Because make no bones about it.....that is what this whole carry on is about. A cheap attempt to "shame" her.
When I have complained about stuff like this on facebook before I have
met with a variety of accusations that I am somehow "victimizing" women
by even bringing up the notion that women are subjected to different
expectations and more exacting standards than their male counterparts.
But until women are accepted as they are and not as others believe they
should be, I will continue to rail and rail against what I see as
deliberate attempts to subjugate our sex.
What is so insidious
about western culture of course is that the sexism that endures is
rather subtle for the most part. Western women enjoy more freedoms now
than ever before and we have it so good compared to some other women in
the world. And for that reason and so many others I am utterly grateful and relieved to be living in a relatively emancipated country.
We are not being forced to cover our faces and our bodies entirely at
all times, we are not being sold at the age of 9 years old into a life
of sexual slavery, we are not forced to the ground and mutilated at the
whim of an elder without anesthesia in completely unsanitary conditions.
However we are still expected to drop our family name when we get
married and take that of our male mate, we are still frowned upon if we
leave our child at home to return to work after childbirth and yet we
are sniggered at if we remain at home and don't return to a "worthwhile"
career which we are generally paid less for as our male
counterparts.... I could go on and on. The list is endless. My point? Oh yes my point! My point is......we still have a ways to go gals and guys.
And if you're all right jack....well good for you, happy for you and
all but please.....take a moment to think about all the other millions
of women around the globe who aren't.
I stumbled upon this
amazing passage by my girl crush and current obsession Cheryl Strayed
and identified with it so strongly I'm passing it along to some of you
who I know will find your own truth in it. I pass it on to you here
because there was a time when women were keen to call themselves a
feminist. There was even a time when forward thinking men would be
clamoring to name themselves one. It feels to me now that an amazing heist has occurred under our very noses and we were oblivious to it. The word feminism was been deliberately obfuscated so that it has lost all of it's thrust,it's positive meaning and it's power.
This is what Cheryl Strayed had to say that rang my bell so loudly.
" It’s true that in all the most important things I am—feminism is at
the center. It’s a description so clear and permanent it seems to me
it’s inked on my ass whether it’s literally there or not. I’ve been a
feminist since before I knew what a feminist was. It’s an indelible part
of my identity and it informs everything I do.
It takes guts
to be a feminist. It takes nerve to remind people that our world is
colored by gender and gender bias, by inequality and ugliness and
violence. It is a difficult business, emphasizing that these things
matter, that they are not special interests or fleeting causes, that we
are informed and affected by them whether we realize it or not, that we
carry them with us not because we choose to but because we have to.
It takes guts, too, to care. To admit that you want the world to
change, deeply and radically into one that values women and values
feminism."
(Ooh my girl crush is so articulate and clever.)
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hear me. I appreciate it more than you will ever know.
With love love love as always Shirley Ann Manson (Artist and Feminist) x''
ritornare a casa, anche un solo giorno, mi fa ritrovare la pace, la pienezza e la sicurezza; cose che durante la settimana riescono a venir meno molto spesso e facilmente.
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