Victoria Beckham on Empowering Women Through Fashion, Keeping Her Kids Grounded
The fashion designer debuted her collection with her family by her side.
— -- Victoria Beckham is the powerhouse entrepreneur behind a global fashion brand but that doesn't mean the style icon doesn’t get nervous when it comes to showing one of her new collections.
“You know, I do care about what people think,” Beckham told ABC News’ Amy Robach right after her Sunday show. “A lot of people say they don’t care, I do care so I am nervous waiting to hear what people think but I couldn’t have done anymore, I love the collection, I want to wear the collection, I think my customers are going to love the collection ... I wouldn’t have changed anything."
Beckham is in New York City this week to debut her Spring/Summer 2016 collection at New York Fashion Week.
“I think it feels liberating and fun and fresh and upbeat,” she said of the designs. “I’m traveling a lot between London and Los Angeles, working in New York, going to Africa doing my charity work, spending time in Asia and you can see that through the collection.”
Beckham, 41, launched her fashion line seven years ago and her collections can be found in over 500 stores in over 60 countries, including her hometown of London, England, where she opened her flagship retail store last year.
“I want to make women feel empowered and like the best version of themselves,” Beckham told Robach during an interview earlier this month at her London store. “I want to make them look beautiful. I want to make them feel sexy and confident and that's exciting for me, when people say, ‘I feel so great in your clothes.’”
“I love that,” she said.
Sitting front row at Sunday’s show was the designer’s husband of 16 years, former soccer star David Beckham, and the couple’s 16-year old son Brooklyn. The Beckhams' three other children -- Romeo, Cruz and Harper -- stayed behind in London for school.
“We’ve always been strict with the children,” Beckham said of how she and David raise four children in the midst of superstar careers. “They have great manners and they always say 'please' and 'thank you' and I think that’s very important.”
“At the same time, they’re still fun and they run around the house and they’re crazy and they’re singing and they’re dancing and they’re kicking footballs around,” she said. “Which I don’t allow them to do but that seems to be one area that I can’t discipline them in.”
Brooklyn is currently appearing on October’s cover of UK’S Miss Vogue magazine – a moment for which Beckham said she was “so proud.” Even their youngest child and only daughter, 4-year-old Harper, appears to be following in her mother’s high heeled footsteps and her dad’s soccer cleats.
“She loves fashion, you know, as all little girls do… but she loves sports,” Beckham said. “She said to me the other day, ‘Mummy, I think I want to play football [soccer].”
“Dagger through the heart,” Beckham recalled of her reaction, with a laugh. “I have three boys that want to play football, you know, come on, let one of them want to be in fashion or dance.”
Though her career lies in fashion, Beckham said her husband is one person whose style she does not have to worry about because the frequent model “always looks so great in whatever he’s wearing.”
Beckham said she, along with David, her business partner in the fashion line, hopes to expand her fashion empire to beauty products, a shoe collection and perhaps a more accessibly-priced clothing line.
“I don't feel that people should have to spend, you know, a lot of money, so I would like to make fashion available to women, no matter what their budget is,” Beckham said.
And when it comes to shoes, the woman famous for seemingly always being photographed in sky-high designer heels says her at-home attire is not so dramatic.
“When I'm at home, and if I'm just going to work, I'll normally wear a pair of jeans and a pair of flats because I'm juggling going to work with also taking the kids to school or taking the boys to soccer or taking Harper ballet or horse riding,” Beckham said.
“I'm juggling a lot of things and I tried to do it in heels, that lasted about five minutes,” she said. “Living in London, working in London, it's like you get on a treadmill every morning and you go and you keep going.”