If Sunday's New York fashion week show offered a hint of Victoria Beckham's more relaxed mindset, then Monday's completed the exhale. The unveiling of her second line – Victoria by Victoria Beckham – was very low key. Beckham invited targeted groups of press, in groups of around six, to small-scale presentations on an airy upper floor of Milk Studios, the satellite hub of fashion week.
There, guests found a very welcome spread of finger sandwiches, cookies, juices and teas as well as sofas to sit on and chat to the designer. In typical Beckham style, this wasn't just for gossiping, though. She was intent on deploying her star power to support her new collection. "It's really important that people really understand the dresses," she said, wearing a voluminous, drop-waisted dress in French blue silk from the new range. "I wanted to make it a bit more personal – like I used to, really."
Referring to a similar presentation format she used for her mainline collection until it went on the catwalk in 2010, this felt like a reset for VVB, which began in 2012. When Beckham launched the label, it was seen as a younger, more carefree take on fashion, compared to the high maintenance main line – a Marc by Marc to Marc Jacobs, if you will. In previous outings, conversation prints and skater skirt shapes could have been seen as cutesy, but this season's dresses had no-brainier ease that also came with a Beckham-branded complexity and sophistication.
Taking about her own wardrobe selection – the waffle-textured drop-waist number – she said it felt "like a cake" to wear, and revealed it was the result of studio experiments in moving fabric away from the body.
"There is a way of doing that, but doing it in a flattering way, so people don't feel big or frumpy. I still feel really sexy in this dress," she said. "I put on this dress this morning, and it felt cool, and fun, and easy."
Beckham acknowledged the progression of her newer line as she described a kicky-skirted skater dress in a chequer-printed cotton poplin. "The prints are still fun, but they're definitely less conversational than what I've done before," she said. "Generally [VVB] is a little bit looser, and [the dresses] take you from day to night."
She peppered her talk of fabrics, prints and new techniques with promises that this dress was "easy", that one "relaxed", lauding another's "LA feel". All of it – from a tangerine drop-waist silk dress, to a vintage Chloe-esque pleated design – was fresh and young, with a winsome early-60s nod that has been present in VVB since its inception.
Not everything was completely new. Beckham carried last season's idea of two-in-one dresses forward into spring, as with a dress composed of a duchesse satin "shirt" and cotton jacquard skirt.
"It's great to have something that you can just stand in, zip up and go," she said.
