Victoria Beckham’s Fashion Brand Just Got 40% Cheaper, For Good

In Victoria Beckham’s ten years at the helm of her eponymous brand, the ex-Spice Girls star has become known for getting to the core of what the zeitgeist enjoys when it comes to dresses, and dressing up. But with a year and a half of disruptions to “dressing up” and “going out” due to the pandemic, Victoria Beckham is set to reduce the price of her famed designer dresses as part of a wider “rebirth” of her fashion brand.

Victoria Beckham will reduce the average selling price of her dresses by almost 40 percent by merging her main luxury line, Victoria Beckham, with her more accessible diffusion line, Victoria, Victoria Beckham, per Vogue. In the process, the designer will change the shape of some silhouettes and use fewer embellished fabrics, per The Guardian, in order to make her collections more accessible to those who have been previously unable to afford the brand. The move is a small clue in the wider industry query as to how brands might adapt to the lifestyle and budget changes that have come out of the global pandemic.

The demand for party dresses and “traditional” tailored workwear decreased dramatically as everyone was temporarily stuck at home. Sales of knitwear, sunglasses and Beckham’s “athleisure” collaboration with Reebok became a lifeline for the brand, which is yet to turn a profit despite being one of the most high-profile names in British fashion for the past decade, per The Guardian.

CEO of the label, Marie Leblanc de Reynies, said adapting to the current economical and consumer climates was necessary to “future-proof” the brand. We are coming out of the pandemic with a “hybrid lifestyle,” Leblanc added. “Maybe you don’t have to dress up so much to take a meeting?”

“Right now feels a bit like that moment after you’ve had a baby, and you can’t remember what you wore before you were pregnant,” said Beckham at the launch of her newest collection. “When I was pregnant with [daughter] Harper I wore very different clothes, and after she was born it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to wear. Coming out of the pandemic feels a bit like that. I really embraced a more relaxed way of dressing during lockdown, and that changes what I want to wear now.”

The lion’s share of post-pandemic collections will consist of lo-fi, laidback, dressed-down looks, in a bid to tap into the current consumer mood following months of lockdown and lifestyle changes. “The other day I was packing for a trip to New York, and I pulled out the pieces I would normally take – midi-length skirts and pussy-bow blouses – and they didn’t feel right at all. I wore denim and tailoring instead,” Beckham added.

Putting the brand’s future in the hands of this new pricing structure and consolidation of the brand’s luxury and affordable collections aims to boost the label’s bottom line by making it more accessible and broadening its customer base. “Our customer is smart, she wants value for money,” added Leblanc.