It’s Friday night, and you’re going out. You arrive at the front of the queue for that club – you know, the one with the infamous dancefloor once you get past the scathing judgement of its door policy – and the person deciding your fate is none other than a clipboard-wielding Victoria Beckham, dressed in a leopard-print trench of her own design and her signature oversized dark shades. We’d be more scared for this than a size-up by Sven, tbh.
This is the predicament in which model Chloe Nardin finds herself in, in a new film created by Dazed in collaboration with Victoria Beckham and featuring the label’s AW18 collection. Luckily, Nardin gets the nod of approval and soon finds herself down a rabbit hole and into a world filled with drag queens, club kids and revellers.
The action-packed clip is lensed by former Dazed 100-ranked photographer Eloise Parry, who has previously worked with the likes of Helmut Lang and Kenzo. Her fascination with seedier underbellies and unconventionally beautiful faces permeates the clip; alongside Nardin is a cast of arresting extras, including actor and model Vanessa Ohenlen and Central Saint Martins menswear student Sophie Cheah.
As for the clothes? Expect to see the painterly animal prints and silhouettes that are feminine yet strong, scattered throughout Beckham’s AW18 collection, which she describes as mulit-layered and multi-textured. “Waists are drawn in tightly, shoulders are emphasised, knits curve 360-degrees at the cuff,” she says. “These clothes embrace the contours of the female form, echoing the design aesthetic that I originally started with.”
The blueprint may remain fundamentally unchanged, but Beckham has become one of the fashion industry’s undeniable success stories. From bold prints and nipped in waists, to the brand’s signature stilettos, there’s one message which resonates throughout: these clothes are made for anyone that’s unafraid to stand out. Time to breeze past those velvet ropes.
The Victoria Beckham AW18 collection is available now from the Dover Street store and the Victoria Beckham website.