Loose Threads
CNN got Anna Wintour to respond to criticism of Lauren Sánchez Bezos funding the 2026 Met Gala. Anna described her as a “great lover of costume and obviously of fashion,” and said “we’re thrilled she’s part of the night.” It’s a pivot from 2024 when, Back Row exclusively reported, she helped her pick a Met Gala dress because she knew she had “poor taste.”
All’s Fair’s zero-star reviews only resulted in the show getting renewed for season two, god help us.
A stylist source tells me that jewelry brands were paying a $10,000 to $25,000 placement fee for All’s Fair. (Paid jewelry placements are pretty standard these days.)
Back Row friend Dana Thomas is writing the definitive biography of Giorgio Armani and I can’t wait to read it. I’m making Dana, who lives in Paris, come back on the Back Row podcast to discuss Emily in Paris and French girl style (she has never watched the show and I am making her do that for us, too). Follow the Back Row Podcast (Apple, Spotify, YouTube) so you don’t miss it.
I’m reviewing Victoria Beckham’s clothing line ahead. I did not include the Rolex and Patek Philippe watches she wears, which are eye-wateringly expensive and up for auction on secondhand luxury watch site Bezel. On the lower end is this five-figure white gold Rolex she’s worn. (For only slightly more you can get the Chanel watch style I love in gold with lots of diamonds.)
I Dressed Like Victoria Beckham
Victoria Beckham isn’t just a celebrity known by a single adjective. (Posh.) She isn’t just the rare celebrity who managed to launch a namesake brand that fashion people respect enough to review with sentences like, “Beckham played her silhouettes in other ways.” (Women’s Wear Daily.) And she’s not just the woman who went to the DMV for her American driver’s license, took a photo, and then asked, “Can I get approval?” (Victoria Beckham: Coming to America, 2007.)
She’s also the woman whose plain gray T-shirt has, since 2024, consistently generated the affiliate slop that trails celebs of her status around the internet, and inspired entire podcast episodes (Jam Session, recommend).
Her Netflix docu-special that came out last month was more or less an infomercial for her Victoria Beckham clothing line. In the show, Beckham charts her journey from self-proclaimed awkward child to tacky Spice Girl to reformed owner of neon apparel who graduates from the school of Roland Mouret so that fashion people take her seriously as a high-end clothier. By taking her style down to brass tacks — simple dresses, swishy suits, mostly neutrals — she got the industry to treat her like a real designer.
But the real purpose of the show, as we all know, was to cinematically showcase Beckham wearing her clothing line. And it left many of us wondering whether there was something magical in that T-shirt, which seemed somehow better and slightly stiffer in the sleeve than every other plain gray T anyone has ever beheld.
Investigative journalist that I am, I decided to find out for this issue of Back Row Labs.
After the show aired, I ordered five outfits that I strongly associate with her: the T-shirt and jeans; the black pants that look, on her, like they could annihilate every other horrible black pant (i.e., basically every other black pant ever) that came before it; an oversized suit; and a dress with the rouching in the front that has become one of her line’s signatures.
First up, let’s talk about that gray T-shirt.
Yes, it costs $150. You may be thinking, My, that’s expensive! And you’d be right: It is expensive! But in the greedflated upside-down that is luxury fashion right now, where distressed Balenciaga T-shirts sell for $825, $150 has ye olde “attainable luxury” vibes.
Is there anything special about this shirt, aside from the little “VB” logo at the nape of the neck?
Honestly, no. It’s a good T-shirt — it’s soft enough, the shape is good if you don’t want it to be too long — but it’s still a T-shirt, and a cotton one at that.
I actually realized what makes the look isn’t the tee itself, but the pants, and the put-together effect of tucking the shirt into these “Alina” jeans, which are high-waisted and fitted through the hips. I ordered them in my usual size, and they were so small I asked ChatGPT for tips on how to get them fully on.
I liked the cut a lot, but I know that denim is deeply personal. I took to the wide-leg jean trend like one of the Beckhams’ chickens to their coop on the Cotswolds manse presumably handcrafted by resident tradwife David Beckham. But I know not everyone has.
The line is clearly designed for Victoria, who the internet says is 5-foot-4, and the pants did not fit me the way they did her. At nearly 5-foot-10, even in the extra-long style, I did not achieve the look of the pair grazing the ground that’s so appealing on rich people who are seldom outside for longer than it takes to walk from a building to a waiting car. (I wore my Manolo pumps, which have a 4-inch heel.) They are high-waisted and fitted through the waist and hip before flaring above the knee, similar to the rag & bone Sofie style I’ve been wearing, but more fitted through the upper leg. However: Props to Victoria Beckham for offering extra-long at all, which I don’t recall as an option on other pants I’ve bought.
Again, at $590, these aren’t cheap. Basic Khaite jeans in a similar cut are $680, and Dior’s similar-looking “Denim Couture Flared Jeans” are $2,050. I guess if you’re willing and able to spend a little more on clothes but don’t want to spend LVMH prices, you might turn to VB.
Next up, the legendary black pants.
When Victoria wears a black pant, it’s downright unfair. They just look so good and swishy on her. Finding a pair that looks as fantastic is like trying to find a great salad in the airport.
These $850 “side panel trouser[s]” are lower rise but stay put when you move around in them, and I loved the cut through the leg. Again, they did not skim the ground. They also didn’t feel as cozy as she looks in these clothes. The website says these are “55% Polyester 45% Virgin Wool.” I think the tailored pieces could be greatly improved with better, softer fabrics. I tried them with her same black muscle tank (a $150 “sleeveless T-shirt”), and aside from the length, it’s a good look. The woman knows what she’s doing.
Third, we have the oversized gray suit.
This suit had some of the same issues as the black pants — the fabric (“100% virgin wool,” per the website) was stiff and came out of the box with some deep creases where you don’t want them. To be clear: I work from home every day and don’t usually have to Zoom with anyone, so I have absolutely nowhere to wear something like this.
That said, it might be a contender if I ever have to defend myself against a spurious ski-related lawsuit in an internet livestream.
But I think this outfit (which I wore with my go-to Reformation tank) was giving more “corporate crusader” than, like, “cool girl at Fashion Week” or “celebrity walking to car.” Ideally, a suit like this would give you a blend of both? Especially since the jacket is $1,550 and the pants are $890. Those of you who are corporate lawyers or similar: please weigh in in the comments on what you look for in work clothes these days. Can you do a suit like this? Can you be more fun? Maybe it wasn’t oversized enough on me, owing to aforementioned length issues.
I know I didn’t bother to style this with more interesting shoes, but if the whole vibe of her line is, “simple stuff that makes it easy to look cool,” I feel like I shouldn’t have to.
She’s wearing a different pant style in the above photo, but still, the length seems short on me.
Lastly, my absolute favorite — the Blair midi dress.
I don’t think this dress, which retails for $1,090 though other colors are $1,250, appeared on her in the Netflix show, but I have looked at this line and her enough over the years to associate that particular rouching at the tummy with Victoria Beckham. (She wore a version of it for her husband’s knighting ceremony at Buckingham Palace.)
The dress fit me perfectly. It came out of the box almost entirely without wrinkles, which I always look for when I unbox because I want to steam my clothes about as much as I want to rub sand in my eyes. It has a conservative Kate Middleton vibe if you style it with the closed-toe pumps like I did, but you could probably make it a little funkier and sexier for a party with a nifty shoe, or dress it down with a flat sandal. If anyone who was raised on print magazines in the ‘90s and aughts is still worried about “going from day to night,” this is the dress for you. (And it is on sale right now on Net-A-Porter.)
And that concludes this important investigation.
Every successful brand has a few things they do better than everything else. For Victoria, it’s the dresses and T-shirts, if spending $150 on them is an emotionless experience for you. (It is not for me.) The T-shirt is mesmerizing on her, but when you wear it in your bedroom — and remember you are not Victoria Beckham, strolling the grounds of your Cotswolds estate with your celebrity husband and pet ducks — you see it really is just a T-shirt.
Earlier in Back Row:
