Victoria Beckham releases fresh and liberating collection

Victoria Beckham presents her SS16 collection at the New York Fashion Week on Sunday.

The Victoria Beckham spring 2016 collection at New York Fashion Week on Sunday. Richard Drew / AP Photo

Located directly opposite New York’s Charging Bull, 25 Broadway was a fitting venue for Victoria Beckham’s SS16 collection on Sunday. If she has previously lacked bravado – as if embarrassed by her Spice Girl beginnings – then this collection is a new chapter in her career.

It was only fitting that it was in the city’s financial district, among Tom Wolf’s Masters of the Universe, that she delivered a tour de force. In the vaulted, frescoed building amid scented Diptyque candles, she sent out a fresh, confident collection full of grown-up luxe sportswear. In fresh whites, vibrant colours and bold prints, she blended box-cut jackets and culottes with fluid jersey-knit dresses with such ease that it is no wonder Jefferson Hack and Susy Menkes rushed backstage after the show to congratulate her.

Often, Fashion Week trots out collections that are so baffling, with the audience left scratching their heads trying to fathom what the designer was thinking. Not so this show from Beckham.

Brimming with a self-assured attitude, it was so fresh, sassy and effortless that it made the audience all look like we were trying too hard. If anyone still doubts her fashion credentials, then this show silenced the critics. Her show notes spoke of a “sense of city ease” and an “urban surf scene”, and of creating clothes that are “fresh and liberating”.

She delivered exactly that. In bucketloads. Favourite looks include a fluid-white wrap skirt matched with boxy white tee, with a suede body bib over the top. The show opened with a procession of easy halter-neck dresses, with bold checked panels and graphic-print sleeveless tops, matched with ragged-hemmed pleated skirts.

The closing looks of the show included a asymmetric print/checked skirt and top, wonderfully off kilter and handled with ease and skill. The chunky printed sandals that dominated the footwear were sweet, wearable and completed the mood. Surely this heralds a new confidence for Beckham. As her talent grows, it seems she now has the skill to carry off a more laissez-faire approach to dressing.

Her show notes also promised a collection full of “freedom with a carefree attitude”; as she explained, this best describes her life right now.

If this collection is anything to go by, then perhaps being the wife of David Beckham, mother of four, and head of a growing fashion empire may not be such a bad life after all.