本文节选自Financial Times Magazine---Women of 2011 (special edition)
原文作者：Vanessa Friedman
推荐理由：
出生于1974年的Victoria Beckham是著名英国女子组合Spice Girls能歌善舞的成员、词曲作者、演员、作家、模特，三个孩子的母亲以及著名英国足球运动员David Beckham的妻子。我们惊叹这样一个几乎全能的女性到底有多少可能性，本期主题将带你了解这个时尚偶像的新角色：时装设计师和商业女性。
维多利亚很早就意识到自己拥有时装设计的天赋，创立自家品牌dVb，推出太阳眼镜盒香水，她个人的成衣品牌Victoria Beckham也已经推出两季，并在时装周发布。本期，让我们走近这个炙手可热fashion icon，倾听她的成长蜕变史，发掘你所不了解她的另一面。
同时也欢迎同学们参与讨论，本期讨论的主题是：明星涉足商业圈是否能够获得成功。>>我想评论
正文：
Last September, Victoria Beckham’s critics were fed a fine meal out of their words when she moved from start-up fashion brand to full-fledged contender, eschewing her former small collection presentations for a runway show at the imposing New York Public Library. She also launched a second line, entitled Victoria, as a companion brand to her eponymous ready-to-wear line. In doing so, she proved the celebrity-turned-creative director is not a joke any more – it’s a job description. Thus she paved the way for a new kind of designer to emerge: one without the usual art school background, but with an education of an entirely different kind.
去年九月，当维多利亚•贝克汉姆放弃像从前一样的小型个人收藏展示转而在雄伟壮丽的纽约公共图书馆举行了品牌的天桥秀，标志着她的个人时尚品牌从启动走向成熟，这一举动也为她的一众批评者提供了新的话题。与此同时，她也启动了另一条分支，授权“维多利亚”作为与她的成衣系列齐名的姐妹品牌。通过这些行动，维多利亚证明了自己由明星向创意设计总监的转变并不是笑话，而是她职业变化的真实描述。因此，她为最终呈现在公众眼前的这个设计师做了最好的注解：一个只接触过普通教育，曾经与时尚毫无瓜葛的人，也拥有了自己的品牌。
After shooting to fame via the manufactured bubblegum group that was the Spice Girls and marrying into the pop culture lexicon, Beckham confounded the style set by declaring she wanted to move from iconic wearer of clothes to actual designer of clothes, and launch her own fashion line. “Hubris!” the world responded, citing Jennifer Lopez’s failed Sweet face women swear collection. “Look what has gone before. A celebrity fashion line will never work, especially not a ready-to-wear line with aspirations to compete at the highest levels in New York, London and Paris. ”
通过创立流行组合“辣妹”以及与大受流行文化追捧的明星球员结婚，维多利亚一举成名，此后，她一再表达了想要从时尚穿衣标杆变为真正的服装设计师并拥有自己的服装品牌和生产线的想法。“太狂妄了！”参照拉丁天后詹妮弗洛佩兹创建个人品牌失败的例子，大家都给出负面的回应。“看看过去的教训吧，明星的个人品牌永远不会成功。”尤其是对于一个立志在时尚高地纽约、伦敦和巴黎占据一席之地的品牌。
And yet, since its birth at New York fashion week in 2008, just in time for the recession, Victoria Beckham-the-brand has defied all retail trends. Turnover had grown 120 per cent each year for the last three, and the brand is now sold in 107 stores around the world. Last month, she won the Designer Brand Award at the British Fashion Awards. It is because of Beckham that critics and buyers who in the past might have dismissed such brands with a snort and a raised eyebrow, now know to do so could be a very big mistake.
然而，在金融危机发生的2008年纽约时装周上诞生的维多利亚贝克汉姆个人品牌公然挑战了所有其他品牌的销售趋势。在过去三年里，这一品牌的销售额以每年120%的增长率上升，现在遍布世界的107家商店都有在出售维多利亚的品牌。上个月她在“英国时尚奖”颁奖礼上获得了品牌设计师大奖。正是因为维多利亚的成功尝试，使得曾经对这个品牌嗤之以鼻不屑一顾的顾客与批评家们开始认识 到自己的错误。
Interview:
Q1: Has your success surprised you?
Answer: As much as I believe in what I do and love it – the assumption has always been that when times are hard people buy luxury brands that they know, that have a history and have proven themselves over time. The fact that people have been willing to invest in me makes me feel quite blown away. I was very aware of all the preconceptions about me and what I was doing when I began. The summer right before we launched I was on holiday with David in Spain, and I remember being on the phone with Simon [Fuller, her backer], and saying, “I’m really nervous,” and he said, “You have nothing to be nervous about. As long as you enjoy what you are doing, and do your best, you have nothing to prove.” And then Marc Jacobs told me, “This is not about being better than anyone else or competing with anyone else; it’s about competing with yourself.” I have always thought that was very powerful advice.
Q1:你的成功出乎你的意料吗？
答：我完全相信我所做的一切并热爱它当经济不景气的时候，人们通常会购买那些他们了解的拥有悠久历史和品质保证的奢侈品牌，这样假设总是存在的。而事实上有人愿意投资我的品牌这令我感到和得意。当我开始这项事业时，我十分清楚别人对我的偏见以及我所正在完成的事。在我的品牌推出前的那个夏天，我和大卫在西班牙度假，我清楚地记我和我的投资人西蒙通的电话我对他说，“我很紧张。”他鼓励我说，“你没有什么可紧张的，只要你享受你正在做的事，将它做到最好就够了，你不需要证明什么。”马克雅克布也对我说，“这并不是和任何一个人竞争，而是在和你自己角力。”我总是会将这句有力的建议放在心上并时常提醒自己。
Q2: How much of the consumer’s ‘investment’ do you think has to do with you, and what you represent, and how much has to do with what you make？
Answer: I’ve been told numerous times that I’m a very polarizing figure: some people like me and some people really don’t. I also know that when I wear one of my dresses, it helps sales – there’s a quite direct numerical relationship – but I don’t like to rely on that. I am quite happy that now my reviews are really all about the collection, they are not about me. From the beginning, I didn’t want people to confuse the brand “Victoria Beckham” with the surname Beckham. I wasn’t just going to throw money at it. We have always had very strict budgets. One of the steepest learning curves for me has been understanding that every seam or pocket I add has an equivalent effect on the price of a garment.
Q2:你认为消费者的投资对你的帮助有多大呢，你代表着谁呢，这一点又对你的成就有怎样的贡献？
答：有无数的人告诉我，我是一个很分裂的人：有人喜欢我而有人则非常讨厌我。我也同样知道当我穿上我自己品牌的裙子可以极大地促进销量，这其中有直接的关系，但我并不喜欢依这种方式来增加销售。现在对 于我的评价大多来自服装本身而不再是针对我。从一开始，我就不希望大家将维多利亚贝克汉姆这个品牌与贝克汉姆这个姓名本身相混淆我并不是无节制地在这个品牌上投下重金。我们有严格的预算。对我个人而言最大的一个学习收获就是我理解了每在衣服上增加一个细节对应地就会反映在衣服的最终价格上。
Q3: Do you feel a responsibility as a female role model?
Answer: I very much believe in women and supporting women, and one of the reasons I wanted to get into fashion was to make women feel good about themselves. I’d love to think I made someone’s dream seem possible, but with four children and a husband and a full-time job, I see my value more as being an example of a woman who is facing all the different pressures most women are. The hardest job in the world is being a working parent.
Q3: 作为一个女性榜样，你感受到一种责任感了吗？
答: 我非常地相信女性也很愿意支持她我进军时尚圈的其中一个原因也是为了让女性更加欣赏自己。我希我的事例让大家看到了她们梦想的可能性，但是作为一个拥有四个孩子和丈夫以及全职工作的女性, 我认为我的价值并不仅仅是和大多数女性面临相同压力的女性榜样。对我来说，最艰难的工作就是做一名需要工作着的家长。
Q4: Do you have any advice for other women?
Answer: I am absolutely obsessive about diary-keeping. I can tell you what I’m doing next June. It’s the only way I can make this all possible. The first thing I do in the year is get everyone else’s diary – David’s, the children’s – so I know when all his football games are, where they are, what the kids have to do, when the parent-teacher conferences are, and then I build my work schedule around that. Of course, some things are out of my control: if I have to be in New York for fashion week, I’ll miss something. For me, it’s important to be respectful of everyone else’s time too. Sometimes you hear a designer say“Oh, I was up until 5am the morning of the show changing everything around or finishing the clothes,” and I just couldn’t do that. It would make me too anxious, and it’s also not fair to the people around you. From the beginning, I thought I had to do this my way.
Q4:对于其他女性你能给出一些建议吗？
答：我十分坚持于写日记的习惯。我甚至可以告诉你我明年六月的安排，而记日记是唯一可以做到这样的方法。我开始做的第一件事就是收集每个人的日记——大卫的，孩子们的，这样我就可以知道他所有的足球赛安排，孩子们该做些什么，然后我就据此做出我的工作安排。当然有时候事情并不受我的控制，如果我必须出席纽约时装周，那么我就错过一些事。对我来说，尊重每个人的时间是非常重要的原则。有时候你听到一个设计师说：“我熬夜到凌晨5点来准备演出的方方面面或制作衣服”我不会这样做。这不仅令我的生活太焦虑，对于我身边的人来说也很不公平。从一开始我就认为我得用自己的方式做我的事业。
说了这么多，让我们看看维多利亚的作品吧~
【Live Show】Victoria Beckham 2012 春夏系列 发布
选题、编辑：10国金2班 许雁凌 责编：夏贤锋