On July 4, 1999, while I was probably studying for a History of Art exam, I was blissfully unaware that Victoria and David Beckham were getting married in Ireland.
And probably, given that a quarter of a century ago news certainly didn't travel at the speed it does today and cell phones weren't smartphones, I will have read about the coolest wedding of the 90s on Teletext before admiring some shots of the two in some magazine a few days later.
What is certain is that I could not have imagined that that wedding would have rightfully entered the history of costume, especially for the two plum looks that the Beckhams showed off for the reception at Luttrellstown Castle, near Dublin, which today everyone (re)knows: a one-shoulder dress by Antonio Berardi for Posh Spice and a matching double-breasted suit for Becks.
Even their then-newborn firstborn, Brooklyn, matched his parents, wrapped in his tiny purple tuxedo and cowboy hat. The rest, as they say, is history.
Twenty-five years later, with many inches more hair for Victoria and many fewer highlights for David, the couple has dusted off these legendary outfits for their silver wedding anniversary. “Look what we found…” the Beckhams wrote in unison on their Instagram pages. In the portrait, Victoria and David, seated on two thrones, pose in their original outfits, in all their grape-colored magnificence.
“Just like on her wedding day, the former Spice Girl completed her look with metallic spiral sandals , while the former footballer paired his suit with tonal Oxfords. Flashes of red fabric punctuated both looks in the form of floral embellishments. In last year's Beckham documentary , available on Netflix, the couple fondly recalled their unconventional wedding style as "very '90s."
“I tried to remember when I decided to wear a purple look. I don’t know when it happened,” David Beckham says in an interview on the show. “ I guess I just went with Victoria’s lead. But… What were we thinking?”
Victoria, for her part, has fully defended the colorful wedding looks. “We didn’t worry about what people would say,” she explained in the documentary. “I mean, it’s so nice to be like that when you don’t care at all.”
What can we say? That the two appear even more stylish today than they once did ? That 25 years have only managed to enhance their coolness ? That for a quarter of a century they have made us dream about whatever they show off? That summer of 1999, I passed my History of Art exam. I know this because I always got high grades in this subject at university. After all, I have always had an eye for beautiful things that have not been dented by the test of time.
The original article can be found on Vanity Fair Italy.
