*By Jesse Scott *
“To dress is to paint a portrait,” Victoria Beckham told guests at her AW26 show. To design dresses is to create an artistic universe, and what a rich and nuanced universe Beckham created this season! Inspired by Polish art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka, who rose to prominence during the 1920s and 30s and was best known for her society portraits, Beckham turned back the clock a century in curating a geometric wardrobe defined by structural silhouettes while incorporating touches of modern whimsy.
Viky Rader, Daiana Godre da Silva, Diane Kruger, and Caroline Daur were among the best-dressed in the front row at Paris’s Cité Internationale Universitaire. Polished and fatally chic was clearly the dress code; celebrities arrived in vibrant form-fitting gowns as streamlined as the chassis of a Lamborghini. And supercars were on my mind throughout the show; after all, de Lempicka’s most famous painting was her 1929 self-portrait “Tamara in a Green Bugatti.”
The Freedom of the Open Road
“Tamara in a Green Bugatti” is indelibly tied to fashion history and is emblematic of a watershed sociocultural flashpoint. It was commissioned by the editor of German fashion magazine Die Dame after a chance encounter with de Lempicka while holidaying in Monte Carlo. Monaco was experiencing a roaring twenties moment at the center of the fashion and art spheres - Coco Chanel was about to buy her legendary villa at La Pausa. Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes used the principality as a satellite base. And Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Scott F. and Zelda Fitzgerald were among the rotating cast of characters who made it a home away from home.
In short, the principality was possessed of all the intrigue, aspirational allure, and yes supercars that it still has today. De Lempicka, occupying the unique role of artist that could oscillate between the bohemian and glamorous, was symbolic of all of this. Her self-portrait in a green bugatti, leather driving gloves on while fixing viewers with a fierce side-eye, took the world by storm. Referencing Italian futurism, which fixated on the exquisite violence of speed and technology, and appearing at a time when female empowerment was reaching new heights, it represented glamour, strength, and perhaps most importantly, the euphoric freedom of the open road. Much as, I couldn’t help but think, Victoria Beckham does for millions of young women.
Driving was a major theme throughout the collection. Beckham introduced a new form of car coat, cut in a unique two-dimensional form that mirrored familiar artistic leitmotifs from the 1920s and 30s in Look 32. It was echoed by an all-white ensemble that again seemed to have been reduced into two-dimensional form in Look 30 and a playful pair of striped pants with an oversized waistline doubling as trompe l’oeil pockets in Look 17. Meanwhile, geometric forms referencing de Lempicka’s art deco style and early cubist influences were omnipresent. Look 29 and 16 introduced dramatic triangular collars while Look 27 featured a sharp leather jacket with a trapezoidal knit turtleneck detail. There was also plenty of transparency play. A sheer half-zipped skirt in Look 19 was one of the more fun items from the season, while transparent shells on Looks 2, 6, and 8 refracted light to ingeniously twist the way we perceived the rosette dresses beneath.
Victoria Beckham Fall/Winter 2026: Looks 2, 6, 8, 16, 17, 19, 27, 29, 30, 32 (Imagery courtesy of Victoria Beckham)
A favorite piece was a royal blue trench in Look 24, perfect for the international woman of intrigue who, much like de Lempicka did, might shift between Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Zurich, and New York with a reputation that precedes her and an aura that draws people in. The trench is perfectly paired with the brand-new Sloan bag, with its top handle silhouette recalling the luxurious 1930s travel bags that merged practicality with status symbol in the days preceding the “jet set.” Victoria Beckham AW26 is a collection for global socialites, tailored for the modern era but with the sophistication of the yearned-for roaring twenties.