One could hardly reconcile the vision of Victoria Beckham, as she girlishly twirls a strand of her impeccably coiffed tresses while speaking in a clipped accent, with the bleached blonde, bulbous-breasted Posh Spice.
The cleavage is still enviable, and tan a shade of deep mahogany, but the singer-turned-WAG-turned-fashion-mogul is the epitome of, well, actual poshness.
The 40-year-old stunner has been hushing critics ever since she unveiled her eponymous label six years ago through her refined and, in her words, "deceptively simple" designs.
Earlier this month, she walked the red carpet of the Met Gala in a tiered column dress - a perfectly streamlined number she showed during a presentation at the Marina Bay Sands' ArtScience Museum last Saturday.
Rather than resorting to over-the-top embellishments and second-skin silhouettes, the jet-setting mother of four obsesses instead on exquisitely finished pieces that fit into any smart wardrobe.
"To get such a stunning silhouette requires paying a lot of attention to the little details to enable a woman to put a dress on and feel so special," says Beckham, who was in town to launch her accessories line with designer accessories retailer On Pedder. "They make you think about posture and how you carry yourself."
And the ballet-trained businesswoman, who sits ramrod-straight throughout a group interview, is all about the finer points that make up the big picture.
"For me it's very important I work on my show and have six to eight minutes to put my message across with regard to my venue, clothes, hair and makeup, and the buyers come in and make their selection," says Beckham, who will be opening her first standalone boutique on London's Dover Street in September.
"With a standalone store I am making the buy for what I think my customer wants. My customer will come into my store and step into my world. I am a very visual person and pay a lot of attention to the ceiling details, the floors, the visuals. It's the first time the customer can see the brand through my eyes."
While it is evident that Beckham is a seasoned pro at the PR game - she expertly lowers her chin and parts her lips ever so slightly for the camera, the former Spice Girl still comes across as personable and even down-to-earth, quizzing one reporter about whether she finds it easier dealing with her sons or daughters, and asking for beauty tips for tackling the humid weather.
"I think it's no different for me from any other working mum," says Beckham, whose youngest child Harper turns three this year.
"I get up quite early at six and that's when I do my workout and that's the time I have for me, and I am ready to take the children to school and I go to work. But I'm not going to sit here and say it's easy, any woman who works and is also a mum knows you feel guilty when you go to work, and I am not ashamed to say that."
Beckham almost has you thinking she's like any other multi-tasking career woman, rather than an uber-celeb whose home back in London is going to be a $63 million seven-bedroom mansion in Kensington.
Nevertheless, the svelte glamazon is quick to demonstrate that she is a realistic businesswoman who designs for real, albeit flushed, women - and not just her celebrity BFFs.
She admits that while her dresses are expensive, she has to be realistic about the types of fabric she uses and the "make cost" involved when creating a collection.
"I don't think you always have to be wearing luxury," says Beckham, when asked whether Singaporeans' laidback style is less than chic. "Casual is good, I lived in Los Angeles for six years and I loved every minute of it. It is more difficult to 'dress hot,' for sure."
While the avid art collector has been inspired by a Julian Schnabel for the colour palette of her pre-Fall collection, her inspirations could sometimes be somewhat more pedestrian: "One season, I saw my kid Romeo running into the kitchen in his baseball shirt and I was like, that's really cool. And I had a baseball thing, it was very subtle, that was running through the collection."
Family life, she insists, is her top priority even amid a busy schedule, which includes opening a New York office earlier this year.
"My proudest achievements are my children. They are a lot of work, but they're so very cute," gushes Beckham.
"I want my children to be happy. They are very sporty and they love fashion as well. But at the moment we need to focus on schoolwork and learning the times table. That seems the main challenge rather than if they will go into the fashion industry."
This article was published on May 17 in The Business Times.
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