There’s Suite 302, named after a suite in the Ritz Paris. “This is about our love affair with Paris, and when we were dating in the ’90s, the opulence of the ’90s, and when we renewed our wedding vows and stayed in Suite 302,” Beckham told us last night.
There’s Portofino 1997, an homage to the couple’s first getaway together to the Italian seaside town. “We stayed at Hotel Splendido in Portofino and had 48 hours together, which, at the time, we would struggle to find time together because he was always playing for Manchester United and I was always with the Spice Girls, so this is about a new romance, infatuation, passion,” she told Vogue. “I remember how Portofino smelled. I remember the crisp white sheets. I remember the color of the sky. I remember the color of the sea.”
And finally, there’s San Ysidro Drive, tied to the scent memory of the family’s move to Los Angeles from Europe. “That was our address in L.A. where, after the turbulence of Spain, going there gave a sense of wellness, crystal energy, meditation, learning to love and accept myself. This is about self-love, self-care, a new chapter for us as a family, and for me truly loving me,” she added.
All three scents are celebrated in what is a noticeable about-face from traditional wind-blowing, bottle-clutching fragrance advertising devised by Beckham and Steven Klein, the lead image of which is a simple portrait that greeted guests upon arrival. “I knew it had to be [Klein], because I love how the woman is sexy, but she owns the narrative and she’s strong,” Beckham said of Klein’s photography. “When you look at that picture downstairs, with the arms crossed, that was taken actually during the test the day before the shoot. I hadn’t had hair and makeup. I was just standing there, and he took that picture and I looked at it, and I don’t talk a lot about my past in the Spice Girls, but at that moment, I thought, ’This is girl power now, as we know it today. This is a strong woman talking to women, and I love that image.”
The portrait is accompanied by three cinematic black-and-white images, which decorated the room alongside their accompanying scents. “There’s nothing wrong with a celebrity fragrance, but that’s not where I’m at right now,” she explained. “We’ve worked hard at getting credibility as a fashion brand, as a beauty brand, and already as a fragrance brand, so these images had to be editorial by nature, and I wanted people to look at them and say, ‘Is that her?’”