It was a busy Thursday in Berlin for David Beckham, formerly one of the most famous football players in the world, now better known for his cultural and fashion industry endeavors.
Beckham was in the German capital to officially launch the third edition of Boss by Beckham, his ongoing collaboration with local menswear specialist Hugo Boss. The capsule collection is already available in stores but with each edition, the brand put on a special event to celebrate it, explained Julia Langenhan, head of marketing, central hub, at Hugo Boss.
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For the first two capsules, events had taken place in New York and Shanghai and Langenhan explained why Berlin was chosen for this third release: “It’s important we don’t forget where we are from,” she said.
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Beckham’s first job was at Hugo Boss’ two-story flagship store on Kurfürstendamm, a shopping boulevard that’s home to many European marquee brands.
Representatives from about 20 media outlets around Europe had been invited to the store, with many flying in from other European countries. From around 5 p.m. ordinary shoppers, hoping for a glimpse of Beckham or just to browse the racks, were turned away by security guards at the door. Well-heeled VIP clients and customers were allowed in before the media arrived, and another batch would arrive later too. Waiters served cocktails and tiny snacks on silver trays.
“We wanted to have an exclusive space for David,” Langenhan told WWD. “For us, it’s important we shine a light on the work he has done on the collection. He is so involved with every single detail and we wanted to create a space for him where people can appreciate that.”
That’s the message the brand was focused on and, during a panel talk on the upper level of the boutique, Beckham was asked pre-scripted questions about this. He hit all the right talking points in response.
“I think everything I do and that I am part of, I always try to be involved from the moment it starts, to the moment it finishes,” Beckham told assembled media. “It’s important for me to look at every single detail … and the collection has to be authentic, it has to be authentically me.”
According to Beckham, the most important qualities of the clothing on offer were versatility, simplicity and longevity. The clothes had to be able to travel around the world and through different seasons and trends, he explained.
“Simplicity is the elegance part,” he noted. “I know I’ve pushed the [fashion] boundaries over the years,” he recounted laughing, and referred to some of his past hair styles. “I didn’t always get it right. But these are staples, things that everybody needs in their wardrobe.”
Double-breasted jackets are becoming something of a trademark of Boss by Beckham and, on Thursday evening, the former football star was wearing one in a gray wool-silk and linen blend, together with another popular item from the capsule collection, loose cotton dress pants.
Beckham said he could trace his desire for formal wear back to being a nine-year-old in London’s East End, watching his grandfather don three-piece suits almost daily. But that’s now how we live today, he said, nobody saves a double-breasted jacket for a special occasion anymore.
For example, another double-breasted jacket in the Boss by Beckham collection comes in cream because, Beckham said, he wore something similarly comfortable to Wimbledon last year.
“And I remember putting another suit on once, and I said I want to feel like this every time I put on a suit,” he continued. The suit was silk cashmere and it’s this sort of feeling that has since made him a bit of a “fabric nerd,” Beckham confessed.
That’s why a lot of work has gone into making even the collection’s simplest T-shirts comfortable, he boasted.
After the panel ended, star-struck invitees lined up to pose for a picture with Beckham, who is admittedly still one of the most famous individuals on earth. The down-to-earth style icon greeted them all with a smile and a handshake.
But his day of promotional activities in Berlin wasn’t over yet.
Next stop for the father-of-four was not far down the road, at a 40-square-meter (439-square-foot) Hugo Boss pop-up inside the city’s iconic KaDeWe department store — it’s often referred to as the Harrods or Bergdorf Goodman of Berlin — which will be open for three weeks, until April 11.