.@victoriabeckham collected her #OBE from The Duke of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace today, for services to the fashion industry. pic.twitter.com/MADflmOjej
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 19, 2017
My imaginary best friend Victoria Beckman is having one hell of a birthday week. On Monday, the Fashionable Mom-Star turned 43 years young. Yesterday, she put on her best Mother of the Deceased Bride outfit and accepted an Order of the British Empire from Prince William, just as she said she would in December. I wonder if she gave him a few “tips” as to how to jazz up his uniform? Maybe suggested some dance moves? After the ceremony, Victoria beamed with pride, as she should.
Mrs Beckham wore a floor-length black dress and high purple heels and looked chirpy as she waited to go into the ceremony.
The 43-year-old said afterwards: ‘It was an absolute pleasure to be at Buckingham Palace today. I’m proud to be British, honoured and humbled to receive my OBE from the Duke of Cambridge.
‘If you dream big and work hard you can accomplish great things. I’m so happy to share this very special occasion with my parents and husband; without their love and support, none of this would be possible.’
The insider revealed: ‘Victoria is incredibly proud of the fashion brand she has built and ever thankful for her amazing team.’
Having transferred her skills from singing to designing, former Spice Girl Victoria is recognised for her work in fashion, most notably her eponymous clothes label and its secondary diffusion line Victoria, Victoria Beckham.
But we’re told she is especially pleased to be receiving the ‘Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ honour for her humanitarian work.
Vicks OBE comes a mere 13 years after her husband David was awarded the same honor for football. Of course, he was pinned by the Queen herself but I get it, I’d want to get a hand on David’s chest too, if I could. Victoria received her honor in front of her parents and David, all of whom looked like they were getting really choked up over the ceremony. They must have been over the moon – all that pomp and circumstance. I know I would have soaked up every moment of the experience. Absent form the proceedings were the four Beckham children. They, however, were there in spirit:
That dress, by the way, is really cute from the front. You can see more pictures of it here.
Joining Victoria at yesterday’s ceremony was Olympian Jessica Ennis-Hill , Paralympians Bethany Firth and Jody Cundy and artist Christopher Ofili. The big honors went to actor Mark Rylance and Para-equestrian Lee Pearson who were awarded knighthoods. You know who wasn’t awarded a knighthood? David Beckham, although I am sure he thought about swiping one of theirs on his way to the car. Next time, Becks. Oh! Maybe the palace will award a double knight/damehood for the Beckhams? Given their penchant for thrones, I think the palace will want to keep the couple as far away from the real ones as they can.
Wonderful day celebrating with my beautiful family x #BuckinghamPalace#OBE 🇬🇧 VB pic.twitter.com/JaYmNCwIh0
— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) April 19, 2017
Photo credit: Twitter, Instagram and WENN Photos
Looks like everybody can get an OBE.
Well yes, anyone who has been a household name in this country for 20+ years and runs an enormous global brand….
LOL, true.
But how is that beneficial to the UK? Is her brand actually that big? Does it generate a lot of taxes in the UK and employs a lot of people in good conditions? Are her clothes manufactured/produced in the UK and not in factories exploiting people in Bangladesh? I have no idea, that is why I’m asking.
thaliasghost, do the athletes employ more people than her? She has successful in fashion and music and that she is British was at least a big part of the Spice Girls brand. And she surely employs some people.
So making money for your family earns you an OBE? Seems pretty ridiculous to me. I thought maybe doing something for humanity might be more important.
None of those awarded have done anything for humanity though, they’ve all achieved doing things they have wanted to do. Actors, artists and athletes aren’t generally that necessary to society at large.
Chinoiserie, I think you may be proving IP’s point…does everyone of enough celebrity, including athletes, get an OBE merely for being famous or successful in their field? What exactly is the standard here? I would hope that fame isn’t enough whether it side a fashion designer or an athlete.
I’ve never understood these various titles.
So she is OBE…which Is mainly initials. But what else does it mean for her?
ANd how it different from being “Dame” ???
#IHaveAlwaysWantedTobeABrit
Knight/Dame, or KBE/DBE is at the top of the tree. These are all in the Order of the British Empire, which is where most awards are given. Next down is CBE (Commander). Athletes often get these, like the Trott/Kenneys (cyclists) and Alistair Cook (cricketer). Next down are OBEs (Order), which is what Victoria and David Beckham and many other entertainment figures have. The lowest one is MBE (Member). Most British people are pretty cynical about these things, at least as far as celebrities go. Ordinary people who get honours have generally earned them.
My next-door-neighbour-but-one has an MBE for decades of charity work. She’s certainly earned it more than all the retiring civil servants who get knighthoods and damehoods just by their level of seniority. I’m glad they scaled back on that aspect of it.
#IHaveAlwaysWantedTobeABrit = hopefully not lol Also because it’s not like they give it to lots of common people, uh?
Plus Angelina Jolie is a Dame, for example.
Angelia Jolie is a Dame???
An honorary Dame. Americans can’t accept foreign honours but she, Kevin Spacey and Steven Spielberg are examples of honorary Dames/Knights.
OK … I’m tired and snarky from moving house with a 9 month old this weekend and living out of boxes but…I hate when famous/rich people say stuff like “if you dream big and work hard you can achieve this”….It aint that simple and it implies those who haven’t and want them, just didn’t dream big enough or work hard enough and also, doesn’t acknowledge any other factors that got them their big break.
Like I said, I’m tired
Also LOL at Beckham sitting there after his leaked emails where he’s moaning about not getting his (in his mind) deserved knighthood
I agree with you 100%. Like I am lying in a hospital bed, career ruined, everything I worked for gone, health gone, because I didn’t dream big enough? Pfff.
Also – sorry but I never understood the love for her clothes or Posh herself. All I see her wearing are the blandest most boring things that she looks either sewn in (to show us how super thin she is), or clothes that seem 5 sizes too big and she swims in them. IMHO they are designed only for women who fit her body style – fine, a lot of designers only create things for size 2 models… but at least they have some oomph and style and drama. Hers are just beige slouchy pants and black blazers. Blah.
“I agree with you 100%. Like I am lying in a hospital bed, career ruined, everything I worked for gone, health gone, because I didn’t dream big enough? Pfff.”
Spot on! Agree as well.
You may be tired Lindy79 – justifiably by the sound of it – but you are right. It’s quite a boastful thing to say. Good to see she didn’t break her self-imposed ban on smiling.
I so agree with you @Lindy79. This kind of comment is so boastful and deluded, not less because she only achieved what she did because of $$$$ and not because she worked hard.
@Lindy79, it’s not just you. I get so tired of hearing these pompous statements that just shame everyone that has a dream and has not been able to achieve it, like probably the vast majority of the world’s population.
I get so tired of attending high school and college graduations where virtually every speaker seems to have drunk from the “if you can dream it, you can achieve it” well of speech-writing. I know it is supposed to be inspirational, but it is just not true and it sets young people up for unnecessary self-blaming and unwarranted feelings of failure. So much is dependent on where you start out in life to begin with, your family background/wealth, your gender, your race, the choices adults make for you when you are a small child with no say in the matter…
@Chaine, exactly. I thought the same thing.
The amount of crap kids are told at school is unbelievable. To corroborate what you say: my daughter and my son want to be dancers. It’s so much easier for him. Boys are cherished and looked after in the ballet and contemporary dance world whereas girls are almost disposable goods. This is just one of the examples where you see extremely talented people not getting there but working really really hard.
I’m in complete agreement with all of you. All these hackneyed inspirational quotes are just drivel. Some of the hardest-working people are those in developing countries, and I’m positive they have big dreams, too, but how many of them will achieve the heights she and every other vapid celeb like to spout? Have a seat, Vicki, and stop talking shytt.
@Chaine
“I get so tired of hearing these pompous statements that just shame everyone that has a dream and has not been able to achieve it, like probably the vast majority of the world’s population.”
True, I agree. I had a row with another fellow student years ago who insisted saying ‘if you want something you can get it’, nope absurd.
I’d really like to be an astronaut but that won’t convince NASA to hire me, right?
If it were true millions of people working in factories in Bangladesh, or working in the fruit and vegetables plantations of Europe would be super successful millionaires.
In fact, if you think of the refugee situation in Europe and not talking Syrian refugees but the hundreds of thousands of people coming from Africa for a better life would succeed at this, wouldn’t they?
Victoria herself is from a very wealthy background, being chauffered in a limousine to her private school background. I have so much more respect for somebody dreaming of escaping poverty in Mali, leaving behind their family, getting on a tiny boat, nearly drowning, then almost being tortured to death in Libya and finally arriving in Europe to live on the streets and working as an illegal dishwasher or hotel maid, yet, never getting anywhere with it than for freaking Posh Spice.
Her style is phenomenal now.
I would wear all of these outifits. Especially the suit.
She looks ridiculous in the 4th photo.
You are obviously missing the real subject of that photo. Vicky probably couldn’t deal with those scuffed shoes. I think I could, though.
She is getting a lot of flack for this in British media today – and while some of the criticism is hilarious, I feel like it’s kind of petty, too. I mean loads of people have been given higher honors for dancing/singing/acting – whats the problem with her being honored for her contribution? Perhaps she is not the most talented fairy in the world – but certainly she is a big British brand on an international level. Meh, let vicky be great.
People tend to snark on any and everything these days.
The Queen did not pin the OBE on her that says a lot.
Since her illness around Christmas of last year, the Queen has been more low-key, and the Cambridges and Prince Harry have been expected to take up the slack.
It’s about time that lazy Wills “works” more.
If I recall correctly, William has been doing this ceremony for the past couple of years.
Most investitures are done by Charles, Anne and William these days.
She and David were invited to William and Kate’s wedding, so it makes sense to me that he was the one to pin her.
I won’t comment on her award, just came to say I’m not feeling her style. It’s nothing I’d wear.
“Mother of the Deceased Bride outfit ” Bwahahahahahaha!
That is all.
Well, I think She deserves a knighthood for wearing those shoes AND walking in them. I know it would kill me instantly!
Forgive me but…”British Empire” still? I mean the titles / shennigans can be FUN but this sort of glorification of the past is the root cause of Brexit.
Yep, ditto…
Referring to herself as “British” is such an American thing to do. She is English. I have never heard an English person in England refer to themselves as “British” but Americans use that term a majority of the time to describe English people. In fact, I don’t think most Americans know the difference between British and English.
**whipsers** what’s the difference?
Don’t kill me, I’m Canadian. I should probably know this. I do say “british”, as in “british TV shows” etc.
British = Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England.
English = England only.
I was at a gig in Dublin recently and it rockin’, the band had the crowd in the palm of their hands until the lead singer shouted out, “We love being here in Great Britain!” You could have heard a pin drop. I’m afraid they lost the audience after that.
And whatever you do, don’t refer to someone from the Republic of Ireland as British….as often happens when people get Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland mixed up or think it’s the same thing.
They will correct you swiftly and without humour lol
EDIT: MostlyMegan…Prime example there haha. Didn’t they also display a Union Jack?
Excellent. Thanks for the clarification. I think I will stay safe and not refer at all, say it like “they are from england”.
I think saying british TV is ok, because it’s BBC stuff, that seems all encompassing.
“the band had the crowd in the palm of their hands until the lead singer shouted out, “We love being here in Great Britain!”
HAHAHAHAHAHA If they were in Scotland they’d probably have been booted out of the show LOL And Scotland is in GB….
To clarify…Britain is England, Scotland, Wales. The U.K. Includes N Ireland, though people from NI have always been entitled to an Irish passport if they want one. (The Republic of) Ireland has been independent for nearly a century but there still seem to be some people that struggle with that (clue: they aren’t Irish people). Hopefully Scotland will soon join them in having that independent status. And they aren’t from England if they are Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish, original Kay,
British refers to a citizen of the British Isles, which include Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland along with England. However you would never (okay ALMOST never) hear a Scottish or Northern Irish or Welsh person refer to themselves as “British” (although technically they are “British”), because it harkens back to a time when the English were an imperialistic, invasion-happy, war-mongering nation, who preyed on countries with weak or non-existent militaries and then exploited those countries by making their citizens slaves to the empire (or worse) and selling off their natural resources. Why do you think England has such nice shit? But in Northern American terms, people say British when actually they mean English. I think “British” evokes for them a cozy idea of policemen in Bobby hats, Big Ben, red double decker buses and charming phone boxes – all things that are actually English.
@MostlyMegan
Yep. I think the equivalence between English-British is quite common abroad. When I was living in Scotland, any time I visited my relatives in Italy they were always asking ‘When are you going back to England?’, as they think the United Kingdom is just the same as England, like interchangeable words.
Leaving aside the boundaries stuff, it always amazes me that some people overseas seem to see England – I’ll stick to England here! – as some sort of quaint theme park. The industrial revolution started in England in the mid eighteenth century. It was industrialised when California was just a bunch of orange groves. Quite odd.
And when they say England they mean London .
Oh, I think that many Outlander fans have that same sort of theme park view of Scotland as well.
@Megan – really? My husband is British (English) and I don’t think I’ve ever heard him refer to himself as English. Always British. It might be a regional thing – but where I live in the south east I actually would be surprised if one of our friends said ‘english’ instead of ‘british’.
I’m British and born and brought up in England and I would never call myself English. I think it is important to remember that the English, Welsh, Scots, Irish are not all pure born segregated ‘races’ living in our own separate countries, we are mixed and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded! I have heritage from all the nations of the UK and the ROI and ‘British’ is the nearest I get to reflect that. I think a lot of people just don’t know history – for instance they don’t realise the English are not indigenous to England or indeed that there is no English ‘race’, that the dark Welsh and dark Irish are more closely related to the Basque people of Spain than to non-dark Welsh and Irish. Blaming ‘the English’ for Empire is silly because what does that mean – in reality it will be the descendants of the people that came over with William the Conqueror who became ‘the ruling class’ in Britain and Ireland (and still are in Britain) who made those decisions and profited from them. The majority of the population of the UK and Ireland were disenfranchised when Empire was being thought up and for most of the duration of Empire. Women, half the adult population, didn’t even have the vote until the 20th century (plus there some men who didn’t have the vote till then either).
That tan suit is just ridiculous. Some of her things look ok but sort of bland. My friend does PR for her says she’s really funny and sweet I just don’t get that vibe. My husband is English always rolls his eyes when these come out he admires those who decline like Danny Boyle he says he’d never accept I didn’t want to say don’t worry you probably won’t get asked.
I’m only here to honk for the guy in the background on the picture of the beige suit. That’s my face through this whole thing.
OMG…..Honk!!! Cute and side eyeing Posh. Lol.
OMG…. YES!!! “who he????” whoa (tongue hits ground)….
Somehow it is very difficult to muster enough enthusiasm for some award by the BRF.
The BE has stopped existing for ages.
Maybe I am just too snarky today
I don’t blame people for side-eyeing the “British Empire” part of the award as that is patently ridiculous in this day and age, but it’s important to note that the recipients are decided upon by the government, not the BRF. The royals just present them.
Maybe it’s time to rename them then?
But the whole Sir and Dame thing inherently is such middle aged, don’t know.
I just was in a snarky mood.
Yes and no, there are still countries nominally under British rule. Canada, Australia, pacific island nations etc etc.
First she was a pretend/fabricated pop music star, then she was a pretend blow up doll, afterwards she was a pretend ‘designer muse’ and now she is a make believe clothes designer.
I mean… talk about an achievement in ‘once upon a time’. She lives in the land of make believe and Disney princeses.
The OBE makes sense.
Notice she wears her up in a cute style – ahem, Kate! Forget William, she needs to give Kate some de-frumpify tips.
OT, but I’m in love with my VB for Target shift dress!!!
Gosh, she’s so petite she swims in clothes that aren’t shorts or short skirts.