In episode four of Beckham, the four-part docuseries currently top of the league over on Netflix, we see archival footage of a young David Beckham standing in his childhood bedroom. “I hate having an untidy room,” he says, before the camera pans to his wardrobe. It captures Beckham before all of it: the superstardom on the pitch, the tabloid romance to Victoria and becoming the guy every big designer brand wanted a piece of from Versace to Emporio Armani.
In a flash, we’re taken back to the present. Now we’re standing now in the 48-year-old Beckham’s personal dressing room. As you’d expect, it’s a far cry from the East London three-bedroom he grew up in. Nice art on the walls, airy and brightly lit with big windows looking out onto a leafy, mansion-lined road. Few clothes can be seen, which says a lot about Beckham’s obsession with being neat and tidy. The scene doesn’t last long, but it gives us an insight into how the world’s best-dressed footballer—now, as well as then—became exactly that.
The camera shifts to Beckham opening his modern-day wardrobe: a huge, ivory-hued oak mecca of his menswear finds. “It’s all very organized,” says Becks, in an echo of the boy, dressed in a navy zip-up cable-knit, while reaching in and carefully showing us his rows on rows of “shirts, jean shirts, jumpers, cardis to T-shirts.” Then: underwear. Socks. Beckham has a separate drawer and rail for every clothing department. “And then suits,” he says, opening the doors to what could only be described as a box room filled with pressed and steamed tailoring in grey, black, and navy, with a top rail of shirts above it. Everything is color-coordinated. He even lays his T-shirts and knits at an angle, so he can see what’s underneath. It’s the sort of stuff you’d expect in the luxury spaces in Selfridges.
