They have just bought their new London home, Victoria has been busy creating her new bodycon dress line, which she has labeled: “sucky sucky dresses as that’s what they are” and David is in the middle of sealing a deal on Major League Soccer stadium in Miami but the busy power couple still hope to raise 50,000 for the Phillippines Typhoon appeal by bagging up unwanted clothes and dropping them off at their local charity shop.
Victoria spent her weekend packing up unwanted items from her and husband David’s wardrobes in their Hertfordshire mansion dubbed Beckingham Palace, in total the couple donated 525 items which arrived packed in 20 boxes.
The donation led to one of the busiest days at the Old Church Street branch of the charity shop in London’s Chelsea.
Mark Asteris who is the Director of Fundraising for The British Red Cross, says
he had been liaising with the Beckham’s ‘virtually’ says: “We hope to raise around £40,000-£50,000 in the sale. We’re not expecting them to visit us, but we hope they are happy with what we’ve done. Victoria spent her weekend clearing out her wardrobes and we really hope others will do the same too. We want all the clothes we can get – not just designers, even Zara, River Island anywhere – so we hope the Beckham’s prompt everyone to get ‘bagging and dropping’.”
Dozens of eager customers queued up outside waiting to get their hands on the Beckham’s second hand items. The store’s security were so swamped they had to operate a 50-at-a-time entry policy.
Closer’s Junior Showbiz Writer Joanna Abeyie went down to the store last week to see what all the fuss was about.
I arrived around 30 minutes before the shop opened, but already there were dozens of people queuing up along the road leading to the shop. Dressed in hats, scarves, gloves and huge winter coats, teens, parents and tourists had all arrived to get their hands on the Beckham's goodies. One customer revealed that despite the store’s opening time of 11am, she had been queuing since 8am, to make sure she could get her hands on one of Victoria’s dresses.
The following 30 minutes was spent keeping warm and taking countless pictures of Victoria’s Spice Girls memorabilia, which was planted in the shop window displays.
When the doors did open around 11.05am and the entry policy was explained, customers rushed in and headed straight to their chosen clothes display; girls ran to the shoes and ‘high value dresses’ while gents ran straight to the rail of David’s jeans – mostly Dolce & Gabbana.
Mark tells Closer: “I actually spilt coffee down my shirt this morning and as I had to do some TV interviews, I bought one of David’s shirts! I think I need to lose a few lbs because he is obviously slimmer than I am – it was a tight fit.”
“We asked Victoria if she could tweet out to encourage others to clear out their wardrobes and she decided to do it herself. I love the idea that she spent the weekend turning out their wardrobe, I just hope she asked David first before she donated his items!”
While in the store, customers were crashing into each other and yanking hangers off rails looking only at the price before rushing to the tills. The rule of one item per person was too much for some Beckham fanatics to handle.
The changing rooms took the role of a revolving door, as women (mainly) went in with arms laden with Dolce and Gabbana blouses, Maria Grachvogel dresses and Gina shoes before emerging with their final one item.
One young lady, 21- year-old May who was in London while on holidaying from her home in the South Of France, told Closer that she popped into the shop because she wanted to buy her dad a Christmas present .
She says: “My dad is impossible to buy for so this has worked out perfect for me because he says how much he loves David Beckham's suits and I’ve managed to find him a nice blazer here. It’s a shame because I’d absolutely love the Spice Girls stock – I would like to bid for it, but financially I need to make sure that I don’t overspend.”
Despite the hordes of customers hoping to leave with their favorite Beckham memorabilia, some will have to wait to get their hands on some more exclusive items. Victoria donated a number of personalized Spice Girls products.
Including a red vest-top with the words ‘Spice Girls’ emblazoned on the front that also had her son’s names, Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz sewn into the bottom of the vest.
The manager of the The British Red Cross Cathy Shimmel, said that she couldn’t wait to see how much the more exclusive items raise.
Cathy says: “Victoria really wanted to get involved and wanted to us to make sure that the items were sold at affordable prices so that nothing was too expensive for people to buy. It’s all beautiful things, it’s so generous for her.”
“Our Red Cross driver drove down to Beckingham Palace and she gave 525 items all packed neatly in 20 boxes - it blew me away! They are all Dolce Gabbana and Manolo Blahnik and the like, it’s fantastic. Our driver didn’t get to meet the Beckham’s but the PR’s gave it to the driver.”
Victoria and David aren’t the only ones that managed to get involved in the sale.
Cathy says: “We do get a lot of celebrities dropping things in here - Mark Owen also dropped his clothes too. We are the store that specialises in designer wear, so we do host a designer evening every year. This year Mulberry will be donating some of their handbags to the store and will help to host the sale.”
The Mulberry sale is this Thursday 4-8pm at The Red Cross store on Old Church Street, Chelsea.
To get involved in the bag and drop Phillippines Typhoon appeal and for more information please visit the sites below:
For more information visit www.redcross.org.uk/shopdrop If you have any queries relating to Shop Drop for the Philippines email shopdrop@redcross.org.uk