Victoria Beckham at Cipriani, Mayfair, October 2006

Mayfair and South Kensington, London · September and October 2006

Taken 22:30 (camera clock), Monday 30 October 2006, Davies Street, Mayfair, London

I am Charles Pycraft, a London photographer. Twenty years ago tonight, at 22:30 by my camera's clock, I photographed Victoria Beckham arriving for dinner at Cipriani on Davies Street in Mayfair. The two frames from that night were taken a second apart. This piece keeps to what the files show and what was reported at the time.

The anniversary lands in a good week for her. On 23 October 2026 Gap and Victoria Beckham launched their second collection together, a 37 piece Fall/Winter range of knitwear, outerwear, tailoring and denim, including the high rise straight jean Gap calls a Victoria Beckham staple. Denim, as it happens, was exactly what she was building in the autumn of 2006.

The pavement

The frames show her in a short navy shift dress with a ribbon tie at the waist, dark tights and heels, her hair in the sleek bob that was everywhere that year. In the first she looks down as she walks; in the second she glances up, hand at her collar.

It was a regular stop for the Beckhams. Six weeks earlier, on the night of 18 September 2006, my camera has Victoria leaving Blakes Hotel in South Kensington at 21:35 in a black roll neck dress and knee boots, on her way to dinner at Cipriani, and the Arsenal footballer Freddie Ljungberg leaving the restaurant at 23:27 after dinner with David and Victoria and friends. Both of those frames are below too.

What was going on that day

Monday 30 October 2006 was a big day for her. Her second book, That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels and Everything in Between, had been published on 27 October, and that day she launched it with a signing at Selfridges on Oxford Street. Metro reported the next morning that thousands of fans turned up, that the book broke the store's records and that staff had to order in another 1,000 copies. Her new fashion website, dvbstyle.com, was due to go live the same day to tie in with the book.

It came at a turning point for her fashion work. That autumn she had ended her VB Rocks jeans line with Rock & Republic and announced her own dvb denim line for early 2007. The dvb Denim collection launched at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York in June 2007, and her Victoria Beckham label followed in 2008.

On television, The X Factor was in its third series on ITV, and in the singles chart My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade was finishing its two weeks at number one, with McFly's Star Girl at the top on the chart for the week ending 4 November.

Where she is now

Twenty years on, the house of Victoria Beckham has its flagship store in Mayfair, not far from Cipriani. Her three part Netflix series, Victoria Beckham, premiered on 9 October 2025, following her as she prepared a show for Paris Fashion Week. And this month there is the second Gap collection, on sale online and in Gap stores in the UK and around the world.

My own work has moved a long way from those Mayfair pavements. My photography years ran from 1999 to 2014, and that archive is now licensed through Backgrid UK.

The pictures

Four frames from a body of work I made in London between 1999 and 2014: two from outside Cipriani on 30 October 2006, and two from the Beckhams' night out on 18 September 2006.

Credit: Charlie Pycraft / BACKGRID. Licensing: Backgrid UK Sales, backgrid_uksales@shutterstock.com

Victoria Beckham in a short navy shift dress, dark tights and heels, looking down as she walks a Mayfair pavement at night. — CIPRIANI, MAYFAIR, OCTOBER 2006. Victoria Beckham arrives for dinner at Cipriani on Davies Street, Mayfair, London, on Monday 30 October 2006.

Victoria Beckham with a sleek bob, one hand at her collar, glancing to the side outside Cipriani in Mayfair at night. — A second later, a glance up on the way into Cipriani. Twenty years ago tonight, 30 October 2006.

Victoria Beckham in a black roll neck mini dress and black knee boots stepping out of a hotel doorway beside a potted plant. — BLAKES HOTEL, SOUTH KENSINGTON, SEPTEMBER 2006. Victoria Beckham leaves Blakes Hotel on her way to dinner at Cipriani, 18 September 2006.

Freddie Ljungberg in a grey check shirt and jeans walking out through the revolving door of Cipriani in Mayfair at night. — Arsenal footballer Freddie Ljungberg leaves Cipriani, Davies Street, Mayfair, after dinner with David and Victoria Beckham on 18 September 2006.