Labelled and in love

David and Victoria: Coordinating looks

By BBC News Online's Rebecca Thomas

First there was Edward and Sophie, now David and Victoria have taken the matrimonial centre stage.

But where the royals opted for low key nuptials, Posh Spice and her Manchester United star were out to make a strident statement in style.

All the right people were there, in all the right clothes. Even a Victoria and David coat of arms and identical thrones are said to have been specially designed for the big day.

It all sounds enviously expensive. But, like the story of their union, unashamedly image conscious and contrived too.

Labels of love

Even before they became an item, their personalities were stamped with an obsession for image and labelled design.

Victoria was impressed that David wore Gucci loafers - without socks. He liked her sultry pop persona and vowed to make her his own.

Now they are together, Gucci suits have become their trademark. Rolex watches and a fleet of top-of-the-range cars - Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar - accessorise their lives.

But though the reaction should perhaps be one of admiration or envy, some in the fashion world confess to being unimpressed.

David and Victoria at London Fashion Week

Claudette Prosper is deputy fashion editor of the young women's glossy Company. She says that Victoria and David confuse image with style.

"Style is something you are born with and those with it are very understated.

"Instead of buying bags of Gucci they will buy labels no one has heard of. But you can still smell style a mile off," she explains.

There's another trademark of their liaison: their seemingly irrepressible need to behave like clones.

Double vision

They announced their engagement flashing matching diamond rings. Like two children, they often wear identical clothes - leathers, baseball caps, even sarongs.

And it doesn't stop there. There's the his and her's haircuts, not to mention the coordinating Rottweilers, Puffy and Snoop Doggy Dog.

Claudette Prosper thinks such behaviour betrays the singer's forceful side.

David with his Porsche

"It is she who is the dominant one and is telling him how to dress. It seems like he has no personality and no control.

"You would never have caught Kate Moss dressing the same as Johnny Depp," she says.

Whether control is at the heart of the matter or not, Victoria certainly seems to have designs on her baby Brooklyn.

One of his first outings was made strapped to his mother in a £200 designer leather papoose. And she confesses that she will not tolerate a child who is not "well-behaved".

Role models

But 25-year-old Victoria and David, 24, are young, pretty and, at last estimate, a joint £20m rich.

Faced with so much so early, it's not altogether surprising that they seem to have more money than sense.

Such togetherness may eventually lead to a mutual sense of suffocation says relationship counsellor and sex therapist Denise Knowles.

"When couples get together they want to be of each other's lives. But this can lead to their stifling each other.

Victoria's diamond solitaire engagement ring

"If they are too busy trying to create a mirror image and concentrating too much on what's on the surface, emotionally things could go wrong," she warns.

But for now, at least, the celebrity couple certainly seem happy to be so close.

And if some parents of teenage children worry that their extravagance presents a dangerous example, Sarra Manning from the magazine J17 can put their minds at rest.

"Most of our readers may fancy David Beckham but when it comes to matching hairdos and clothes, they certainly find them very naff.

"But everyone just accepts Posh and Beckham - they are a national institution, as well as a bit of a standing joke."