Cruz Beckham, 17, gets his kit off – just like his dad David, 46
WACKY hairstyles, bold fashion choices and daring tattoos that will drive youngsters wild.
While this could describe his dad 30 years ago, teenager Cruz is now the trendsetter of the Beckham family.
The youngest of David and Victoria’s three sons has shown he is slowly morphing into a style icon like his old man — and he is already sparking controversy with provocative poses in a photoshoot for i-D Magazine to mark his 17th birthday.
The pink-haired teen pays tribute to his dad’s 2000 Arena Homme+ interview by showing off his six-pack in his boxers and striking similar poses. And former England captain David is his son’s biggest cheerleader, praising Cruz for his “cool” snaps and writing on Instagram: “Such a proud dad.”
Billie Eilish super-fan Cruz — who celebrated his 17th birthday on Sunday with a cake adorned with the singer’s face and a day later revealed he is launching a music career — has a sizeable 1.8million Instagram following.
But his edgy shoot for the hipster bible signals he is determined to be taken seriously by the cut-throat music industry. The snaps, which include Cruz grabbing his crotch, were not well received by some readers, though. One posted on Instagram: “I don’t wanna see a 17-year-old like that.”
Another tweeted: “The Beckham’s 17-year-old son Cruz, call me old fashioned but these pics make him look like a junkie prostitute! How terribly sad.”
But Cruz should fear not. The criticism isn’t a million miles from what his style-icon dad experienced in the late Nineties when he would push the boundaries of men’s fashion.
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Becks experienced his first backlash after wearing a sarong on a night out during the 1998 World Cup.
He has since said: “When I wore that sarong, people were shocked. It was an outrage, ‘Why are you wearing that? What were you thinking?’ Today no one bats an eyelid if a guy wears a sarong in the street.”
The following year David and Victoria — who are also parents to Brooklyn, 22, Romeo, 19, and ten-year-old Harper — rocked up to a Gucci fashion show wearing matching black leather outfits.
David has recalled: “We were living at her mum’s house at the time and she was getting changed in her room — we weren’t allowed to stay in the same room — and I was getting changed in my room downstairs. Then we both came to the kitchen and we were like, ‘Wow’. It was a LOT of leather.”
The fashion faux-pas hasn’t put Cruz off rummaging through his parents’ closet. Asked what item he would borrow, he said: “I’d definitely stay away from the double leather Gucci look. That was interesting. But I feel like the Nineties are making a comeback so I’m gonna dive into their wardrobe a little bit more.”
Cruz is now paving the way for edgy, Gen Z style. Unlike the rest of his family, who are often dressed in high fashion togs, he is championing streetwear from teen favourites including Supreme and North Face.
David said in 2018: “[My children] have all got their own unique style. They know themselves, which is great to see.”
Yet Cruz seems to have inherited his dad’s taste for ever changing hairdos. Rocking a pink buzz cut for i-D Magazine’s shoot, he has also sported long peroxide locks and frosted tips.
METAL GRILLS
After a period of matching his haircut to Victoria’s, David made headlines in 2001 when he shaved off his blond curtains.
Last year he posted a picture to remind his sons that he had made the look fashionable. He wrote: “Sometimes the boys need reminding who did it first in the Nineties.”
David’s buzz cut was followed by a mohawk in 2002, which earned him a pre-match hairdryer treatment (that’s a telling off, not a styling) from Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson.
He then grew his hair out and had cornrows in 2003 for a visit to South Africa. Around the same time David had a diamante stuck on to his tooth.
Cruz took a leaf out of Dad’s book for the photoshoot by wearing metal grills over his teeth. But his nose piercing sets him aside from his tattoo-loving dad.
Not that Cruz is letting the side down when it comes to body art — the new snaps show he now has two tattoos.
He got his first, a butterfly on his leg, in Miami where 16-year-olds are allowed to be inked. And a tatt on his chest reads “promise you love me”.
The body art could be a reference to his rumoured girlfriend Bliss Chapman, the daughter of Victoria’s nutritionist Rosemary Ferguson. Cruz was spotted holding hands with the teen at Reading Festival in August.
However, in the interview for i-D Cruz seemed to indicate he wasn’t totally off the market. Just like his dad, who married a Spice Girl, it seems Cruz could be eyeing a future romance with a singer.
On his idol Billie Eilish, he said: “I love her music and her style, and I’d love to take her on a date.”
But no matter his love life, sources close to the Beckhams say Cruz is the most ambitious of the kids and wants to focus on having a high-flying career. For a while it seemed he would follow in his dad’s footsteps after he was offered a spot at Arsenal’s youth academy.
But he is now returning to his first love, music. Cruz first performed in a studio aged 11, after his mum set up a meeting with Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, the man behind some of Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber’s biggest hits. And David generated a buzz on social media in 2016 after he filmed Cruz performing the Cups song from Pitch Perfect.
Cruz has recently learned to play the piano, drums and guitar and has enlisted the help of top US producer and songwriter Poo Bear.
He told i-D: “I thought I would want to do football and I did that for a bit.”
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But on making the decision to go back to music, he said: “This is exactly what I want to do.”
Whichever path he chooses, he is likely to make it a success — just like dad David.
