Victoria Beckham, Anna Wintour in Britain’s GREAT Campaign

By Erin Donnelly 02/16/12 at 10:00 AM

Photo: Getty Images

Hamish Bowles, Victoria Beckham and Anna Wintour at Britain's GREAT campaign launch.

All aboard!

Commuters were treated to quite the stylish scene on February 15, with British fashion luminaries like Victoria Beckham, Anna Wintour, and Hamish Bowles gathering at New York City's Grand Central Station to celebrate the Britain's GREAT campaign.

Designed to promote U.K. tourism, the campaign saw Beckham—dressed to kill in a black dress of her own design—posing in front of a Union Jack-decorated train alongside a who's who of the British Empire's best exports: Tamara Mellon, models Karen Elson and Jourdan Dunn, Marchesa's Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig, and Rag & Bone's David Neville and Marcus Wainwright.

Famed photographer Patrick Demarchelier was on hand to capture the gathering, though sadly nobody deigned to actually ride the train.

"It's about celebrating what's great about Britain—apart from the name," Sir Peter Westmacott, U.K. ambassador to the United States, told the Telegraph of the event.

"Here in New York where we have exported so much of our talent and creativity there is a great link, a big British presence, and we thought this would be rather fun. We have a lot of cultural heft. This year we are going to be celebrating the Olympics, [and] of course the monarchy which is a big attraction, and we have some of the best schools in the world in terms of teaching design. In New York, look at Anna Wintour and all the others who are key in the media here. This is a city with great affinities with the United Kingdom, deep, long-standing links."

Rule Britannia—but do mind the gap, won't you?