Why brand Beckham rules the catwalk

Posh pulls it off: an excited Victoria Beckham covers her face at New York fashion week, where she showed her new collection (AP)

After performing live to millions during the Olympics closing ceremony, you might not expect Victoria Beckham to be daunted by an audience of hundreds. But the spectators at her New York Fashion Week show on Sunday did include Vogue editor Anna Wintour and many other industry heavyweights.

The collection she presented has received rave reviews. In the four years since she launched her own clothing line, Beckham, 38, has taken the fashion industry by storm. But how?

The VB label is styled in the mould of the designers that she herself, as a confessed fashion fanatic, looks up to. It is a brand with the hallmarks of sartorial sophistication: subtle, exclusive and extortionately priced.

But Beckham's rise to the top of the fashion industry is rather singular. Whereas her earlier attempts – modelling at London Fashion Week, partying on Roberto Cavalli's yacht – spoke of a rather tabloid sensibility, her current success is something that has been considered, cultivated and coached by friends in high places. Victoria Beckham, it seems, has arrived.