Victoria Beckham shows off her catwalk in Paris

Victoria Beckham has won over fashion sceptics in New York and London, but for her first catwalk show in almost three years she upped the ante with a jump to the quintessential style capital.

Beckham said Paris is the ultimate dream, before a show staged in the honeyed stone cloisters of the Baroque Val de Grace church. The designer said she was more excited than nervous, but this is a challenging time for her brand. A work-from- home zeitgeist has been an ill wind for a name that trades in jet-set glamour. Prices had to come down in order to boost sales. The celebrity circus around the Beckham name, which was invaluable for bringing out the glamour and piquancy of a relatively small fashion label, had threatened to overshadow the show with rumours of a feud between Beckham and her daughter-in- law.

The designer chose quiet glamour over catwalk fireworks for her Paris debut. Satin dresses were cut on the bias for a slinky walk, suspended on delicate spaghetti straps for drama and fringed with silk tassels to kiss bare shoulders. Beckham believes that her customer wants what she wants: a sexy dress that is easy to wear. That is what I like best, and I am not going to agonise over it. All was tasteful and serene in the front row, where Beckham's son and daughter-in- law, Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham, drew a line under gossip.

Beckham said he was not in a position to do a show a year ago. As an independent brand, to have come through the Pandemic and to be accepted by the French fashion community feels like a big deal. Marie Leblanc, who joined the brand in 2019, forecasts a break-even next year.

Beckham said it feels more modern not to bury myself under wardrobe now. This is the fashion week speak for the oldest of adages: sex sells. A body-conscious aesthetic now runs through the Victoria Beckham brand, from a lower-priced VB Body line of stretch, block-colored jersey dresses to lingerie styling on the Paris fashion week catwalk, where love-heart shaped cutouts reveal flashes of bare skin or black latex.

Lara Barrio, who was previously at Salvatore Ferragamo, was recently appointed design director at the brand, but Beckham said she was still in the studio all the time. I work on the collection every step of the way. This look is what I want to wear. She wore a black version of a green draped and slashed gown worn by Bella Hadid on the catwalk.

Beckham credits her time in Miami with women with all different body shapes love to show them off with her love of eye-catching dresses, but she did not embrace the move towards body diversity that has been a feature of fashion month. The designer defended her decision to cast only sample-sized models, saying that a show is all about creating that character for the season, and insisted that casting was diverse and interesting in other ways.