Brand Beckham has had a rocky time of late. In New York, it fell to the fashion branch of this modern family empire to restore some sparkle after the hacked emails that threatened David Beckham’s clean-cut image.



It is a reflection of how serious a player she has become in the fashion industry that – rather than being overshadowed by the scandal – a Victoria Beckham catwalk show at New York fashion week is now enough of an event to help shore up the family image.



“These are not easy times,” Beckham said during a preview of the collection at her East Village atelier, leaving it ambiguous as to whether she referred to her own life, or to uncertain times in the world at large. The porous boundaries between Victoria Beckham the woman and Victoria Beckham the brand are, of course, deliberate. This way, clothes that look tricky to wear when seen on the New York fashion week runway can be brought to life by Beckham herself, wearing them at Heathrow Terminal 5.



The collection offered a chic take on comfort-blanket dressing in the form of sweaters with ribbed necks high enough to tuck a chin into. Photograph: WWD/REX/Shutterstock

“I have always been about empowering women, and that’s never felt more relevant than it does this season,” said Beckham. “With everything that’s going on right now, it’s not easy to be a woman today. We need to be optimistic, but we also want to feel secure, and that’s what I tried to achieve this season.”

The result was a collection that remained very much within the tramlines of the narrow-but-fluid silhouette that has replaced the original fitted dresses to become Beckham’s signature. “It’s not about body con any more, it’s about consciousness of the body,” as the designer put it.



Beckham described the collection, shown on the catwalk under the 60ft ceiling of the Cunard Building’s original ticketing hall in downtown Manhattan, as “emancipation with optimism” and “feminine with a practical streak”. It offered a chic take on comfort-blanket dressing in the form of sweaters with ribbed necks high enough to tuck a chin into, stretch jersey dresses and high-heeled wedge boots. (“There’s a strength in a boot, I think,” said Beckham.) Fluid dresses in rippling chiffon or semi-transparent mesh were anchored by tailored blazers.

Fluid dresses in rippling chiffon or semi-transparent mesh were anchored by tailored blazers. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP

There was no gamechanging new look here, but instead a convincing argument for the look Beckham has been developing over recent seasons. Strongest elements were the featherlight skirts, sculpted-sleeve coats and sumptuous knitwear. The style plotline was further developed this season with a stronger English accent, with prints inspired by the Paul Nash exhibition at Tate Britain and shades of oxblood and powder blue borrowed from the classic Englishman’s style.



There was, of course, one distinctively stylish Englishman on the front row. David Beckham, who had spent the previous day taking the couple’s four children to the Museum of Natural History while his wife prepared for her show, took his usual spot next to Anna Wintour, with Harper on his knee and her three brothers next to him.

