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Her attentiveness to the fit, construction and marketing of her line has just won her a British Fashion Council nomination as Designer Brand of the Year. But "I'm not claiming to be a master draper," she says. "The bottom line is: Would I wear this?" Her sauciness has endeared her to no less a cultural arbiter than Marc Jacobs, who befriended Beckham and featured her in an advertisement campaign, in which she allowed herself to be photographed upended, her legs projecting from a shopping bag and waving in the air. Jacobs' public embrace went some way toward redeeming her in the eyes of the fashion elite. Yet she is still being held to the coals by some insiders who tagged her from the beginning as an upstart, just another in a long line of pop confections to brand her initials on someone else's frocks. In February New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn dismissed Beckham's fall collection as a succession of "ladylike vamp dresses straight from the movies." The barbs sting, Beckham acknowledged, but not enough to deflect her from her purpose. "I want to build something that's respected," she said Her career, she added, "is about getting things right. I want to make sure I'm in this position in 20 years' time." Zhai Yanxin started out tailoring unique clothes for well-heeled women. Now he's a star with four major brands of men's and women's wear and the beautiful people want him to "do" hair too, writes Michelle Zhang A good tailor may not be a good designer, and vice versa.