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Her dresses are magnets for well-heeled clients. Their growing allegiance has contributed to sales in excess of $7 million last year, said Zach Duane, the company's senior vice-president for business development, a figure that will likely hold steady through this year as well. Not so impressive, perhaps, by the standards of high profile fashion companies that tally their sales in the billions of dollars. But Beckham envisions a measured growth for her brand. "We are moving in baby steps," she said of the line, mostly financed at the outset with the proceeds - less than $1 million - from the sales of the Beckhams' successful fragrance line. The collection is tightly distributed - the dresses are made in England and carried in 20 stores around the world. New denim and eyewear collections are being sold in 100 stores, Duane said, and freestanding Victoria Beckham boutiques are in the offing. 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.