Victoria Beckham on Harper's Bazaar

Beckham graves the May cover of Harper's Bazaar UK, accompanied by a stunning photo shoot, which is very reminiscent of Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe in their beach wear.

Victoria said she always prefers to wear her own clothes to feel more at one with the customer, although she bemoaned that she couldn't do that when she was pregnant with her daughter Harper last year.

She said: 'We always joke that we have this fabulously gorgeous 17-year-old model who is six-foot-whatever and then I say "OK, I’m going to put it on. I stand for the general public here".

'It’s how I work. I found it really difficult when I was pregnant and I couldn’t do that. It’s part of the process - I’ll stand here in my knickers and start draping fabric over myself. It was very hard when I didn’t have my body.'

Victoria has really established herself as a fashion designer in the last couple of years, and this year won Designer Brand of the Year at the British Fashion Award.

Something she said was like an 'out of body experience' when her name was called out.

Victoria's shoot looked inspired by beachwear from the 50s, seen here on Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe

 'When they read my name, I was genuinely not expecting it. It was like my heart was going to jump out of my body. 

'I came offstage and said, "I cried three times, I didn’t thank the people I wanted to thank, I was really rubbish". But I think people saw the real me...and the truth is, I would have felt much more comfortable in my pyjamas with the kids and David in a hotel watching it on TV.'

Victoria's designs can be seen on many celebrities who have snapped up her creations to wear at red carpet events. The one actress Victoria would like to see one of her dresses on is We Need To Talk About Kevin star Tilda Swinton who she finds 'intriguing, very stylish, she clearly understands fashion'.

 Prada is the one designer who most astounds her as she explained: 'I’m absolutely blown away. Everything she does is genius. I’ve never met her, but everything she does – not just the hair, the make-up, the shows – everything about the brand impresses me.'

She also sang her husband David's praises for his recent underwear line for high street store H&M.

 'David created it, we own it and H&M does the distribution. It makes sense business-wise and it has integrity, because David has designed it all himself.'

• The full feature appears in the May issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK, on sale Monday 2nd April and can be read online here