Victoria Beckham defends use of skinny models

Singer-turned-fashion designer Victoria Beckham is defending her decision to feature super-skinny models in her runway shows, insisting all the women who work for her are "healthy".

Earlier this year (15), the former Spice Girls star came under fire for using particularly slender models to wear her clothing on the catwalk, including 17-year-old Peyton Knight who faced a barrage of online criticism over her size.

However, Victoria is adamant all the models who walk in her shows are checked out to make sure they are not ill or underweight.

"I wasn't the only show she (Peyton) did," Victoria explains to Britain's Telegraph magazine. "I wasn't the only designer to use her. Our casting director spoke to the (modelling) agencies, and we know that all our girls are healthy. They're young, they're thin, but that doesn't mean they're ill."

Victoria goes on to insist the online criticism was undeserved and mean-spirited: "People are mean on social media, whoever you are. It's a shame people have to be that way."

The British star also talks about how she juggles her busy fashion career with her family commitments, revealing she and her husband David take turns looking after their four children.

"They're (the family is) very supportive of what I do," she adds. "I don't really go away that much. David and I work it out so that we're not away at the same time, so one of us is always here (for the kids). The other day we were at (daughter) Harper's school as she had won a prize, and we were both there.

"It's a juggling act, but we have great people around us to make sure it all works."

Victoria admits she is very well organised, and has already planned her schedule for most of 2016: "I know what I'm doing this time next year."

The former singer recently admitted she now feels less guilty about the time she spends away from her family following some advice from fellow designer Diane von Furstenberg.

"I was having dinner with Diane von Furstenberg a few months ago and she's a woman I have an enormous amount of respect and admiration for," Victoria, recalled to breakfast show Good Morning America. "And I said to her, 'Diane, when your children were younger and you were working, did you feel guilty?' She said, 'Absolutely not. It's a waste of time, a waste of energy; it's (the stress is) ageing.' And she said, 'Actually, you're setting a good example, the fact that you're a woman, you're going to work; you really are setting a good example.'

"And that was great advice because I'm sure there are lots of women right now, watching TV, thinking, 'I feel guilty, I've got kids and I'm going to work.' Actually, it is a positive message to be giving to your children and other women and children as well."