Geri Horner was informed to not put on her iconic Union Jack costume on the 1997 BRIT Awards by a stylist who claimed it was ”racist” and would make it look as if she supported ”The National Front”.
The 47-year-old singer created one of many greatest moments in pop historical past when she strutted on stage on the awards ceremony along with her Spice Girls bandmates – Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Mel B and Mel C – within the Gucci mini costume which had a tea towel of the British flag sewn onto it.
However, Geri virtually pulled the complete ensemble on the final minute as a stylist mentioned her vogue alternative could possibly be misrepresented because the Union Jack had been hijacked from being an emblem of delight within the UK to being a part of the emblem of the The National Front, a far-right, fascist political occasion within the United Kingdom which opposes immigration.
But Geri got here up with an concept to make sure that her intentions had been understood.
Speaking in a video interview with US Vogue, she mentioned: ”I bear in mind displaying it to a stylist and he or she mentioned to me, ‘You cannot put on that.’ She really mentioned, ‘You can not put on that. It’s racist. It’s National Front,’ an excessive occasion that existed in Britain that was very racist. I mentioned, ‘No, cease – we rejoice all cultures.’ And that is why I put the peace signal on the again.”
Geri – referred to as Ginger Spice within the group – says the unique black costume was impressed by intercourse image Marilyn Monroe, however she felt it was lacking one thing for a efficiency that was going to be so essential for the band following the worldwide success that they had achieved with their debut album ‘Spice’ and message of ”Girl Power”.
She shared: ”I bear in mind this little black Gucci costume bought offered to me. It was virtually like a 1950s, Marilyn-shape swimming costume. Tom Ford was working with Gucci at the moment. I bear in mind considering, It’s the BRITs – British flag!
”I’ve all the time been a secret clothier. I do not know if that is true, however you are not meant to chop up a flag. So I discovered a tea towel. My sister did it, as a result of she’s higher at stitching than I’m.”
To end the look, the ‘Wannabe’ hitmaker wore a pair of outsized platform boots that she spray painted pink to match the British flag.
She mentioned: ”And then I had the pink boots. My father was a mechanic and I had automobile spray from the storage, and sprayed it pink to match. So, the size of the costume is the sexuality and the large boots are saying, ‘You know what? You’re not going to mess with me both.”’
Geri can bear in mind the overwhelming optimistic response the subsequent day to the costume and it gave her an enormous sense of delight.
She recalled: ”I wakened the subsequent morning, and that image of me within the costume was on the entrance web page of each newspaper. That costume actually turned the identification of what lady energy stood for. People would put on their very own model of it. Suddenly you began seeing the British flag on plenty of vogue.”
Geri has worn totally different incarnations of the Union Jack clothes incarnations through the years, in 2007 for the primary Spice Girls reunion tour she donned a model by Roberto Cavalli, and for the newest 2019 ‘Spice World Tour’ she slipped right into a costume designed by Gabriella Slade.
Speaking about how the evolution of the costume matches her journey as a girl, she mentioned: ”It felt like the ability of girl, the evolution of Girl Power. As I’ve grown into a girl, it is like really, I can simply be nonetheless. I can simply be right here. This is sufficient. It felt fairly empowering to stroll on stage with a costume that claims, ‘You know what? I’ve grown up.’
”The Spice Girls followers have grown up with us so it was beautiful for each nation we’d go to to see women – and guys – within the Union Jack costume. It’s virtually like a uniform unifying us all.”
