How did Melanie C.’s sporty style become part of the Spice Girls’ band image?

The Spice Girls are a British pop group whose dance hits conquered the world charts in the late 90s. Stylists worked on the image of each member and created unique images that influenced the formation of taste of several generations.

The outings of Melanie Chisholm, better known to us as Melanie C, created an addiction to athletic style in thousands of people, but the artist herself had a very complicated relationship with sport and nutrition.

fashion stylist, image consultant.

It’s no secret that when building a band’s image, producers, stylists and makeup artists are interested in showing as many different types as possible to attract a larger audience. If we look at the line-ups of famous bands, there will surely be a game of contrasts, for example, a searing brunette and a blue-eyed blonde.

A brief look back in history

In 1993, these five girls were among those who responded to an ad looking for future members of the Spice Girls. The main requirements were the ability to sing, dance, be beautiful, active and hardworking, as well as have acting skills. The contestants were Geraldine Halliwell, Melanie Chisholm, Victoria Adams (now Beckham), Melanie Brown and Emma Bunton, who gained extraordinary popularity.

The love of the audience accompanied the girls for two years, but in early 1998, the Spice Girls began to splinter. The fame of individual members took over the music. And when Victoria announced her engagement to David Beckham and then left the group in the middle of the Spiceworld tour, the other members decided to pursue solo projects.

The last Spice Girls album, titled Forever, was released in 2000.

Melanie Chisholm’s style

Although the group existed for a short time, its members had a huge impact not only on the music industry, but also on fashion. Fans all over the world copied the girls’ colorful images, and today their outfits are a symbol of the era and a source of inspiration for modern stylists and fashion-influencers. Each of them had their own unique style that conveyed a real character. That’s why the group was able to set its own trend in fashion of the late 90s and early noughties. Melanie Chisholm was professionally engaged in dancing and sports before being cast in the group, so her second nickname was Sporty Spice.

Against the background of the other members Melanie Chisholm always looked like a kid. The girl had a slender and pumped-up body, which emphasized short tops and shorts. Her closet at that time was full of sports pants and tights, tops, soccer and basketball jerseys, sneakers and sneakers. She influenced the street fashion of the early noughties, and the sporty style continues to dominate her modern looks.

Continuing the trend of athleticism, Melanie was the first to turn her attention to massive and futuristic sneakers. She favored such expressive and comfortable footwear long before the high fashion world did.

Starting her solo career, Melanie made a daring short haircut, changed into sports pants and voluminous hoodies and even put grills. Now this trend is popular in the rap environment.

fashion stylist, image consultant

When forming the style of the participant stylists and producers involve the character traits and biography that are already present in the person, otherwise this style will be inorganic. Melanie Chisholm was born in the northwest of England, where in her spare time she led the life of a mediocre teenager: going to parks or walking on the streets, so wearing a tracksuit for her was the norm. In comparison, Victoria Beckham, who we remember exclusively in mini-dresses, was driven to school in a Rolls-Royce by her parents as a child, and it would be strange to dress her in tracksuits, which are not inherent in her style or character. Also, Sporty Spice is a professional dancer. It’s hard to imagine that going to an hour-long workout, she would wear a miniskirt.

Sporty Spice’s style was influenced by her athletic physique, and it was difficult to make a rock seductress out of the girl. And this quality makes her no less sexy than the other contestants. It is noteworthy that most of Melanie’s images remained sporty, but, as a rule, it was a combination of pants and a sports top, exposing the belly.

Managers and producers were interested in working out all types – from a femme fatale seductress to “her” girl. And, given the biography of Melanie, she got this image.

What kind of sneakers did Melanie wear?

In Melanie’s collection, offered by stylists, there turned out to be a lot of pairs of iconic sneakers, such as Nike Air Max 96, Nike Air Zoom Spiridon or Nike Air Max Tailwind.

These models not only found a place in the British performer’s images, but also became more popular with pop culture fans.

Melanie would now be called a snickerhead, because she acquired not only massively popular sneakers, but also those that the public barely noticed. Such a fate befell Nike Air Max 96 sneakers, which remained in the shadow of the colossally successful Nike Air Max 95, but found a place in the collection of the artist.