…show a bit of leg (and patriotism)

Before you splurge on those Alexander McQueen union jack boots or the patriotic Chanel that is Agyness Deyn’s handbag du jour, cast your mind back to 1997, when a certain flame-haired Spice Girl performed in a union jack dress at the Brit Awards. A year later it sold at auction for £41,000 to the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas. I’m glad it was them and not a sad individual with more cash than sense wanting to buy an ‘iconic piece of pop history’, as no doubt was the auctioneer’s description. The thing is, this was never a dress, it was a top, and I know this because Geri’s undergarment was as visible as her solipsism. Geri never made it as a solo artist, but the ‘dress’ lives on, probably framed behind glass in a low-lit hotel corridor. A dress with no provenance, no designer, no nothing other than the moment for which it represents becomes a symbol of Brit pop. Roland Barthes would be proud, but Geri should be prouder. 

When Geri was desperate to buy this back for the reunion, she was prepared to pay any price, but did no one tell her that souvenir shops in the West End sell these for under a fiver? She should save her pennies and fly the flag for mums, who would never let their daughters out of the house in a dress that short, symbol of Brit pop or not. Shorter the better, I say…

Image Credit: dailymirror.co.uk

Further Reading:

Kill Your Friends by John Niven. The inside track on Brit Pop. Scathing and very, very funny.