Photo: Zeb Daemen / Courtesy Melanie C
Sporty style is poised to completely take over the summer, with the Olympics happening in Paris following a couple of incredibly athletically minded seasons on the runways. It started over in England, where football (or soccer, as we call it on this side of the pond) is king and Grace Wales Bonner and Martine Rose released collaborations with Adidas and Nike, respectively. Here in New York, Bode’s Emily Adams Bode Aujla recently launched Bode Recreation, a sub-label focused on activewear, and christened it with a Nike collaboration featuring both sneakers and ready-to-wear. Add to that the current WNBA fever that’s sweeping the nation, and, well, it’s simply never been a better time to indulge your sporty sensibilities.
In thinking about all the sporty trends that have taken over the industry, I kept coming back to one woman: the inimitable Melanie Chisholm, known to you, me, and the rest of the world as Melanie C, a.k.a. Sporty Spice, the undisputed cultural mother of our athletic-fashion era. Almost 30 years later, her uniform of tracksuits, crop tops, and Nike Air Max sneakers is looking exactly right.
“What is so fun is that I see kids, I see grown-ups, I see all these different generations wearing these sporty clothes and I do think, Well, I had a hand in that,” Chisholm tells me over Zoom, fresh off a tour that just wrapped in Australia. “Now I wish I’d kept more of those clothes, but the things I’ve kept I still re-wear, and I’ve found myself even rebuying some of the pieces I had back in the day.” She starts laughing. “Look, I’m sitting here wearing Adidas poppers!” She lifts up her leg to show off a pair of the classic snap-off pants in a bold shade of red.
If you were a teenager in 1997 with access to the Box TV channel, then you’ll likely remember being absolutely enthralled by the Spice Girls’ debut music video for “Wannabe,” which quickly established each of the girls’ personalities through their wildly distinctive clothes. There was Geri Halliwell in a sequined leotard over black tights (“she was always in some kooky outfit she’d picked up at a thrift store,” Chisholm notes); Emma Bunton in a white shift dress with matching platform sandal mules; Victoria Beckham in a little black body-con dress and elegant ankle-strap chunky heels; Mel B in a lime green tank top, black-and-green shiny pants, and steel-toe boots; and Chisholm in bright blue Adidas track pants with neon green stripes, a shiny orange spandex halter top, and trainers—all of which came straight from her own closet. “At the beginning it was all of our wardrobes,” she says. “We didn’t have any money to go out and buy things, and we didn’t even have a relationship with a stylist.”
Their looks stood out because at the time—and even now—pop groups always opted for matching or coordinating outfits. “We tried a lot of stuff with the original management, but there was always someone that felt and looked uncomfortable,” she recalls. “If we had a nice little dress on, then I’d feel really out of place, and then if we were all a little bit sporty or casual, then Victoria just didn’t feel dressed up enough.” It was Geri who brought forth the idea that everyone simply come as they are. “I remember it so vividly. We used to rehearse in a church hall—this is when we first got together way back in 1994—and were looking in the mirror one day, and Geri said, ‘Why don’t we just dress as we do?’” The rest, as they say, is history.
Chisholm grew up playing “loads of athletics,” including football, hockey, tennis, and netball, but her penchant for sporty clothes was less a reflection of her active lifestyle and more a result of growing up “just outside” Liverpool. “Predominantly through the ’80s, it was a real industrial, working-class town, and that is how kids dressed when you were out in the park or riding your bike,” she explains. “Probably at the time, it was cheaper to dress like that. There wasn’t that much money, and the clothes were durable, so it just worked.” Later, when the raving scene flourished in the early ’90s, sportswear was the go-to look. “I went to a performing-arts college, so I was dancing all day, and I started out clubbing, and people were just going out in tracksuits,” she adds. (Interestingly, these are some of the same reference points for many British designers who, like Rose, have incorporated sportswear elements into their collections.)
As Chisholm embarked on her post–Spice Girls career, there came a time when she felt the need to change her style—albeit temporarily. “I think all of us have this moment of going, ‘I’m an individual,’ and we were just trying to discover who we were as ourselves.” She continues, “I went through a little phase where I felt if I wore sports clothes in public, I’d look like a Halloween version of myself—but the reality is we were individuals within the band, so it’s lovely to come back and go, Yeah, I’m so comfortable in this skin, I didn’t need to do any searching. I don’t think I’ll ever look back now. For the rest of my days, I will be very sporty.”
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With Prince Charles in a red tank and Kappa track pants Photo: Tim Graham/Getty Images1/9 -
“I see young people wearing brands that at the time people used to turn their nose up at, and now they are wearing them without irony, so I think there’s some sports brands that need to thank me,” Chisholm says with a wink. Photo: Ron Davis/Getty Images2/9 -
“I loved the look of boxers underneath track pants. At the beginning, I remember borrowing one of Mel B’s boyfriend’s Calvin Klein boxer shorts—but I definitely made up for it once I got some pennies in the bank.” At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, where each girl arrived in a truly iconic look, Chisholm was rocking Ralph Lauren boxers underneath her all-white look. Ron Davis/Getty Images3/9 -
Even when Chisholm experimented with more formal dresses, there was still a sporty detail—like the stripe on this dress she wrote at the Brit Awards in 1997. “I think this Gucci dress was the first fancy dress I ever owned.” Photo: Brian Rasic/Getty Images4/9 -
On the rare occasion the five women wore matching clothes, their choice of accessories was always grounded in their own personal style—of course Chisholm paired hers with a pair of Air Maxes. The Air Max 90s and the 97s are her favorites. “Even now, when I order things and the boxes turn up, my daughter is like, ‘Mom, no more sneakers, you’ve got a problem.’” Tim Graham/Getty Images5/9 -
The beaded halter tops were all the rage in the late ’90s, an era in which she switched her go-to sneakers for animal-print boots. “I wish I kept those Miu Miu boots.” Ron Galella/Getty Images6/9 -
Mel B and Mel C did seem to have one matching fashion moment—they had the same Miu Miu boots in different colors. Friendship never ends! Ron Galella/Getty Images7/9 -
“This is where I was transitioning from the whole sporty thing to have a little bit more rock-and-roll edge, which was really fun.” Ron Galella/Getty Images8/9 -
Two days later, she performed in another slouchy suit paired with a sporty crop top and what else? Sneakers. Photo: Dave Benett/Getty Images for the Roundhouse9/9
This article was originally published on Vogue.com.
