Heikki Kaski
It’s only to be expected that Jonathan Anderson, creative director of the house of Dior and founder of his own eponymous label, should have a soft spot for the Spice Girls—the man is a millennial, after all. But it apparently came as a surprise to a certain Melanie C, who only learned the designer was an admirer when he reached out with an invitation to star in his new campaign.
“I was really flattered,” says the woman who will forever be known as Sporty Spice. “Jonathan is such an incredible designer, and so eclectic in everything he does. I had actually never met him before this, so it was really nice to sit down with him and realise that he was a fan of mine [as well].” They quickly realised they had plenty of common ground, she says. “He’s a grafter,” Mel C says, simply. “He’s so prolific and does so many different things, and I sort of see myself in that way: I’ve had all these opportunities, through music but also working in theatre [for example].”
Mel C professes to being “bloody knackered” when we chat, but looks anything but in the Loafer campaign, which finds her gazing coolly into the camera in a voluminous pinstriped shirt with oversized plaid trousers, or slouched in a chair in a cream sweater, sunglasses dangling from a chunky chain around her neck and that ultra-distinctive handbag always within reach. “I love that it’s something people will see as very different for me,” says the singer, who was especially enamoured with the blue jeans and soft grey knit she wore on the shoot. “It felt so good and so chic. I just didn’t want to take it off.”
Though she’s been famous for almost 30 years and has spent countless hours in front of the camera, shooting a “very stripped down, very raw” fashion campaign was still, for Sporty, relatively unfamiliar territory. “It could have been extremely intimidating,” she says, “but the team were so lovely – we had a lot of fun. Jonathan just wanted me to be me.”
The me she is now, at 51, is not so far removed from the girl who high-kicked her way into the public consciousness back in 1996, says Mel – even if she’s as likely to be found in Jean Paul Gaultier pinstripes as she is three stripes these days. “I probably went through a phase in my mid-twenties when I wanted to be seen as an individual,” she says of early, post-Spice efforts to experiment with what had become an indelible image. “Then I came back to my roots. I just thought, who am I kidding? I’m Sporty through and through.”
It carries through in the fitness-themed aesthetic for her forthcoming album, Sweat. In the video for the first single, “I’m on a spin bike but I’ve got heels on. Or I’m on the cross trainer, but I’ve got these amazing long gloves on with fringe.” This formula – true to her athleisure-loving roots but with a healthy dose of glamour – also informs Mel C’s approach to the red carpet. “Even if I’m wearing something really feminine I’ll always have a little nod to sporty, whether it’s a sneaker with a gorgeous Hervé Léger dress, or a sports bra under a gorgeous suit. And let’s be honest, the trackies are never going away.”
This article was originally published on British Vogue.
