Spice up your life. Always.
Before Beliebers, before Directioners and before Taylor Swift defined squad goals with her merry band of perfect friends, we had the Spice Girls. And the Spice Girls were obsession-inspiring.
It's the girl group's 20th anniversary this year (permission granted to feel ancient), and with news just in that the Spice Girls are reuniting - albeit under a different name - we're taking the opportunity to celebrate Spicey fandom, because it was about so much more than anthemic pop songs and punchy dance routines.
Here are ten lessons we learnt from the Spice Girls...
1. Two words: GIRL POWER. Girl power = feminism.
2. The Spice Girls taught us that the sisterhood is ginormously important. To quote Wannabe (a masterpiece written in a mere 20 minutes, apparently): ‘If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends.’ Life motto.
3. For Spice Girls fans the Union Jack flag will forever be associated with a certain 1997 BRIT Awards performance and a story about a tea towel stitched to the front of a Gucci mini dress. That's a vital historical fact.
4. High kicks are a legitimate and effective form of communication. Loose translation: I am fierce, don’t underestimate me. Always appropriate.
http://giphy.com/gifs/mtPEadsA3k2yI
5. Platforms are the epitome of cool. Stacked shoes might involve frequent brushes with broken ankles but the powerful feeling you get when stomping around in them is totally worth the risk.
6. Blur or Oasis? You’re asking the wrong question. The Spice Girls win the Britpop battle every time, hands down.
7. Spiceworld the Movie counts. It just counts, okay? Many powerful, cultured and successful women LOVE this film, not ironically.
http://giphy.com/gifs/7FKSdm2T3RXAQ
8. If in doubt, wear a metallic mini dress. Also let's pause to remember that back in the day, not owning your Spicey counterpoint in doll form was not an option, which is why one of these still lives in your parents' loft.
9. Nicknames are fun, and also unshakeable. Case in point: Victoria Beckham. She is now a mega-watt business woman, a taste-making fashion titan, but she will forever be Posh Spice to the tween inside all of us.
10. And on that note, if you were a super-fan back in the 90s, your formative years were probably shaped by your fierce affinity with one of the five girls. You might have an enduring penchant for pigtails, like Baby. Or have a smile-stifling habit, like Posh. Or you still wear leopard-print everything, because Scary. Or embrace tracksuits with fervour, thanks Sporty. Or perhaps today you still enjoy cleavage enhancing halter tops and post-box red hair dye, like Ginger Spice. Our advice? Work it, all of it - there's no use fighting your inner Spice.