Watch Geri Halliwell Break Down Her Most Iconic Looks, From 1997 to Now

Hi Vogue, I m Geri Halliwell-Horner

and this is my Life in looks.

[light music]

Ah, this dress is probably the most poignant reminder

of follow-your-gut instinct.

You re gonna do the BRITs.

It s 1997 and we re gonna be performing

in front of everyone.

And I always think fashion is a language.

It s the only time you have control.

I have control.

I remember thinking, okay, maybe I could just put a flag,

you know, a British flag of us coming together.

And at the time, the stylist said to me,

I don t think you should wear that.

I got a tea towel, a very inexpensive tea towel,

was probably about five pounds.

I said, Let s place it on this Gucci dress.

So it s very symmetrical.

The Gucci dress does the inner work

and is gonna hold me in, but the tea towel,

the British tea towel is going to be on the top of it.

Those boots that I m wearing, I thought, I wanna match.

I got a can of car spray and sprayed them

and they were slightly chipping a little bit.

So, but that is basically the outfit.

Turn the page.

So this is 1997 MTV in Music Awards.

So I ve already made that big splash with the Union Jack.

You know, I m thinking, yeah, I ve done that, done that.

And then we are on our way to America.

And I call it the Elton John effect, Rocket Man,

where you are really trying to outdo yourself.

And America told me you re allowed to think big.

And that s not British.

We are very, you know, we are funny and we have good humor,

but we are modest.

But America is like, Okay, this is your time.

Go for it.

Follow your dreams.

This is quite a special moment.

Dun, dun, dun, Vogue.

Imagine, imagine if I told, you know, you as a little girl,

You re gonna get to do the front cover of american Vogue.

You d be like, Oh, no way.

It was very flamboyant

and very easy actually, and very relaxed.

That dress, I believe is a Gucci dress that I m wearing.

And I ve still got it.

And that s where I ve learned

to value good clothing, good fashion.

It s timeless.

The actual fashion sometimes shouldn t steal

the thunder, shouldn t be the leading lady.

Don t let the clothes wear you.

This cover was about unity.

That s what s on this page.

Okay, you ready?

Ah, okay, so this is interesting.

I always love nineties fashion, the pearls,

I was doing Vivienne Westwood, Sara Stockbridge

in my own way in that basque

and it comes back to my motto,

Even Watford girls were pearls.

It doesn t matter where you re from,

you are allowed to celebrate.

You know who you are.

And feel, feel that sort of, that power.

It s really Elizabethan look, which I always love.

The Tudorism, the Basque, you know that powdered white,

the bright red lips, pearls, it s classic, it s timeless.

I m always looking for inspiration.

I m like a magpie.

So when I have seen other people, you know,

dress similar to any of us, I think, oh, that s so nice.

It s so flattering, you know,

that you feel connected and you feel inspired.

That s the whole point.

When I left the Spice Girls, at the time,

bear in mind I m only like middle-twenties

and I don t have the skillset to communicate.

It just wasn t, I didn t like confrontation.

It was like a divorce.

And what happens when we get divorced ladies?

Some of us cut our hair, some of us sell everything.

And I thought, right, I m gonna sell everything,

but I wanna do some good at the same time.

I got all my clothes, including that Union Jack Dress

and I did a charity auction and we sold it

which was great for the charity.

So I was rather pleased about it.

Okay, so I d left the Spice Girls

and now I m going to sing Happy Birthday

to his Royal Highness.

The Prince at the time, now the king, he s 50.

And I thought, okay, I m gonna sing Happy Birthday.

Underneath this dress

I am wearing Vivienne Westwood, the highest, highest shoes.

The ones, do you remember when Naomi Campbell fell over?

I am wearing those shoes, really high, to give me that lift

for that big dress.

Do you know what the funny thing is?

I learned to walk in them.

I learned to love them.

Yeah, I was grateful to them.

I suddenly was like, elevation.

Let s go.

This is 2000, January, and an award ceremony.

And I m thinking, well, what am I gonna wear?

And I happened to be in Milan, right?

And I was walking down the street and I saw Versace.

And literally there was

like this golden light over this mannequin

with this dress on it, previously worn by Amber Valletta.

She s a supermodel.

So here comes Ms. 5 2, big shoes on,

and some Sellotape, okay, wearing this dress.

And then J.Lo wore it after me and she looked,

[tongue clicking]

I have to say, J.Lo, you nailed it, rather nice.

Okay, this is really important and lovely.

George Michael.

When I left the Spice Girls

it was like shedding, shedding a skin.

And I went and lived with George Michael.

I was like his, do you remember Will and Grace?

It was like that.

He bought me this Armani jacket

cause that was like really my coming out, being smarter,

upping my game, growing up.

And I was kind of like in between.

And so he was really helping me sort of restart.

He bought me this dress that I m wearing here

that is a [speaking foreign language] dress,

and it was at an auction.

I ve still got that dress and I still wear that dress.

And George was absolutely instrumental for me.

He really sort of took me under his wing,

I would play him my music

and he d give me very honest feedback.

I m so grateful to him.

He was a very instrumental key figure

in my life at that time.

This next picture is from the video of It s Raining Men.

It was actually Robbie Williams who encouraged me to do it.

He said, Geri, you re from Watford, do it.

But then, so I always loved coming

up with the concepts for the video.

And so it was really last minute.

And then I thought of the movie Flash Dance and Fame.

I go, Sometimes you need a bit of a nudge.

So it was good.

I did it.

I m pleased.

The next one, I think I got more kudos

than anything I ve ever done.

Sex in the City.

I had to audition for the role, even though it was little

cause I studied acting when I was younger

and it was called Phoebe Kittenworth.

And it was a scene with Samantha.

This is when Sex in the city was in its heyday.

I got more compliments than anything I ever done.

All my girlfriends were like, Oh my God,

I can t believe you re doing it.

It was styled by Patricia Field

and she said, Can you wear this?

And I was like, What?

It s a bikini top.

I was like, Oh my God.

She just handed me the bikini

and the little skirt and I went, Okay.

I felt like it would be rude not to put it on or to say,

I m not sure if I wanna wear a bikini top.

But I have to say, it was an amazing experience.

And Kim Cattrall, she s a legend.

Amazing.

So this is interesting.

2012 Olympics, London.

I would say this was one

of the most electrifying moments for The Spice Girls.

And I can t remember how many billion watched this moment

and I could feel my nerves trembling.

And so I wanted to celebrate the Ginger,

but I d moved on a little bit.

This was very structured.

And then we put the Union Jack just at the back

as a homage basically to say hello to the Ginger,

to the past.

Because we were on top of a cabinet,

I was like, Do you know what?

And it was going so fast.

I went, I m wearing more flats, thank you very much.

There s a slight heel, little cowboy boot going on.

That was it.

That was all I was willing to go.

That was a wonderful moment.

Really good.

I felt very proud.

The world had come together for that moment.

So this is Monaco, Grand Prix 2023.

And I m here with my husband, Christian Horner

and they had just one.

And after, if you win, you always have to go

to the Crown Prince s palace for a dinner.

This new stage in my life where it s like,

just wanna keep things a little bit simple, bit more demure.

I don t need to over promote my body.

Sometimes less is more.

I ve discovered there s power in that.

I was wearing very high heels though,

very [speaking foreign language].

I ve always been a fan of F1.

My father was a secondhand car dealer.

He took me to races

and auctions when I was a little girl.

The first time I ever got any form of you know, good salary,

I bought an MGB Roadster, 1965, and I d been going

to F1 races and I actually met my husband

in Monaco on the grid.

For the last few years, I ve worn white a lot.

A time in my life where I just wanted simplicity, elegance,

but I also wanted practicality.

I think the best pleasure I get

from clothes is when I can put something on now

that I used to wear, or if someone I love is wearing it.

One more thing.

[drawer clunking]

[Sharpie scratching]

Love, Geri.

[light music]