Ginger Spice Tells The Story Behind Her Union Jack Dress

[Glamourpuss 29,062]

7 minutes ago, Infinity Wave said:

I was gomna do the same comment of LittlePotter

It's a dress with a flag on it

You're used to people like Lady Gaga wearing shocking and weird things. This was massive at the time and became instantly iconic. I remember watching it live on TV. The Spice Girls were HUGE. As big as Lady Gaga at their peak. So this dress was talked about for years it was like the meat dress of the time. 

[RAMROD 109,985]

What did these people doing here calling the Union Jack dress basic?!

It was a moment when it happened. For her to fight off the politically correctness and being bold. Hence it  became iconic. 

[FentyGa 14,340]

3 minutes ago, Glamourpuss said:

You're used to people like Lady Gaga wearing shocking and weird things. This was massive at the time and became instantly iconic. I remember watching it live on TV. The Spice Girls were HUGE. As big as Lady Gaga at their peak. So this dress was talked about for years it was like the meat dress of the time. 

but...why? because it’s short?

[FentyGa 14,340]

1 minute ago, RAMROD said:

What did these people doing here calling the Union Jack dress basic?!

It was a moment when it happened. For her to fight off the politically correctness and being bold. Hence it  became iconic. 

to be fair, it happened 23 years ago. most people who were below five or not born yet (like myself, at 16) wouldn’t know of it, so let’s say anyone 28 or younger. and in 2020, that wouldn't even make one headline so

[HookerOnAChurch 6,799]

She will always be an icon of pop music and culture. 

[littlepotter 75,147]

35 minutes ago, Borisapillar said:

The ignorance. I’m sure you’re 11 or something but do consider educating yourself during this isolation.

Daaaaaaamn someone really got pissed huh  The irony of you calling me a child when you threw a tantrum over a piece of fabric

[RAMROD 109,985]

4 minutes ago, FentyGa said:

to be fair, it happened 23 years ago. most people who were below five or not born yet (like myself, at 16) wouldn’t know of it, so let’s say anyone 28 or younger. and in 2020, that wouldn't even make one headline so

Fair points.

ofc today it won’t make a headline. But it happened and it helped to push the limit for the future generation. It is like that in this life. Each generation will help to push the limit for media and society and see how far it can go. Without one of them happening, we may not get this far now.

[vyniildisk 12,689]

42 minutes ago, littlepotter said:

That's a lot of emotion for a basic dress

MTE what is so special about this dress? Is becuz of the flag? 

[Glamourpuss 29,062]

34 minutes ago, FentyGa said:

but...why? because it’s short?

I don't know tbh I was 8 or 9 at the time. I remember it was a shocking moment in pop culture. I think other than Madonna there wasn't anybody else doing these big pop culture moments. 

[ModernEcstasy 9,088]

To those asking “Why is it so iconic” Blah blah. 
This dress is (for me at least) an image associated with the 90’s (In the same way that flares are an icon of the 70’s). There’s nothing “special” about it. 

It started off a fashion trend. It was shocking (because the UJ was considered to be racist). Nobody around that time would wear something so “outlandish“ on stage.  Honestly it probably also Had something to do with the fact that a Woman dared to make such a bold statement on television. 
 

You are basically asking “Why was the meat dress so iconic? Just Because it was made of meat?” 

[StrawberryBlond 14,910]

I genuinely didn't know it was a plain black Gucci dress that a tea towel was stitched onto. I genuinely thought it was specially designed that way. But I didn't know she feared the dress could be perceived as racist by being associated with the National Front, so she put a peace sign on the back. I'm flabbergasted that people were that PC in 1997, why that idea even entered people's minds. The National Front has its own symbols. It's just a plain Union Jack, the flag of a country. There's nothing remotely racist or offensive about that in and of itself. I'm not even one of those flag-waving patriotic types (and I'm Scottish to boot, and a lot of us dislike the Union Jack because of it) but even I know that it's ridiculous to believe that someone displaying the flag of their country to show they're a proud citizen is a show of nationalistic racism. Of course, this sentiment is only aimed at white people in majority white countries. Only our flags are problematic. You wouldn't see any of that potential criticism aimed at any other people, it would just be a flag then.

1 hour ago, FentyGa said:

but...why? because it’s short?

1 hour ago, omen said:

MTE what is so special about this dress? Is becuz of the flag? 

I thought it was always because it was short. I mean, that's her actual underwear. It wasn't that sort of "looks like underwear but isn't" that dancers and ice skaters wear, it's legit underwear. I was 7 at the time and I remember this was one of the most overtly sexual displays I'd ever seen that could be shown on television. But I also think the flag was just so unusual because who wears a flag emblazoned on a dress? It had never been seen before. Nowadays you see singers draping themselves in flags of whatever country they're performing in if a flag gets thrown on stage and suchlike but back then, this was something new. And in a time when Britain was still getting over years of Thatcherism politics and getting back on our feet, it was almost like a symbol of "it's cool to be British again." The Spice Girls, along with Oasis, were considered to be at the forefront of the "Cool Britannia" movement of the 90's when Britain was modernising and changing. The dress holds nostalgia because of that.