Mel B got candid on how she feels about her daughter Phoenix wearing a few of her iconic ‘90s Spice Girl looks.
Phoenix, 24, caused jaws to collectively drop in December 2022 with a photoshoot paying homage to her mother’s girl group alter ego, Scary Spice. In a recent interview on TheTonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Mel B joked to Fallon that her daughter borrowing her outfits “annoyed” her.
“So I’m looking on Instagram and she sends me through this flurry of pictures,” she said, explaining her thought process as she came across the photos. “That looks a bit like me.”
“She’s got all my bl**dy outfits on!” the America’s Got Talent judge recalled the moment she realised it was Phoenix. “The b**** stole my look and went into my wardrobe, and I’m like, you better bring all that stuff back right now because they’re my clothes.”
Her daughter recreated several of Scary Spice’s most iconic outfits including the 1997 “Spice Up Your Life” cover art as well as the group’s 1996 “Say You’ll Be There” music video. In the latter, she rocked a black mini-skirt, leather gloves, combat boots, and chunky silver jewellery. She also paid homage to her mother’s look from the 1997 Spice World movie poster, donning space buns and a gold spandex matching bralette and pant set.
Fallon remarked that the 24-year-old is the “spitting image” of her pop icon mother. “I did think it was a bit of a trick like, ‘Who wore it better?’” Mel B joked. “I was like, ‘Me!’”
The former Spice Girl went on to reflect on the group’s beginnings, back when all the members - which included Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Melanie C, and Emma Bunton - lived together in a house and hustled to get producers and cowriters to work with them.
“Spice Girls, we’re very much a homegrown band,” she recalled of the time. “So, we used to style ourselves, we did our own music, we begged producers and co-writers to work with us on the promise that when we’re rich and famous we’ll pay you back, we never did.”
She also recalled at the time they were dressing themselves because they were “broke basically” and acted as their own stylists before they made it into the big leagues.
“When I see stuff like that,” Mel B reflected, noting that some of the outfits Phoenix wore for the photoshoot were the original clothes she wore. “That was like 50 cents, that top. I probably made the skirt myself.”
“Now they’re vintage,” the former Spice Girl continued about her ‘90s style. “My 24-year-old gone and said to me, ‘Well, yeah mum, you’re cool, but you’re really cool now because everything you wore back in the ‘90s has come back around.’”
Phoenix is the eldest of Mel B’s three daughters. The entertainer shares Angel, 16, with comedian Eddie Murphy, and Madison, 10, with film producer Stephen Belafonte.
