A woman who was something to do with Next came on and excitedly exclaimed that Geri had once worked as a Saturday girl in Next, so it made perfect sense for her to now have collaborated with them for the collection. I didn't want to dampen the nice woman's enthusiasm, but if Victoria Beckham had applied this logic to her label, she'd have designed it in partnership with her mum's friend's wedding dress shop . Just sayin'. The Next woman also flagged up the fact that Geri is a UN Ambassador, which I liked, because sometimes I feel like people forget this, which is a shame as it's one of my favourite Geri facts.
Finally Geri was on the mic and spoke at a rate of two words a second about how sometimes she's fat and sometimes she's thin and how either way she likes to look good in a bikini (fair enough). Then she said something about how every woman wants to feel that they look great, and if men agree then that's a bonus (everyone tittered at this as if she'd said something super raunchy which I found quite odd and annoying). I don't think Geri had spent long rehearsing her speech as when she finished she took a sideways glance at the Next PR and then announced "that's it."
(UN Ambassador Geri Halliwell)
When it came to the catwalk I was slightly disappointed that Geri had resisted the temptation to model every piece herself. I also didn't find any of it very nice I'm afraid, but luckily for Next I don't think I'm their target market. They also missed a trick by using music other than Mi Chico Latino, which seemed like a missed opportunity, although they did play some album tracks from Geri's third release afterwards.
(You can tell that Geri is a seasoned professional because her eyes are always trained on the camera)
During the meet and greet I was pleased that Geri remembered me from the other couple of times that we've met, although there was a slightly embarrassing moment when her PA also remembered me, and during our chat I mentioned the magazine I worked for and she responded with "Oh, you're Press, I wondered how you'd got in here." Awkward.
(I never look very good when I have my picture taken with Geri. I think the weight of my expectation makes me tense.)
When it was my turn to speak to Geri I ignored the bikinis and instead asked her about her rumoured fourth album. She said it was definitely happening, but wasn't allowed to say anymore (I'm very intrigued to find out what will happen with this) Then she gave me a goodie bag which included my new office in-tray...
And a £50 voucher for Next. I couldn't find anything I liked so I bought these, because you can never have too many socks.
You can read a piece by Liz Jones (another of my favourite women) where Geri talks about the collection here. My favourite quote is "I went to see Lady Gaga in concert, and we saw each other backstage and it was really nice because there wasn’t anybody else around, and she said, “You know, Geri, you really inspired me, I really tuned in to what you stood for”. I also like, "She tells me the people at Next offered to airbrush the photos. ‘I said, “Don’t airbrush them." Here is one of the pictures for your reference:
