By NASA MARIA ENTABAN
alltherage@thestar.com.my

LATER this year, Spice Girls fans will get to relive the prime years of the 90s pop group when the musical Viva Forever takes the stage.

Thinking about the British pop group that took the charts by storm years ago brings back memories of not just their catchy pop tunes, but the fashion trends that came along with them.

As with many things, pop stars have proven to be a great influence on fashion and image – there’s no denying they always have a hand in what’s popular.

Many have taken it a step further by collaborating with fashion designers on a clothing line named after them.

Just like Baby, Posh, Sporty, Scary and Ginger gave every young girl back then an idea about which ‘Spice’ they were and an image to call their own, so have many other pop stars before and after.

Let’s take a look at some prominent pop acts who shifted the face of fashion, even if it was just for a short while.

Punk rock princess

Sporting a necktie never really became a thing before Avril Lavigne burst out onto the scene, back in 2002. Eyes heavily rimmed with eyeliner? You have to admit that Lavigne boosted the popularity of this trend as well.

Baggy jeans, sneakers, studs, leather and anything slightly associated with punk-rock became hot property the moment Lavigne burst out into the music scene.

Avril Lavigne made ties cool

After goody-goody, clean-cut starlets like Britney Spears (before she went crazy, of course), Lavigne was just what little girls around the world needed at the time. She was different, representing a sort of rebellion that went beyond the make-up, neckties and spiked embellishments.

The entire Lavigne package fed a generation of girls who wanted to be more ‘I said see ya l8r boi’ than ‘I was born to make you happy’.

Queen of pop

At 53, Madonna has been going at it for over three decades and shows no signs of slowing down. Apart from constantly reinventing her sound, she’s never far behind in the fashion department.

In the early 80s, she almost single-handedly revolutionised women’s fashion with the ‘messy chic’ look which included lacy fingerless gloves, dirty bleach blonde hair and a jacket over layers of shirts.

'Messy chic' was a Madonna thing.

The oversized sweatshirts and shirts with cut-off sleeves over a bra or cropped top are a lasting image of the 80s, which Madonna helped solidify all those years ago.

All these trends are now trickling back onto runways and into stores, and although their revival is partly due to designers, fashion experts and current starlets, we have the Queen of Pop to thank for making them big in the first place.

The posh one

Even back in her Spice Girls days, Victoria Beckham’s (then Adams) style was the most practical, and (at least to me), the most appealing. With chic, almost corporate cuts and not over-the-top outfits (unlike the other girls), it seemed like an image built to last.

And lasted it has. Today, many look to the fashion powerhouse for inspiration and her designs are at the top of many a celebrity’s shopping list.

Victoria Beckham was, and still is, the posh one.

Everything about her image is chic, posh and not too difficult to achieve. Simple cuts and minimal embellishments are the way to go for young women who want to make a good impression, but still look stylish while doing it.