Spice Girls Generation + I’ll tell you what I want (what I really, really want) for early Spring
I feel like I need to orient the youths to Spice Girls, the 90s British girl power pop that took the world in a mission to “SPICE UP YOUR LIFE” and, like, destroy glass ceilings and sprinkle us girls with a slightly saccharine version of riot girl angst and a little more spicy take no bullshit flavor.
It was such a phenomenon that the New York Times has written about their impact on our whole generation (us Millenials), saying:
Members of the Spice Girls generation are the only people in history to have both grown up with the internet and to retain childhood memories that predate it. Born primarily in the mid-to-late 1980s, they are human bridges between two eras, whose anachronistic birth years, with their faraway century, will cause their heirs’ eyes to widen at their obituaries.
Let it be noted: I one million percent want my heirs’ eyes to widen at my obituary. YES. Hard stop.
Read that NYT article for this really fascinating glimpse at the world we grew up in, as oriented to the biggest girl group of all time. And also, I feel like we should all maybe revisit their 1997 film, SPICE WORLD: The Movie.
Was I huge fan? To be honest, not really. I was grunging it up in 1997 with Bush’s Gavin Rossdale in my teenage bedroom, watching Gwyneth in Great Expectations and then very quickly turned goth, thanks to older cute boys who wore Joy Division tshirts.
And now we segue to what this post is REALLY about, so cue Spice Girls “Wannabe” and I’ll tell you what I really really want for early Spring 2023.
Let it be known that I am sitting here in my breakfast room, turned Carrie Bradshaw writing nook, listening to Spice Girls by lamplight, typing away and only missing the cigarettes I smoked in the late 90s.
Now, TO THE BUSINESS.
TOP IT
1. Lorna Murray hat. I’m a year behind on this, but literally it’s all I can think about adding to every one of my Spring and Summer outfits. I mean, we need to all be thinking more about sun protection, so why not make it cute AF. It folds up in this cute little origami bundle for easy travel (assuming you can easily origami it). And I have seen it upturn in a gust of wind, framing your face like a dang daffodil. I want to be a grown daffodil lady. (Also, that precious little daffodil child drawing is from a magical little book called, Flower Children: The Little Cousins of Field and Garden.)
2. Lilly Eve coat. She takes “old” Hermes blankets and turns them into jackets. Before you @ me about “I thought you’re talking Spring and Summer!”… Fathom the luxury of waking up before everyone else, slipping on your Hermes blanket coat over your nightie/tshirt and undies/grandpa pajamas/granny gown/bare body and tiptoeing to the kitchen to brew that first pot of coffee. To read a book. In cozy silence. Enveloped in the luxury of an Hermès HUG.
BURN IT
3. Candles Candles Candles. There is definite, quantifiable magic that happens when you light candles around your space. You look more beautiful. You move more elegantly. You commune with spirits. Or whatever.
I am an unabashed candle snob. My ultra bougie bougies (bougie is French for candle, FYI) are Astier de Villate candles (Marseilles is my signature studio scent) and I love the Ottoman scent from Cire Trudon. My more accessible candle favorites are two we carry at my shop, Club Duquette: Apothia Soul (the only fragrance I’ve stuck with for over ten years without kicking to the curb at any point) and the new candles from our beloved perfumer, Saint Rita’s Parlor.
I also LOVE the look of colorful TALL taper candles all over the place. When they’re in stock, I stock up on the gorgeous hand dipped Ester & Erik candles that Shoppe brings in from Denmark. If they’re sold out, I grab the long bright colorful tapers from Anthropologie. The hot pink are SO GOOD.
Here’s a really special one: Cire Trudon makes a pack of smaller tapers that come in this beautiful little box. “Bougies de la Madeleines,” these candles used to illuminate the Madeleine church in Paris. They’re $39 per box of six and just feel like the perfect gift.
SMELL IT
4. We are smell people. Like, we like to smell REALLY really good. I’ve worn Byredo Tobacco Mandarin for the past couple years, but have been subsisting on a steady supply of samples. The Byredo scents last a really long time and very little goes a long way. I get my samples of luxury niche perfumes from The Perfumed Court, a fabulous decanter of rare and unusual scents so you can try before you invest. (Shout out to my friend Ashley Brouwer for that hot tip so long ago!) But I think the time has come to get the full size. Also very chic on a dresser in a kind of Art Deco/brutalist way.
So I really personalize this one by layering it on top of my fragrant dry body oil, Stone Hollow’s Sacred Nymphaea scent—spicy and sexy and feels like a royal Egyptian queen.
And then—here’s the twist!— I dab one touch of Kuumba Made Amber and Myrrh, which I got at Whole Foods for precisely $10.
The mix is intoxicating.
HOWEVER… when I was in New York recently I spent the most fabulous afternoon with Matthew at Aedes Perfumery and he gave me a sample of Nomenclature Psy_Coo AND I AM DED. It will be my next OTT perfume acquisition.
Y’all. I feel as if I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of the wonderful treasures I’ve come across lately. Good thing we are still actually a few weeks away from Spring… and more blogs are surely on their way.
Xo
Morgan