You know, it was really emotional. I think the public feels like they’ve been through the journey with me. They remember me being in the Spice Girls, they remember me meeting David, getting married to David and sitting on the throne at the wedding and having the children, then moving to Spain and to America. So a lot of the public have felt – not just in Britain, but all around the world – like they have been part of my journey over the last 27 years. But they don’t know these stories, I’ve never told them before.
That really hit me when I was shooting the fragrance campaign with Steven Klein in New York. I was in a big studio in Brooklyn with an enormous projection of a Portofino landscape behind me, with a crew of over 100 people and I’m standing in front of this projection, standing on a rock holding on for dear life to a railing, balancing in crazy high heels and totally soaked in water. I looked behind me and I saw Portofino, and I did feel quite emotional. I almost got a little tearful because this is real and these stories are very true to me and David. I suppose that I am a little nervous, because I’m exposing myself and showing a vulnerability that I’ve never shown before – and the story behind every scent is as emotional as the next.
What was it like shooting with Steven Klein – and did you have a vision for how you wanted the campaign to look?
It was amazing. We both worked with Steven years ago, when myself and David shot for W Magazine when we first moved to LA. Steven is incredible and in my heart, there was nobody else that could capture these images. I love how he photographs women, I love how the woman is never the victim. She’s in control, she’s strong, she’s powerful. His images are iconic and I look back at the pictures that we did with him all those years ago, and they’re still relevant now.
He’s also a very nice guy who’s so passionate about what he does. The day that we shot the campaign, we started at 6am, and finished around midnight and Steven is very similar to me; we probably could have finished at dinner time, but we both wanted to keep going because we still felt that we had more to give.
I always like to collaborate with the best; with skincare, for example, I collaborated with Augustinus Bader, and then when creating fragrances I want to work with Jerome. For me, it’s about creating with the best in class, and for the images I needed Steven – there was no other contender.
What are the bottles inspired by?
I believe these are bottles that my customers will enjoy looking at. The colour palette was inspired by a mix of one of my older fashion collections and a tiny vintage miniature fragrance bottle I had on my vision board for many years and the colour of the bottle is a vivid turquoise which inspired Portofino’s bottle. When I was eight years old, my mums’ friend used to give me empty bottles of Coco Chanel, and I’d take those bottles, put them on my dressing table and just stare at them; fragrance has been my dream for such a long time
