Olympic Sendoff

London's Fashionable Finale

It may have been, as one NBC commentator said, the world's "worst kept secret" -- that the Spice Girls were reuniting to perform at Olympic Closing Ceremony on Sunday night. But that didn't dampen the mood when the five singers rolled on stage to a defining roar.

The group performed two of their biggest hits, "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life," atop five LED-infused taxis. And each evoked their character: "Baby" Bunton in a pink mini-dress, Posh in a black strapless dress with a long train, Ginger Spice in a red dress with a Union Jack detail, Scary Spice in a glittering gold body suit, and Sporty Spice in a white jumpsuit. It was, as The Daily Beast's Tom Sykes put it, put the 80,000 onlookers in the party spirit.

Then, as David Bowie's classic song "Fashion" played, giant billboards photographed by Nick Knight were wheeled onstage. The were disassembled to reveal Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell standing on platfroms. The models paraded down the runway in beaded gold Alexander McQueen dresses, alongside other British talent Georgia Jagger, Karen Elson, Lily Donaldson and Stella Tennant. In the end, it was just what we signed up for: a big, splashy British sendoff that will put us into instant Olympic withdrawal.

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Isabel Wilkinson

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