At Haliwell House, the sewing machines have been going like the clappers stitching tea towels onto plain frocks and t-shirts and even the odd teensy weensy bikini for Geri’s latest collection for Next.

Or so you might imagine, as legend has it that la Haliwell, uninspired by the plain black Gucci number she was planning on wearing to the Brits back in 1997, got her sister to sew a Union Jack tea towel onto the front of the dress. A canny move if ever there was one; the dress sold at auction for over 40 thousand, and the Spice Girls became a new symbol of all that was British (could  go some way to explain the state we’re in now?).

Whether the Legend of Geri’s Dress is true or not, the clever lass has rolled back the years to pull the sartorial “bunny” out of the hat. Just in time for the Olympics, the designer formerly known as Ginger has gone Brit crazy. Every inch of her collection has been Uunion (hi-)Jacked. Although to be honest, I think the tea towel thing looked better.

Next must be hoping that we will all be feeling so darn patriotic by the summer, what with the Olympics and stuff, we will be wanting to be red, white and blue all over. Otherwise they’re probably just flogging an old horse.