In December 2022, Phoenix Chi Brown spiced up her Instagram account by channeling her mom in a series of photos. In one, she wears a leopard-print bustier, black mini-skirt, and combat boots. Her outfit is similar to the one Melanie “Mel B” Brown sports to portray Blazin’ Bad Zula in the 1996 music video for “Say You’ll Be There.” In another, Phoenix’s colorful bralette and baggy, patchwork-print pants are a nod to the look Mel B wears on the cover of the “Spice Up Your Life” record. “I honestly just wanted to do it because why not? I think my mom is an inspiration to many people, including myself, so I thought it would be a fun idea to recreate her in my own way,” Phoenix told Teen Vogue in 2023.
Phoenix inherited her mom’s fondness for fashion. She worked for a London-based fashion magazine as an intern at one point and later started appearing in magazines herself as a model. But she eventually ended up working in the same industry in which her mom got her start. “For the past couple of years, I’ve been in that rut where I don’t really know what fills me with joy. And then I came to the conclusion that it was music, and so I picked up DJing,” she said. She explained that she didn’t pursue a career as a recording artist because she didn’t want to do the same thing as her mom.
