Melanie C Gives Clear Heels a Sporty Spin at The Abbey

Melanie C gave the clear heel trend a club floor moment on Wednesday night, arriving at The Abbey’s 35th anniversary party in West Hollywood in transparent PVC stilettos before taking over the DJ booth.

The singer and DJ, better known to Spice Girls fans as Sporty Spice, wore barely-there sandals with clear bands across the toes and ankle, set on a silver metallic footbed and a slim stiletto heel. A back zipper closed the pair at the heel, while the transparent upper allowed her red pedicure to pop against the metallic footbed.

The sandals sat close to the Giuseppe Zanotti Harmony in the Plexi finish — a silver-soled, clear-strap stiletto shape — but Mel C’s pair had a thicker transparent ankle band and silver grommets on each side of the back zip, details that separate them from Zanotti’s sold-out version.

She paired the stilettos with an Adidas x Asos look that played directly into the Sporty Spice shorthand without putting her back in sneakers. The pale yellow satin set included a track jacket worn partly off the shoulder, with black side panels and Adidas’ three stripes running down the sleeves. She paired the jacket with a black sport-bra-style top with a sheer mesh inset, then kept the Adidas set going with matching satin shorts with black lace hems.

The choice also put her in a growing group of celebrities embracing clear pumps and heeled sandals this spring, where PVC straps and plexiglass heels have been standing in for the usual metallic pump. Keke Palmer wore Paris Texas’ clear-strap Lidia mules to the “I Love Boosters” premiere in Los Angeles earlier this month. At Cannes, Riley Keough and Hannah Einbinder both stepped into Alaïa’s Invisible thong sandals, a more architectural take on the trend with a plexiglass wedge. Zoë Kravitz also leaned into the look before the Met Gala in Saint Laurent’s fall 2026 PVC slingbacks.

The Abbey appearance also lined up with Mel C’s current dance-floor focus. The singer released “Sweat,” her ninth solo album, on May 1, and has been leaning further into DJ sets alongside the dance-focused project. Along with Mel C, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Aguilera, Adam Lambert and more stars joined the festivities celebrating the historic bar’s 35th anniversary.