She’s back, stronger, better, and…exactly the same.
Illustration by Lydia Kempton (IG: @lydiak_arts)
CONTENT WARNING: this article includes discussions of body image and discrimination.
On October 15th, 2024, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show made its return following its cancellation five years ago.
In its heyday throughout the 2010s, the show was an unmissable event, with the most popular models of the time strutting down the runway in lingerie doubled by performances on the catwalk by chart-topping artists like Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd. Even if you didn’t care, you would still have to hear about it through magazine covers, social media posts, and gossip when the event came along. There was no avoiding it, as some eagerly waited to see the images appear on the internet to know which models would grace the catwalk that year. So, why did the event get canceled in the first place, and why is it back now?
Bye bye, Victoria…
The brand scrapped their show in 2019 after their 2018 show had hit a record low, likely due to a series of controversies the brand faced, as well as tackling criticisms of the lack of diversity in a variety of dimensions; including race, bodies, and gender identities.
While the show did have models of different ethnicities and racial backgrounds throughout the years of runway lineups, the reality is the majority of Victoria’s Secret ‘angels’ were overwhelmingly white, regardless of whether the show was held in New York, Paris, Shanghai, or anywhere else. The seemingly unchanging roster of models, all similar-bodied and more often than not tall, blonde, and blue-eyed, began to fuel growing criticism.
Another recurring topic when the Victoria’s Secret show came along was, unfortunately, a lot of different body parts: push-up bras and their sizes, the infamous thigh gap debate, and the prerequisite ‘washboard abs’. These were all said to be a display of beauty at its finest as girls of all ages would watch what may have been the event with the highest number of women with a spotlight on them, all because they matched a strict beauty standard to the tee. Audiences became increasingly frustrated at the growing societal conversation and lack of a response or acknowledgement by the Victoria’s Secret brand, remaining loyal to the precedent they had set since their show opened in the 90s.
It would have been difficult for Victoria’s Secret to argue that their show was about the lingerie when its entire appeal and success relied solely on the women they selected to walk down the stage. In fact, the brand often did not put the products they put on display during the show for sale once the show was over. This further reinforced the reality that it was about the women and bodies they carefully selected to cater to their brand rather than what products they actually had to offer.
The cherry on top to all of these brewing controversies was when former marketing chief Ed Rezak spoke to Vogue about why he did not think transgender models had a place on their runway, and that there was ‘no TV interest for plus-size runway shows’. The CEO of Victoria’s Secret parent company, Bath and Body Works, Inc., Les Wexner, also fueled concern on the company and its image after his friendship with convicted Jeffrey Epstein came to light.
In addition, Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie brand also launched in 2018, with the company choosing to place diversity of race and bodies at its center. After holding their first show at New York Fashion Week the very same year of their launch, the brand effectively one-upped Victoria’s Secret, demonstrating to the general public what a lingerie brand could be capable of if it was willing to commit to presenting diversity in bodies, race, gender and ability.
She’s back, stronger, better, and… exactly the same
The reality is, unfortunately, that Victoria’s Secret hasn’t changed that much to what it looked like back in 2019, or 2010, or even further back. The brand has spent the past 6 years relentlessly trying to push out the message that they’re better and different now, stating that they’ve fundamentally changed to the core. In 2021, they brought in American football player Megan Rapinoe and Indian actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas as part of the ‘VS Collective’, a group of women from diverse backgrounds who would help shape the brands future, an attempt to show that they were moving away from their previous catering for the male gaze and were now all about empowering women.
Their big message for their return show a month ago was ‘girl power’, with only women producers and leaders taking charge of the event. They also worked in collaboration with several charities and NGOs, like PETA, to demonstrate their commitment to doing better and transformation.
So, how did Victoria’s Secret deliver on their promise for change on the actual runway?
American model Gigi Hadid opened the show, which is a great way to make a statement, especially if the message is ‘we’re back, exactly the same way we were before!’. Although, perhaps this was simply to recall the excitement and brilliance of their past, for Victoria’s Secret to remind audiences that their brand was not all bad in the past.
The producers of the show boasted one of their major triumphs this year was that they had ‘50 models from 25 different countries’, but the chance to embrace all this supposed racial and ethnic diversity they seem to have worked so hard to achieve was abandoned in exchange of hailing some of ‘the greats’ of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show they chose to bring back, like Adriana Lima or Tyra Banks, or the debut of Kate Moss and her daughter Lila Moss as VS Angels. Rather than using their return to present how they’ve turned a new page, Victoria’s Secret used their anticipated comeback to illustrate they’ve only changed at the surface, that they’re still holding on to the glory of their past as their big marketing move after spending five years trying to prove this wasn’t the case.
Plus-size models also made their first appearance on the runway this year, with Ashley Graham and Paloma Elsesser leading the front with other models said to be between the sizes of 14-16 in the lineup representing ‘plus-sized’. However, as noted by Nicole Dall’Asen from Allure, plus-sized models were often covered a lot more than their skinnier colleagues, and it does seem to have happened too many times for it to be a coincidence throughout the show. It is also worth noting that the average clothing size of women in America is between 16 to 18. While it is empowering that Ashley Graham and women who size beyond the Victoria’s Secret standard of 0 were able to walk on the stage for the first time, the plain truth is that they are not really representative of the everyday woman in America either.
The show was closed by Tyra Banks, 90s and 00s Victoria’s Secret alum and also creator of reality television series America’s Next Top Model (clips of which still grace the internet to this day). Banks has been hailed as a leading figure in body positivity in the world of modeling, especially since she famously called out tabloids for commenting on her body in 2007, as well as occasionally having plus-sized models on her television series.
She also, however, is also known for having commented cruelly on different plus-sized competitors on the very same show, and, in general, a huge part of her post-modeling career was putting the spotlight on girls who fit a very specific criteria-meeting body type. While Victoria’s Secret did not explicitly comment on this, it was implied that Banks was meant to be part of the body positive campaign Victoria’s Secret has been pushing. Instead of using the opportunity to showcase their fundamental changes, their drastic transformation, Victoria’s Secret chose to bring someone who was an emblem of their beauty standard in the past and has also made part of her later career about putting conventionally pretty people in a competition against each other. (Notably, Tyra Banks was also in a full body suit rather than in the typically frilly Victoria’s Secret lingerie.)
This is not to say the Victoria’s Secret show was an epic miss: models Alex Consani and Valentina Sampaio were the first transgender models to walk the brand’s runway, with the latter being the first trans representative of the lingerie brand since 2019. Representation of these women as part of what has been one of the definitions of ultra-feminine beauty is significant, as young people look to the show to see what is socially acceptable and celebrated.
At the end of the day, Victoria’s Secret did demonstrate change on the surface of their show this year: they had more inclusivity and representation of bodies, races, ethnicities, and more, directly addressing the controversies that caused their revenue and viewership to plummet five years ago. However, the brand also failed to use the one chance they had to illustrate this change in an impactful way. They prioritized bringing back the image they held before, undermining any empowerment that may have been able to come out of their return.
Ultimately, it feels like they were trying to return to their past glory days, and emphasizes the fact that they have only done the bare minimum after a decade of criticism. Perhaps Victoria’s secret is that they are unable to move away from the reality that their entire show has lived off of a strict dictation of what beautiful women worthy of strutting down a stage in lingerie look like, despite five years of trying to prove they have gone through fundamental transformation. Sometimes, Victoria, it’s better to just let things live in the past, as a mark of a different era.
Comments