STAFF WRITER – ANA OVALLE BOONE
ORIGINALLY PRINTED ON NOV 15 2023
“The Victoria’s Secret Show” was a TV runway show, made by the lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret to display their newest garments. The promotional event first began in 1995 and made its network television broadcast debut in 2001 on the ABC channel. The show consisted of models later called “Victoria’s Secret Angels” which was coined after 1990s supermodels that promoted Victoria’s Secret’s 1997 “Angels” underwear collection. This then leads to the rebrand.
The “Angels” of the brand were not inclusive in terms of body type, race and gender. In the “final” Victoria’s Secret show, Chief Marketing Officer, Ed Razek, made transphobic and fatphobic remarks saying that trans and plus-size women couldn’t be Victoria’s Secret Angels because “the show was a fantasy,” implying that they couldn’t possibly fit into the look of an “Angel.” This incident, combined with Rihanna hosting “The World of Savage X Fenty” in 2018, a fashion show, which debuted her new inclusive lingerie brand was the f inal blow to the age-old brand with age-old values. The backlash was so intense that the brand announced its next fashion show would be its f inal one. The response caused a f lood of tweets and Instagram posts with people criticizing the Victoria’s Secret brand. To have a lack of darkskinned, plus-size and trans models on a runway, was so regressive and went against all the progress that was happening in the late 2010s.
Victoria’s Secret’s past led to the company dropping its “Victoria’s Secret: The Tour ‘23” earlier this September which was supposed to substitute its runway shows. However, this time, there’s not a typical runway, and the company included diverse bodies for its part documentary. Victoria’s Secret also completely stripped the fun hues of the brand’s former Y2k/2010 color palette. The new garments have muted colors on the company’s iconic Angel “wings.” Overall, the outfits aren’t as cute as they used to be. Ovalle Boone stated: “I’m going to be totally honest, as a plus size woman, two or three years ago, I would have never been able to even step into a Victoria’s Secret store because they didn’t even offer my size up until two or three years ago. But am I going to deny the fact that they used to have cute pink undergarments? Absolutely not. As a journalist, I always have to tell the truth first and foremost. And the truth? They used to have the cutest, frilly, lacey, and sequined stuff. And I wanted to get in on it, before all the controversy of course.”
This phenomenon is exactly what an anonymous STMU student, who identifies as plus size, discussed with Ovalle Boone stated: “We never hated the fantasy, we just wanted to be a part of it.” They expressed that the company’s old style was never the problem, it was the lack of representation and inclusion in the brand. It needed to be a brand for all, which is something it claims to be doing now. Ovalle Boone stated: “So, to my teenager-self who wanted so desperately to watch the VS when she became a woman, you did watch it, 5 years after its hiatus. And it sucked. Also, it didn’t turn you into a woman. But growing up to be mindful of where you spend your money and which companies you support, made you one”.