Making headlines for all the wrong reasons, the lingerie brand is just no longer cutting it
Victoria’s Secret Angels (Part 4)
I was the target Victoria’s Secret customer. It started when I turned 13 in 2005 and got my hands on one of their infamous “free panty” coupons to get a pair of underwear my mother wouldn’t have bought for me. The fantasy was definitely alive and well, in part, because it was the only place in the mall that sold lingerie where you could not also buy a blender, but also because top models like Heidi Klum, Gisele Bündchen and Tyra Banks were strutting down the catwalk in bejewelled bras and wings. Back in 2005, diversity was having girls with different skin tones walking down the runway, but the world has changed since then and Victoria’s Secret has not.
No one was surprised to hear Ed Razek, chief marketing officer of L Brands, Victoria’s Secret parent company, tell Vogue that “transsexuals” (an outdated term for transgender people by the way) don’t fit into “the (Victoria Secret) fantasy” and that no one wants to see a plus-size model lingerie show. For those who were happy Winnie Harlow was cast in the show — as the first model with vitiligo to sport wings — this was one step forward and two steps back. Although he has since apologised for the comments on transgender women, he has yet to reverse his position on plus-size models.
His justification for thinking that no one wants to see a plus-size Victoria’s Secret angel is because of low viewership for a plus-size fashion show staged by a fellow L Brands-owned clothing chain, Lane Bryant back in 2016. Comparing a fledgling lingerie show by a brand not exactly known for ‘sexy’ and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is laughable. Still, 2016 was the same year Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition — which employs many of the same models as Victoria’s Secret — put a plus-sized model, Ashley Graham, on its cover. Judging by the fact that she is now a recurring figure in the magazine, her presence does not seem to have ruined too many fantasies.
But politics have even changed across the food court from the very sexy store. Brands like American Eagle’s Aerie have popped up to sell lingerie without the help of Photoshop and including women who exceed a 00 size by more than implants. And yet, all Victoria’s Secret keep offering is different colours of ‘perfect body’ sexy.
With Victoria’s Secret selling a feminine image that’s stricter than mens’ magazines it’s no wonder customers think that they’ve lost touch. A 2017 Wells Fargo study found that 68% of shoppers like the Victoria’s Secret brand a lot less than they used to and more than half of these respondents said that the brand felt “forced” or “fake.”
The most relevant lingerie show today is probably Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty, which included a model who literally went into labor backstage. The singer-turned-businesswoman also got the question right the first time when asked why she had no trans representation in her beauty campaign, saying that she does not specifically include or exclude trans women in her castings and that she would never out a trans model to sell her lines.
Even for us mall rats who have fond memories of “free panty” coupons and Bombshell bras that increased your bust by two cup sizes — it’s 2018. We have the luxury of inclusive online shopping and even diversity between pretzel shops and piercing pagodas. We have outgrown our need for perfect angels and do not need Ed Razek to tell us where sexy stops.
By Angela Waters