A Woman Says She's Hugely Disappointed In The New Victoria's Secret Runway Show — 'The Angels Were The Epitome Of What Beauty Was'
People are complaining that Victoria's Secret has lost its appeal by trying to be more inclusive and diverse.
@victoriasecret / Instagram; FashionStock.com / Shutterstock In July 2023, Victoria's Secret announced that they would be bringing back their coveted and infamous runway show after taking a four-year hiatus.
The extravagant catwalk, which featured many famous models, including the Hadid sisters, Adriana Lima, and Candice Swanepoel, had previously put their show on hold after a decline in sales and poor television ratings due to backlash about the lack of inclusivity.
It seems the lingerie brand took some of that criticism and put it into rebranding its entire fashion show. However, not everyone is happy about the new direction that Victoria's Secret is attempting to head in.
A woman explained why she was disappointed in the models for the new Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
In a TikTok video, a content creator named Meghan Elinor brutally admitted that she is not happy with the models walking in the 2023 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which is set to premiere on Amazon Prime on September 26, 2023.
"So, Victoria's Secret just released some of their new images from the brand new Victoria's Secret Fashion Show," Elinor began in her video. "I was a huge Victoria's Secret fan growing up and I was a huge fan of the shows. But if you don't know much, they actually changed quite a bit over the past couple of years."
The lingerie's fashion show, which is actually called The Tour '23, has attempted to incorporate more models of different body shapes and sizes along with adding a more diverse list of women who are set to walk the runway. Some of the new faces on the runway include Ceval Omar, a Black, trans curve model, and Paloma Elsesser, a Black curve model, among an array of other diverse women too.
Elinor, in her video, pointed out that the appeal behind the original Victoria's Secret Fashion Show had been the unattainable reality of the Angels, a group of well-known models associated with the brand, including Adriana Lima, Miranda Kerr, Karlie Kloss, Tyra Banks, and Gisele Bündchen.
However, the idea of the Victoria's Secret Angels was scrapped after calls for inclusion began, which is Elinor's biggest problem.
"I'm all about body positivity, I think it's fantastic. I didn't realize they were going to get rid of their original Angels, and in place of the Angels, they decided to bring on standard influencers," Elinor continued. She even pulled up photos of the new women walking, criticizing their photos for how "airbrushed" and "photoshopped" they appeared to be.
"The point of the Angels was not everybody could be an Angel," she added. "When I think of Victoria's Secret Angels, I think of a beauty standard that is not achievable. Something that a lot of people aspire to potentially be. Maybe it's not their weight [or] their looks, it's the way they hold themselves. They were just the epitome of what beauty was."
Elinor expressed discontent with the lingerie brand completely going against its mission and what it used to stand for, pointing out that it seems brands catered to women are the only ones who have to switch their entire companies to appease the public.
Some agreed that the new Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was lacking its usual 'production.'
In a similar video to Elinor's, another content creator named Lex shared her grievances about the new Victoria's Secret runway show. She admitted, just like Elinor, that she was extremely disappointed in the quality of the lingerie's fashion show this year, especially considering many of the women walking weren't actual fashion models, but simply influencers.
"Not everything needs an influencer," Lex argued. "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show has always been an elite event. It always had the top tier fashion models in their shows."
She continued, saying that in the past, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows were some of the most coveted events to both attend and watch. After many of these shows, the site would be sold out of the pieces shown on the runway.
"These were elite models, and I recognize Victoria's Secret is trying to be more inclusive and things like that, but at the same time we need to have diversity but make sure they're models," she added. "I'm 100% for having models with disabilities, plus-size models [and] trans models. What I'm not for is basically making the show trash."
Lex acknowledged that the complaints against Victoria's Secret didn't mean they had to "water down" the fashion show that many people loved to watch. "Victoria's Secret was always a fantasy. All we asked was to give us a show but make us not feel like we got to lose weight afterward."
Victoria's Secret rebranded their show after controversy previously surrounded the brand.
In November 2019, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was canceled amid several controversies surrounding the brand, including body issues, declining sales, and the involvement in Jeffrey Epstein's ties to the former Victoria's Secret CEO Lex Wexner.
The backlash only increased after a New York Times article published in February 2020 accused L Brands', the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, former chief marketing officer, Edward Razek, of creating a “culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment.”
Razek was previously called out for out-of-touch comments made in a Vogue interview in August 2019, in which he claimed that there was no room for plus-size or transgender models in the VS Fashion Shows "because the show is a fantasy." Many people found issues in Razek's statement, especially since many other lingerie brands, most notably Rihanna's Savage X Fenty, have made it their mission to include more inclusive and diverse models in both the fashion show and on their website.
For many years, Victoria's Secret primarily showed tall, slender models with a very unachievable body type. Their lack of diversity only sent one message to viewers and consumers of the brand, which was that one specific body type was the standard and should be coveted.
The whole "fantasy" and VS Angels only perpetuated this outdated ideology, and simply wasn't working for the brand, especially as more allegations and criticisms began popping up.
Victoria's Secret had years to change its image and start having a more inclusive range of women modeling for its brand, and while they are only dipping their toes into a more progressive era, it's the bare minimum.
The complaints about the new show being "boring" and "watered down" because it's missing the original one-body-type models only does a disservice to the millions of women who felt excluded from Victoria's Secret, and it's time that Black, trans, and curve models get a chance in the spotlight for once.
The fashion industry, though incredibly late, is taking steps to evolve and represent the diversity of women's bodies and experiences. While some may reminisce about the exclusive allure of the original Angels, it's essential to celebrate the strides being made toward a more representative and empowering vision of beauty.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.