The famous annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which has not been held since 2018, will officially return at the end of this year, the brand announced on its Instagram account.
“We read the comments and listened,” reads the message accompanied by a promotional video. The date and format of the event are still unknown.
In statements to USA Today, a Victoria’s Secret spokesperson stated that the 2024 show “will offer precisely what our customers have been asking for: glamour, runway, fashion, fun, wings, entertainment, all through a powerful and modern design lens that reflects who we are today.”
The Victoria’s Secret fashion show was one of the most important fashion and performance events of the year, combining the presence of the most popular artists with some of the industry’s top models, such as Adriana Lima, Naomi Campbell, and Bella Hadid.
Victoria’s Secret Faces Criticism
However, the show had been the target of numerous criticisms for years, including the lack of diversity, excessive sexualization, objectification of the female body, and above all, for perpetuating gender roles. When the show was canceled after 24 uninterrupted years, it had lost much of its popularity: its last show recorded 3.3 million viewers, far below the more than 12 million it had in its peak year in 2001.
With the arrival of the #MeToo movement in various entertainment industries, the extreme thinness of some models participating in the event began to be questioned, along with the revision of the image of less perfect women, contrary to what the Angels’ show had portrayed for years—an ideal of being perfect and unattainable for the common woman.
In 2023, the show tried to turn the criticisms around and reinvent itself, replacing the beautiful angels with activists, such as soccer player and LGBTQ community activist Megan Rapinoe; actress and entrepreneur Priyanka Chopra Jonas; and the first trans model to walk for the brand, Valentina Sampaio.
At the end of last year, the brand released a documentary, ‘The Tour 23,’ and held an event that brought together prominent models like Adriana Lima with new generations such as plus-size model Paloma Elsesser; indigenous model Quannah Chasinghorse; and Winnie Harlow, who has vitiligo.
Accusations of sexual harassment and workplace retaliation also affected Victoria’s Secret, as well as the connection between the company’s former executive, magnate Les Wexner, and the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
This story was written in spanish by Daniel Matute in Cultura Colectiva
