This month, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show will make a comeback. After being canceled in 2019, this controversial and iconic pop culture phenomenon is being reimagined in response to backlash from previous shows. This new version of the show will air on September 23, 2023, with a reframed focus on diversity and creative women. What has led Victoria’s Secret to decide to make this change?
How did the original runway show become so popular?
Victoria’s Secret underwear has been marketed as something that made you glamorous and prestigious. They created this identity through the widely popular Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. This annual fashion show peaked in 2011 with 10.3 million viewers. Models coveted the position of “Victoria’s Secret Angel''-- a model who walked the runway with beautiful wings in Victoria’s Secret underwear. Famous music artists performed at each fashion show, and celebrities walked the catwalk. It was a huge event every year: a true pop culture phenomenon. The popularity of this spectacle contributed to how the company’s products were viewed. Women who bought their underwear were willing to spend money because they wanted to feel like they were living the fantastical and glamorous lifestyle promoted by the characters of the fashion show.
Why was the original runway show canceled?
By the late 2010s, public opinion of Victoria’s Secret changed. As models talked about their dedicated lifestyles to achieve the Victoria’s Secret perfect standard, people began to realize that not everything the models did was healthy. Healthy habits such as limiting alcohol, exercising, and eating more vegetables were accompanied by cutting out fruit because it had too much sugar, not drinking water, and in some cases, limiting calories to 800 a day. As time passed, this lifestyle was no longer something women aspired to have.
Public opinion also changed concerning how they responded to advertisements. The allure of the unachievable Victoria's Secret Angel no longer appealed to the public. As their sales decreased, more inclusive companies, such as Savage X Fenty and Aerie, gained prominence. These companies promoted racial and body diversity in their models and shifted their focus from fantasy to practicality. For example, Aerie marketed itself as a company that prioritized comfort. Their main goal was to make underwear for the everyday woman: they didn’t even airbrush or alter their models’ photos in their ads. This was the polar opposite of the curated perfect bodies and skin of the Victoria's Secret Angels. To the public, Aerie was a breath of fresh air. According to Business Insider in 2016, “Since removing altered pictures from its advertising, Aerie has seen a huge payoff. Sales skyrocketed a whopping 26% in the most recent quarter.”
Because of the declining popularity and negative public opinion of the Victoria’s Secret Company, the fashion show also suffered. Viewers decreased, and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was canceled in 2018.
What is the new show going to be?
After much criticism, in 2021, Victoria’s Secret rebranded to focus more on inclusivity and diversity. Now, two years later, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is making a comeback, completely transformed. They have mirrored Aerie and Savage X Fenty to put the importance of the everyday woman and what she wants first. This new show is no longer filled with carbon-copy models, but instead seems to put more emphasis on the beauty and art from women around the world.
The show will feature women that make up four different fashion houses from Bogotá, Lagos, London, and Tokyo, who will present their work on the runway. These teams include fashion designers, painters, musicians, writers, filmmakers, and artists. On its website, Victoria’s Secret describes the scope of the show: “With the creative freedom to conceptualize, produce, and stage a collection that is all their own, the dynamic artistic forces from the fashion, film, design, music, and visual fields will converge to showcase their work that centers on the appreciation and beauty of womanhood.” Even the aesthetics of the show have completely changed. Although they will still incorporate recognizable aspects of the old shows, such as the iconic wings and women who were originally “Victoria’s Secret Angels,” it is no longer the sexy spectacle of “perfect bodies.” The marketing suggests it will be more cinematic and artistic instead.
Is this rebrand a marketing tactic or a step in the right direction?
Victoria’s Secret has implemented some considerable changes in the past five years. The unattainable fantasy is not profitable anymore. With this new show, it seems that they intend to convey a new type of “Victoria's Secret Angel,'' one that is beautiful without needing to fit a perfect mold, one that doesn’t need to have an unhealthy lifestyle to see herself as beautiful. This concept seems like it will be enthusiastically welcomed by the public, but will it seem disingenuous? This focus on diversity and inclusion seems like an afterthought to some. Will women feel like they are being marketed to and that this company is only shifting because it has lost money? Or does that even matter? It seems like women’s underwear companies are shifting to market to “what women want,” and “what women want” is being separated from “what men want.” These changes could simply be a net positive, regardless of marketing tactics. In the end, it is your own decision where you decide to shop and what you choose to watch. Will you tune into the new Victoria’s Secret show?
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.