Even if you’ve never been inside a Victoria’s Secret store, you’ve probably seen footage from one of the American lingerie giant’s big-budget runways. It was a product of the golden age of fashion shows – from its inception in 1995; it took hold of audiences using supermodels like Stephanie Seymour, Beverly Peele and Rebecca Romijn, strutting around in silk and lace intimates. Three years later their “Angels” first donned wings as Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum took the runway. By the time it premiered as a webcast in 1999, with a fresh-faced Adriana Lima and Gisele Bündchen, it had more than 1.5 million viewers. When the spectacle hit primetime in 2001, that number jumped to 12 million. But after two decades, the fever broke – for its ultimate show last year, only 3 million people cared to watch the jewel-encrusted fantasy bra and over-the-top costumes created to showcase the store’s “3 for $36” panties.
In a memo obtained by CNBC, L Brands (Victoria’s Secret’s parent company) CEO Les Wexner said that television was no longer the “right fit” for the fashion show and that the company must “evolve and change to grow.” While Wexner says that they are looking to create something for a more modern platform, a lot more than format has to change to return Victoria’s Secret to relevancy. While crowded fashion week calendars have brought runway fatigue, it’s the core message of the lingerie brand that feels more dated than ever.
In an era of body positivity, LGBTQ+ inclusion and female empowerment, Victoria’s Secret has held tight to its founding principles. The founder, Roy Raymond, created the store in 1977 as a place where men would feel comfortable buying lingerie for their partners – inspired by an uncomfortable shopping trip for his then-wife Gaye Raymond.
Although the chain eventually welcomed women as their target customers, it never really stopped being about what men want. This became clear in 2018, when L Brands chief marketing officer Ed Razek said that transgender and plus-size models did not fit the “fantasy” and would not be cast in the runway show. Razek felt the overwhelming wrath of the Internet and apologized, but the damage was done. It also didn’t help that the same year, Rihanna premiered a runway show for her Savage x Fenty lingerie line, which featured models of different races and body types – even a heavily pregnant model who ended up leaving the show to give birth.
In the Noughties, curvy girls were otherwise thin women whose bustlines were too large for high fashion sample sizes. Famous Angels, like Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum made careers out of overcoming this “adversity” as models, spinning their struggle into wildly successful reality TV shows. But the sexy image of the store still created its own brand of diet culture. A quick Google search will turn up with hundreds of articles about what Victoria’s Secret Angels eat in a day, don’t eat at all and how they exercise. Among the trainers who found fame toning the brand’s lingerie models was Russell Bateman, the founder of the now-infamous invitation workout class, the Skinny Bitch Collective. Bateman’s class was once touted by Vogue as the “key to sculpting a super-toned model body,” but after Diet Prada exposed the collective for its racist, misogynistic and body shaming practices, it is no longer a socially acceptable fitness regime.
In the end, Victoria’s Secret Angels have become a modern day form of Playboy Bunnies. The wings and ears are kitschy, yet allude to a problematic version of sexuality that many women no longer aspire to. Some iconic moments, like in 2016 when Bella Hadid lived out all of our fantasies of running into our ex while looking stunning as she walked down the runway past her then-ex Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, who was that year’s musical act, will be fond memories – but overall it is time to put the show to bed.
Although Victoria’s Secret has been losing money, market share and closing down stores at a rapid pace, as the brand says goodbye to the televised runway spectacle, the store has an opportunity to reinvent itself as a place for women to buy lingerie for themselves. While it would have a lot of catching up to do to compete with intimates brands like Aerie, ThirdLove and Fenty, a good place to start would be hiring a lot of diverse women, in every part of the company.