Victoria’s Secret is set to ditch its ‘inclusive’ rebrand and return to its sexy roots following a £1.1 billion drop in revenue since 2020 – the latest victim of ‘go woke, go broke’. Fiona Golfar in the Mail says women will welcome the move. Here’s an excerpt.
When I worked at Vogue House as the fashion bible’s Editor-at-Large, there was a shop across the road on Bond Street that some of us staffers would visit — part retail therapy, part entertainment.
Back in the Noughties, Victoria’s Secret, with its Swarovski-studded, heavily under-wired bras and neon lacy thongs felt fun, aspirational — empowering, even. This was the era of Juicy Couture-clad WAGs, and being as overtly boudoir-sexy as a burlesque dancer wasn’t remotely frowned upon. I was seduced by the brand’s sexy half-cup lacy bras.
My then teenage daughter was obsessed with the celeb-crammed catwalk extravaganzas that it was famous for. She adored the Angels (as its top models are known) with their glamazonian proportions, mermaid hair and lashings of make-up. Adriana, Candice, Heidi, Alessandra …
Since then, however, Victoria’s Secret has gone through something of a self-censoring makeover. Long gone are the ‘Angels’; the feathers, the froth, that all-American sprinkle of stardust.
When the fashion world — along with the rest of the planet — went woke, the boardroom panicked.
The glitzy catwalk shows were dispensed with (the last ‘classic’ show, crammed with celebs, feathers and sparkles, was in 2018) and in came a procession of body-positive models.
The goal was both to attract Gen Z and retain their original customers — a difficult task at the best of times. But when I asked my daughter, now 25, if she’d shop at the new and improved Victoria’s Secret, she recoiled. Not only is it desperately ‘uncool’, it smacks of ‘inauthenticity’, which is a far greater crime, apparently.
It turns out its target audience — and the many social media critics — aren’t as gullible as these big brands might imagine. Not only can they smell the stench of desperation, they can spot a cynical marketing ploy from a mile away. Now, Victoria’s Secret executives are realising the truth of the mantra ‘go woke, go broke’. Revenue for this year is projected to be down £1.1 billion since 2020.
Surprise, surprise, the brand has now decided to bring sexy back and to prioritise sex appeal over today’s more body-positive images that its core consumer has shunned.
And I, for one, say hurrah for that! Because however much times have changed since the Angels’ glittery heyday, women still enjoy a healthy dose of aspiration. And when glamour is what I’m after, I don’t necessarily want to see myself or women like me.
Brands may think that women feel excluded and insecure every time they see a model thinner, younger and better-looking than themselves, but it’s just not the case. We know how we look and, by and large, the appearance of the women on billboards and catwalks won’t change that.
Worth reading in full.
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What’s the point of dressing up a hound or a lardo in the finest duds? A pig in a suit is still a pig. Better to show off you schmatta adorning some hoseable honey if you want it to sell. Common sense innit?
Common sense is so fascist, racist, cisnormative, homophobic, transphobic, patriarchal, white privileged, white supremacist, colonialist.
Didn’t you get the memo?
Than you JXB. I sure did get the memo. It’s hanging on a hook in the kharzi with the others.
…….let’s just get real here for a minute…
I am a woman, (and no spring-chicken!)…presumably the target audience, although who know these days…?
Now do I want to see over 60’s, overweight women, complete with rolls of fat, muffin tops and bingo wings in tiny skimpy underwear…or young beautiful people? …….
..Let me think?? LOL!
I don’t feel slightly un-included because young beautiful people, who are size O, are the people who they are targeting….
…..ordinary people rarely buy these products anyway..they go to Marks for their pure cotton ‘big pants’…..a La Bridget Jones….!! Surely??!
LOL!!
P.S. note to Victoria’s Secret Execs’…Why do you hire these clowns? I am available for hire, at a very reasonable salary, and could have told you this would happen and saved you a lot of money…!
Please forward job prospects c/o Daily Sceptics…..LOL!
Vincent Price summed it up years ago talking about young actresses in the 60s.
“The trouble is, they all look like my niece in Scarsdale. I love my niece in Scarsdale, but I wouldn’t pay to see her act”.
Just imagine for a minute the consumers’ response if Calvin Klein decided to advertise its trunks and budgie-smugglers using flabby, late middle-aged “models” with moobs and a substantial beer-gut.
Yuk. And that’s exactly my response to obese women prancing around displaying their rolls of fat, paunches and saggy boobs.
Imagine my surprise.
Yes a fat lot of good their social justice posturing and ESG point scoring does when they don’t have a company left anymore.
I don’t follow the fashion world, but I do see ads for cosmetics and clothing, etc which use models who are ugly, misshapen, fat, dwarfs, handicapped, blotched skin, of indeterminate sex or species or race.
Is this what is meant by body-positive?
While a skinny and beautiful model only represents a small %age of the population, she has made sacrifices and worked hard in the gym and yoga classes to turn her lovely DNA into that face and figure of beauty and maintain it for years. It requires immense dIscipline and sacrifice.
Fat models may have started out with the same basics for beauty, but chose to sit on the settee eating chips and doughnuts instead. It is deeply unfair to to the true ‘models’ to have these body image inclusions pushed in ahead of them. They are unworthy of sharing the prize if they haven’t run the race.
No comment…although actually I did momentarily stand mesmerised in front of the shop window in Covent Garden sometime in the early 2000s when I was at a loss for a girlfriend’s Christmas present. However, I didn’t know what to ask for and, because the floor staff might have made a beeline towards another confused and clearly out-of-place male with those annoyingly intrusive uber-helpful ‘Can I help you, sir’ comments designed to corner you, make you squirm, feel like you’re in over your head and make you want to sink 6 feet beneath the floor and ooze out via some drain back to gutter outside, I bought her some fags and a bottle of Veuve instead. Actually, she got some lovely stuff really just not fancy knickers and bras!
OMG you’ve just reminded me of this classic scene from one of my all-time fave shows. They don’t make ’em like this any more! heehee…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfvMo-dh4J8&ab_channel=WhattheAI
Perfectly drawn picture of myself Christmas 1979 outside a West End store window full of the similar lacy objects wondering what to buy my 9 months pregnant wife and plucking up courage to enter the lion’s cage.
The trouble was I mentioned my dilemma to a lady I worked with who knew my wife and she offered to come with me the next day to help choose something. We came up with a long black nightdress, slightly see-through as she assured me that after 9 months of being “captured” in her pregnant state my wife would appreciate the chance to celebrate her “freedom” as it were.
I still shudder at the utter shock shown by not only my wife but my sister, mother and other family members present when the offending article was removed from the wrapping paper and unfurled for all to see!
Never again.
Good
Still not drinking costa coffee after their little hiccup.
I look at it like this