Will The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Be More Inclusive This Time?

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is returning after 4 years, but with a major makeover, that will embrace diversity and body positivity.

The VS Fashion Show has been a highlight of the fashion industry for many years, however in 2019 amidst declining ratings, sales and immense amounts of criticism the show was canceled, until now. Critics of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show considered it objectifying, lacking in diversity of body sizes, and repeatedly inclined towards offensive cultural appropriation with its designs.

Before the show was first canceled the brand was heavily criticized by both customers and critics for their lack of body diversity amongst their models. When you take a look at the show and all their marketing in the past, the company has featured only tall thin models instead of featuring different body types which doesn’t appeal to the average consumer. Since then Victoria’s Secret has been working on a complete rebrand that is more inclusive of all body types.

In October 2019, the brand hired its first plus-size model Ali Tate Cutler, followed by its first transgender model, Valentina Sampaio, but it turned out that Tate-Cutler had made some fairly nasty remarks about overweight people in her past. In 2021 when talking about the possibility of the show returning, Raul Martinez Creative Director at Victoria’s Secret promised a whole new show. “When we do bring something back it’s not going to be the show that was, because the world has changed and entertainment has evolved,” Martinez said. “The evolution of fashion shows in general, I think, everyone is trying to discover what that is, what that experience is.”

Over the past 3 years, we have seen the brand try in ways to evolve to become more body positive. When you compare the types of models VS used to feature on their social media now, to what they used to back in the day, there definitely is some change, in a good way. We can see more models of colour and a few more plus sized models.

However, VS still has not adjusted their products for the everyday consumer. Especially considering their sizes only go up to size 40. There is a still a lot that VS could do to truly be a body positive brand for all customers. So the question is, why haven’t they?

The brand went to work rebuilding their image as soon as their show was canceled, hiring plus sized models and more models of colour, but is this really a change for good or for money? To quote Lizzo who had an opinion on the subject herself, “Do the CEOs of these companies value true inclusivity? Or do they just value money?”

This is a win for inclusivity for inclusivity’s sake

But if brands start doing this only because they’ve received backlash then what happens when the ‘trends’ change again?

Do the CEOs of these companies value true inclusivity? Or do they just value money? https://t.co/ykmcUTLayQ

— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) March 5, 2023

The company’s chief financial officer, Timothy Johnson, said that Victoria’s Secret plans to spend more on marketing in 2023, both to build brand awareness and to “support the new version of our fashion show, which is to come later this year.” With their show returning, we can finally see if all that work, all that marketing and rebranding really was for the good of championing women everywhere and of all shapes, sizes and colours.