Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is over and Kendall Jenner and the Hadid sisters are to blame
Becoming an angel used to be such an honour it was almost unattainable. But now the Victoria’s Secret Show is over and it’s hard not to point the finger at queue-jumping Kendall Jenner and her Hadid gal pals, writes Sally Coates.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
When it comes to commercial success, impossibly attractive women in barely there lingerie seems like a slam dunk every time.
So what the sexy heck has happened to the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show?
Aussie supermodel Shanina Shaik let the cat out of the bag that there would be no show this year, the first time since its inception in 1995.
No glittering, gorgeous models who are literally referred to as “angels” strutting down a confetti covered catwalk, wearing outlandish costumes that I can never seem to find at the flagship airport stores (they would probably put me over my 7kg carry-on anyway).
And no average women at home crying into a jumbo glass of wine wondering how everything went so horribly wrong — physically.
So what could have possibly happened to a brand that was seemingly on to the foolproof aforementioned strategy of models and lingerie and glitter?
Well, plenty.
While it’s never nice to play the blame game, a lot of VS tragics are blaming the arrival of the “it” girls — Kendall Jenner, Bella and Gigi Hadid — who many believe got there through their names, not their talent.
That’s not to say they aren’t gorgeous women capable of selling a product, but they weren’t angels.
Our own Miranda Kerr, Gisele Bündchen, Heidi Klum, Adriana Lima, Tyra Banks, Karolina Kurkova — they were physically perfect but they were also fun and flirty.
There was a hilarious video that did the rounds last year comparing Naomi Campbell’s runway strut to Jenner’s.
Campbell commands the runway, she somehow stomped and floated at the same time.
She made you resist blinking for fear you would miss one millisecond of her glory and just when you thought she’d reached the human perfection, she’d give you a little wink that would ruin you.
Then comes Jenner’s walk and yeah, sure, she looks great, but her walk is not in the same league as Campbell. She looks like she’s wandering down the pasta sauce aisle at Coles trying to remember which one left that funny aftertaste in her mouth.
And then when she got to the checkout, she and the Hadids skipped the queue and jumped straight to the front without waiting behind the mum of four with a full trolley.
Becoming an angel used to be such an honour it was almost unattainable.
Models had to work for years and then once they got there, they were angels first and foremost.
But you can barely turn a corner without being slapped in the face by some brand endorsement by Jenner and the Hadids.
Victoria’s Secret made models household names, they weren’t meant to be household already.
The diversity argument has also played a big part in the downfall of Victoria’s Secret.
I’m sure there was a collective face-palm when Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razek said they didn’t want transsexual models in the show because it would ruin the fantasy.
And as big brands embraced curvier women, the public started to cry out for VS to follow suit. I don’t agree that VS had to.
To be honest, as an Australian I’ve never even owned a piece of VS lingerie and I don’t understand how I would even wear what the models are wearing on the catwalk.
The wings seem like they would be fairly obvious under my work clothes.
But the reason we were fine with witnessing these beautiful bodies was because it was once a year and then we could forget what we saw.
These days with Instagram all we see is beautiful bodies. Everyone on social media looks like an angel so what is the point of tuning in to see a runway full of Instagram bodies?
I don’t think they had the intention to make women feel bad about themselves, but it’s what happened.
Sales were lower than an angel’s calorie count, brand dominance was down, it was announced that VS forecasted 53 stores would close in the US in 2019.
And ratings for the once highly anticipated fashion show were down, so the show was dumped by the TV networks.
That was announced in February, with VS bigwigs saying the brand and the show would be revamped.
Everyone, including me, assumed the show would go on but thanks to the whispers of a (former) angel, we know the dream is over.
It’s not the end of the world, but it is the end of a fantasy.
