Speaking her mind. Former Victoria’s Secret model Bridget Malcolm got very real about her experience with the brand, calling the retailer out for fostering unrealistic body standards and their ‘performative’ VS Collective rebrand.
Following the lingerie company’s announcement that they would be banishing their “Angels” brand and formal fashion show, the 29-year-old Australian beauty took to TikTok to voice her thoughts on the movement away from the old messaging.
Captioned “too little too late,” Malcolm stated that she believed Victoria’s Secret’s VS Collective, which features actress Priyanka Chopra, soccer star Megan Rapinoe and more as the faces of the brand, to be “performative ally ship” and “a joke.”
She also took the opportunity to demonstrate that when she was part of the “Angels” group in 2016, she was underweight.
“I found my bra from the 2016 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show,” she wrote in the video. “It is a size 30A. I am now a size 34B. Which is healthy for me.”
Malcolm holds the bra up against her current red sport bra, demonstrating how much smaller she was at the time of the fashion show.
She went on to detail that in 2017, her bra size moved from a 30A to a 30B. This change prompted the following response from Ed Rezek, the marketing chief of Victoria’s Secret’s parent company L Brands.
“I was rejected from the show in 2017 by Ed Razek. He said, ‘my body did not look good enough,’” she wrote in the TikTok. “I wore a size 30B at that point. Look how big it was on me. The sadness behind my eyes from the 2016 show breaks my heart.” Rezek retired in 2019.
In response to the video, a Victoria’s Secret representative told Us Weekly: “There is a new leadership team at Victoria’s Secret who is fully committed to the continued transformation of the brand with a focus on creating an inclusive environment for our associates, customers and partners to celebrate, uplift and champion all women.”
Malcolm’s TikTok follows Victoria’s Secret’s June announcement that they are ushering in a “new era” for the brand. Through their new initiative, VS Collective, the faces of the company will be “an ever-growing group of accomplished women who share a common passion to drive positive change.”
The brand will also be launching The Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers, which “will fund innovative research projects aimed at progressing treatments and cures for women’s cancers.”
“At Victoria’s Secret, we are on an incredible journey to become the world’s leading advocate for women. This is a drastic shift for our brand, and it’s a shift that we embrace from our core. These new initiatives are just the beginning,” Chief Executive Officer for Victoria’s Secret, Martin Waters, said in a press release.
