The 2017 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show will be missing one angel this year. Gigi Hadid just revealed that she won’t be going to China for the annual show, taking place in Shanghai on Monday, November 20.
Although the supermodel was expected to walk the runway for the third time, Hadid announced that she wouldn’t be able to attend on her Twitter just four days before the show.
“I’m so bummed I won’t be able to make it to China this year,” she wrote on Thursday, November 16. “Love my VS family, and will be with all my girls in spirit!! Can’t wait to tune in with everyone to see the beautiful show I know it will be, and already can’t wait for next year!”
Her younger sister Bella Hadid is walking in the show. There’s been speculation by Fashionista that perhaps the older Hadid sister didn’t have her Visa approved by the Chinese government after she faced some backlash earlier this year for seemingly mocking Asians.
In a video posted on an Instagram story in February, Hadid held up a chocolate dessert shaped like a sumo warriors’ face at Zuma and imitated the expression. Fans quickly called her out for allegedly making fun of Asians. Her boyfriend Zayn Malik, who is part Asian, even responded to one person who asked how he felt about her actions on Twitter, saying, “Trust me … she likes Asians.”
Hadid turned off her comments on an Instagram post where she announced she’d be walking in the show again on August 28 after the hashtag #GigiGetOutofChina began trending. She apologized on Weibo, a social media channel available only in China on September 1, writing, “I have learned to be very careful of how my actions can come off or be portrayed and I’m hopeful you’ll accept my apology.”
Although we’ll certainly miss seeing Hadid on the runway, she’s got plenty going on back here in the States. The 22-year-old just launched a charitable shoe collection with Stuart Weitzman, was named a Woman of the Year by Glamour at their annual awards ceremony and celebrated her two year anniversary with Malik.
