Victoria’s Secret just launched a new lingerie campaign featuring transgender and plus-size models in a mission to rebrand the 42-year-old company.
Women’s Wear Daily reports that the brand is collaborating with British designer Emily Bendell and her luxury lingerie company, Bluebella, as part of Victoria’s Secret’s new collaborative campaign strategy.
The new, diverse campaign features an incredible lineup of women like transgender model May Simón Lifschitz, plus-size model Ali Tate Cutler, Olivia Sang and up-and-comers like Laura Rakhman-Kidd. You can see them modeling the lacy new pieces online at VictoriasSecret.com and in-store.
Cutler took to Instagram on Saturday, October 5, to share a photo of her modeling the collection. She captioned the pic, “I believe I’m the first size 14 on @victoriassecret? Regardless, I’m pretty stoked to work with a brand I idolized when I was a teen. Great step in the right direction for bodies.”
“A lot of marketing changes just recently happened,” said Victoria’s Secret’s chief executive officer via WWD. “I think what you can sort of look at as a North Star is if you look at the Love & Lemons video that we did. It’s very different for us. You’ll start to see an evolution. But for us, it’s being very thoughtful about this precious brand that’s been built over the course of 30, 40 years. But [we’re thinking] how do we evolve it? And how do we quickly move forward to all the things that we know it needs to be for her?”
This is quite the turnaround for the company. In a November 2018 interview with Vogue, Victoria’s Secret’s former chief marketing officer Ed Razek said he didn’t think transgender or plus-size models should star in the show’s annual fashion show because “it’s a fantasy.” Razek retired from the company in August after over 30 years and the brand hired its first transgender model, Victoria Sampaio, in August 2019 for Victoria’s Secret Pink’s back-to-campus campaign.
The show’s 2019 fashion show — which normally takes place in November — is reportedly cancelled, however that doesn’t mean we won’t see it resurrected in some way in the future.
