Victoria's secret leases only super-skin models – and that's a problem

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show returns to New York City on Thursday for her annual piano-concert puzzler. Angels of the lingerie brand are plaguing the images of demanding workouts and bra accessories as they prepare to twist their elements in the corridor, filled with bright skivvies and giant fins with fins that overlap their appropriate frames.

The show has been produced for 22 years, and the models that have been going on for a long time are considered the culmination of beauty. But sexy popular seems to suffer: Last year's exaggeration, which was filmed in Shanghai, pulled to less than 5 million viewers, down 32 percent from the previous year. And the shares of L Brands, the underwear manufacturer's parent company, are down by more than 40% this year. An expanding critics' chorus – even an online boycott request – has identified the floor: Victoria's Secret sells a natural ideal that does not seem to represent its customers.

The brand has taken some steps towards the appearance of a diverse group of models in the corridor – this year, they have exhibited 19 color models, including one with visible vitiligo, a condition in which the skin loses its color in patches. But there is still a realm of participation that obviously have not looked at: size.

"There is a body type and a type of size they believe in. They are big tits, short waist, high skinny legs," says a stylist who has teamed up with the brand. "If they do not have the body that Ed [Razek, Victoria’s Secret’s senior creative] she considers the body of the perfect woman, she will not be on the show. "(The representatives of Victoria's Secret refused to comment on this article.)

VS models often go to the ends to achieve their physical abilities. After her second child was born in 2012, veteran Angel Adriana Lima hit the corridor just eight weeks later, after four to six hours of daily work and consuming a moist diet. Also, the water has faded in the last few days to get even more weight.

"They publish the Instagrams by saying" Train like an Angel "," Chelsea Bonner, who has run Bella Management for curved models for 16 years, tells The Post. "Do you train as an angel for what you can wear a pair of knitters?" "These women are trained like Olympic athletes." What a woman in everyday life she trains as an Olympic athlete besides the Olympic athletes?

Critics argue that such messages can be totally dangerous. "I struggled so much with body malformation and disturbed eating during my teenage years. . . because I have been personally influenced by images of perfect bodies and those messages, "says Iskra Lawrence, who models for the Aerie line, American Eagle's intimates.

Becca McCharen-Tran, designer of Chromat's waterproof swimming and sports wear, adds: "There are so many negative fluctuations from the show, especially with cultural idiosyncrasies – cultures as costumes – and this very masculine aspect of beauty is for the women. If this is what girls see as the beauty that is celebrated, not seeing yourself in it is just as restrictive. I think so [the show] simply shapes so much of our cultural conversation about what beauty is and who is considered worthy of desire and who is beautiful and who is not. "

One of Bonner's customers, model Robyn Lawley, is similarly tired. Athletic reflection of 6-foot-2 sportswear, plus size, demanded a boycott of the show in October. The Victoria Secret has "dominated the space for almost 30 years telling women that there is only one type of body [that’s] beautiful, "Lawley, 29, wrote to Instagram, saying she did it in part for her 3-year-old daughter, Ripley." It's probably the time Victoria's Secret has celebrated customers who feed her bottom line. "ThirdLove, a VS competitor offering 74 different bra sizes, worked with Lawley (who is not a brand representative) to promote the petition.

Bonner credits the emergence of social media for the desire of women to convey their disappointment to the industry. "It is now clear that women are very smart about these things anymore," he says. "They are really sick to tell you what they should look like, especially when they are so over-realistic." She says if VS showed a model that is "size 10 or at least full size 8 – [that] it would be wonderfull."

At the time of the release, 8, 232 people signed Lawley's report to Change.org, and some published the reasons why they agreed with Lawley's message. "I like the VS but never have anything that suits me," commented Raelene Ellett. "Curve or not, representation, please! Look at other Victoria, Victoria's Secret Underwear companies, you need to speed it up," wrote Talia S.

Victoria's Secret offers XL size lingerie (about 16 inches) and some brasses up to 40DDD. According to a 2018 report on Racked.com, 68% of American women wear a size of 14 or more. Models that wear this size, however, have not walked in the hallway in the fashion show of the brand.

Other brands of trust see success because they do not only make larger sizes but show more different body types in the catwalk and in the ads. For example, Aerie runs only ads that have not redesigned and which have models of all sizes. The brand has reported four years of sales growth.

Hot singer Rihanna closed New York Fashion Week in September with a show celebrating the Savage X Fenty line for lingerie, which goes up 44DD and 3XL and has similar price points to VS – thinks 5-for-35 $ panties and $ 39 bra. Her catwalk showed models of all shapes and sizes (including a model that went to work during the show) along with stars that have walked VS: Bella Hadid, Gigi Hadid and Joan Smalls. He pulled 1.4 million viewers to YouTube and gathered comments like "The VS is canceled".

McCharen-Tran, whose Chromat routes show that they have included trans people, as well as size and end-to-end models, says "100 percent" has strengthened the brand.

"We had models plus-plus in the corridor for the past five years, but we did not have size offers plus a mass retailer like Nordstrom until this year," he says. "When we started the size plus plus on a large scale with Nordstrom, some of the styles are sold immediately. I know there are many customers who were waiting for us to catch up, and when we did, our work really expanded."

Although it's likely that Victoria's Secret may surprise its viewers with a curved casting at this year's show, the odds look fine.

"They run like these old white men who want to tell women how they should look like," says the former VS stylist. "And they think men just want to see women who look like girls walking down the VS corridor. They sound like an ambition to be an angel." It's no longer … VS has made a choice about the types body for their brand and it will be the thing that kills them. "

But everyone does not think they are doomed.

"It's never too late, it's not an irreversible thing that can not suddenly start to welcome more different decision-makers in the background as well as on the corridor itself," McCharen-Tran says: "They have a fantastic platform that could exploit the best good, identify more identities. . . I do not think it's a lost cause. I think there is still room for change. "