inclusive casting can’t save stale designs

Six years after cancel culture killed the Victoria’s Secret catwalk show, it’s not only back, but also seemingly unchanged.

On Wednesday, the American lingerie Goliath staged its catwalk show in Brooklyn, streaming it live on Amazon Prime. Watching in person, meanwhile, were Sarah Jessica Parker, Chloë Sevigny and Patrick Schwarzenegger whose wife, the model Abby Champion, was appearing on the runway.

The show — notorious for sending supermodels down the runway in barely-there thongs, push-up bras and gaudy “angel” wings — was cancelled in 2019, in a perfect storm of falling sales figures and toxic company culture.

Ed Razek, the brand’s chief marketing officer at the time, resigned after a backlash against comments he made in a Vogue interview in 2018 on the topic of inclusive casting, in which he described the show as “a fantasy”.

“It’s a 42-minute entertainment special. That’s what it is,” he said.

In 2020, The New York Times published an investigation of the company’s culture: allegations of bullying, harassment and misogyny, including multiple complaints about Razek’s inappropriate behaviour.

This year’s show included plus-size models such as the supermodel Ashley Graham, and the transgender model Alex Consani, who also walked in the show last year, its first return to the live format since the cancellation.

There were professional athletes: the Olympian gymnast Suni Lee in a sports bra and shorts, and the basketball player Angel Reese in a raunchy lace bra and knicker set with rose appliqué and suspender belt.

Jasmine Tookes became the first visibly pregnant model to walk in the show: she opened it, at nine months pregnant, in a pearly mesh Birth of Venus ode complete with shell. I doubt many pregnant women watching saw their own realities reflected.

So yes, there was more inclusive casting. And there was a new hot-shot designer behind the looks: Adam Selman, formerly of Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty, now the executive creative director.

But the vast majority of those on the catwalk were still model thin — and their outfits (if that’s what you can call them) reliably skimpy. The nepo babies Lila Moss (daughter of Kate) and Iris Law (daughter of Sadie Frost and Jude Law) joined veteran supermodels such as the Hadid sisters, Bella and Gigi, and Adriana Lima.

The Pirelli calendar pivoted away from male gaze glamour and nudity post MeToo. However, with this show Victoria’s Secret seems to have quietly backed away from promises of feminist empowerment. Depressing, but perhaps inevitable, when the lingerie itself remains old fashioned and slightly porny. I honestly don’t know any woman who buys it any more.

Victoria’s Secret survived being cancelled not because it changed, or even because the public changed. It survived because its consumers are teenage girls intoxicated by the angel glamour, and grown men who will buy anything that promises to turn their wives into smiling, sexy dollies for the evening.