All about timing
VICTORIA’S SECRET STICKS TO SCRIPT, DESPITE #METOO
The Victoria’s Secret show has never exactly been a paragon of empowered womanhood, given t hat its premise is honed and preened models prancing down a catwalk in skimpy, j ewelled l i ngerie for the pleasure of male viewers or to act as role models for the women watching.
But this year’s show — held in Shanghai on Monday — comes in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. In recent weeks, fashion, film and politics have been rocked by allegations of sexual abuse and harassment. The # MeToo movement of women sharing their experiences has created a shift in mood that meant that all the usual arguments trotted out by the Victoria’s Secret crew — namely, that it really is empowering to the women involved — look rather flimsy.
For the show’s producers, there was never any question that the show wouldn’t continue in its typical provocative style. It’s true that there have been no abuse allegations linked to Victoria’s Secret or anyone associated with it. Yet the culture and messaging of its bling- tastic blockbusters still sits uneasily with late 2017 sensibilities.
The shows have only increased in scale, budget and volumes of glitter since they began in 1995. The Victoria’s Secret argument for this is that they are portraying women as confident and in control. Maybe, but they’re mainly confident about their conventionally sexy bodies ( there are no plus- size models cast in the show), and what exactly are they in control of ? Their much vaunted VS exercise and “clean- eating” regimes? Of a career that’s entirely balanced pre- cariously on the not- alwayspredictable fluctuations of their looks and the casting directors at VS?
It is not exactly a nuanced, complex, rich message about women. Rather, it’s as monofocused as a ‘ 50s beauty pageant. This year’s show was intended as a celebration of Victoria’s Secret’s entrance to the Chinese market, staged in Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena in front of an audience of 3,000. Lais Ribeiro, a Brazilian model, wore the US$ 2- million Champagne Nights Fantasy Bra, handset in 18- carat gold with diamonds, yellow sapphires and a blue topaz.
Harry Styles and Miguel, the American singer, performed as 88 bejewelled looks went by, including a punk- themed section designed by Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s creative director. Karlie Kloss wore a billowing hand- beaded tartan cape, and Candice Swanepoel opened the show with an enormous black sequin train and feather wings.
“This is my ninth year, and I always want to come back because there’s nothing else like it,” gushed 33- yearold Lily Aldridge as she posed backstage in a marshmallow pink silk dressing gown and little else. “You get to feel like a rock star on the stage as, for once, it’s all about your personality.”
“This is the Super Bowl of modelling — we wait for this day all year long,” agrees Sara Sampaio, a Portuguese model. The 26- year- old, who has recently been one of the industry’s most active campaigners against model mistreatment, and criticized French men’s magazine Lui for taking nude photos of her without her consent, describes the Victoria’s Secret show as one of her favourite bookings of the year. “This is my fifth year and I know everyone so well now that it’s like a family unit. It’s something I had always dreamt of doing.”
The VS team are adept at drafting in highly paid, gorgeous models who say how marvellous they feel prancing about in a pair of angel wings. Their other favourite argument is that the shows, online, are mainly watched by women. So that makes it all right then.
But does it? How many of those females are teenagers and preteens, nurturing all kinds of insecurities about their bodies, stoking their fragile sense of self- worth with thoughts that if only they could learn to sashay in a thong and crystal sandals, they too could have a supermodel career?
The two- dimensional limitations of the female ambitions — make me thin, busty and pretty, and nifty with a pair of angel wings — are depressingly narrow and infantilizing. And yet the audience for this stuff is vast. While the show won’t be broadcast until next week in the U. S., last year the same broadcast attracted 6.7 million viewers on CBS. Women are the main audience, which will reach a billion people watching across television channels, social media and online streams in 185 countries this year.
Victoria’s Secret has the opportunity to seize the possibilities of a post-Weinstein age. There can be lingerie displays and shows that are truly empowering and inspirational — just look at Calvin Klein’s softly shot images of 73- year- old Lauren Hutton in a comfy bra and white shirt earlier this year.
In this new climate, the potential is there to do something fresh and forwardthinking. How frustrating then that Shanghai stuck so resolutely to the script.