A New Era of Victoria’s Secret: What We Know About the Upcoming World Tour
By Zoe Hirshfeld
Is the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show back? Not exactly.
Since March 15th, well-known lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret has been teasing the return of their once iconic fashion shows. The shows were a staple of the 2000s and 2010s, featuring musical performances, models from every continent, and elaborate costumes reminiscent of pageant wear. The show was viewed worldwide by over a billion people before the final show took place in November 2018.
Victoria’s Secret Fashion show in 2018.
The shows sold the fantasy of becoming a Victoria’s Secret Angel, but the fantasy failed to include women who were anything but thin, white, and perfectly manicured. The cancellation of the shows was the right move for the company, which became embroiled in controversies in its later years.
The company’s failure to adapt to changing times and feature a more inclusive array of models in their shows is often cited as the primary factor that led to the cancellation of its annual show. But Victoria’s Secret has spent the past five years rebranding its website and social media presence to shift its focus toward diversity, including announcing it would be discontinuing the Angels brand in June 2021.
The visual content included with their May 9th announcement of a “VS World Tour” demonstrates the company has taken the feedback to diversify to heart. Five years after the last Victoria’s Secret show, the entire experience has been rebranded.
Coming this fall, the Victoria’s Secret World Tour will include a film and event labeled as a celebration of the VS20: a group of creatives from Bogotá, Lagos, London, and Tokyo. They describe the concept in their statement, stating,
“We’re proud to pioneer a global fashion event, film, and celebration that leads audiences through the behind-the-scenes artistic process and personal narratives of the VS20, a group of innovative creatives from around the world who represent four fashion curations from the vibrant cities of Bogotá, Lagos, London, and Tokyo. With the creative freedom to conceptualize, produce, and stage a collection that is all their own, the dynamic artistic forces from the fashion, film, design, music, and visual fields will converge to showcase their work that centers on the appreciation and beauty of womanhood.”
To summarize, these twenty creatives in their respective groups will be filmed working together to create a collection and put on a runway show.
Promotional images on the VS website
The concept is unique, impressive, and could be successful if executed well. The prospects of new voices in fashion are always exciting. However, the promotional materials fall flat. The webpage dedicated to the announcement includes a list of the twenty creators involved, and a few pictures of each captioned with a few fairly generic quotes. The details of the film and event are vague, leaving much to be desired for those highly anticipating the announcement.
While some longtime fans are nostalgic for the glitz and glam the previous annual VS shows provided, many are excited about the departure from the monotony of the shows. The company has likely taken notes from the successes of the newer, popular Savage X Fenty fashion shows for their rebrand, which includes models of all abilities, ages, races, and sizes. While their shift towards inclusivity is clear, not much else about the event is; many are skeptical of the film and what it will consist of. Comments under social media posts promoting the World Tour are widely filled with disappointment, with fans voicing their hopes for the return of the Angels and lamenting over the changes that have been made.
The announcement teases that there is more to come, and WFUStyle will keep you updated when further details are revealed!
