Controversial history of Victoria's Secret Fashion Show explored as its comeback gets criticized

On Tuesday, October 15, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show returned after a six-year hiatus. The show, held at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York, was criticized by fans and viewers as "boring" and "lackluster," particularly for its "paired-back production" and somber models, which didn't match the glitz fans were expecting after the long hiatus.

However, this is not the first time the fashion show has been scrutinized. This article examines the controversies surrounding the lingerie brand that led to its six-year-long hiatus.

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The last Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was hosted in 2018

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was last held in 2018. The show, which once attracted over 10 million viewers, only had 3 million live viewers that year.

It all started in November 2018, when Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer of L Brands (the former parent company of Victoria's Secret) at the time, faced backlash about a comment he made.

In an interview with Vogue on November 8, 2018, Razek said he didn't think including transexual models in the Victoria's Secret fashion show was a good idea:

“So it’s like, why don’t you do 50? Why don’t you do 60? Why don’t you do 24? It’s like, why doesn’t your show do this? Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. It’s a 42-minute entertainment special.”

Following the severe criticism that Razek's statement received from both the LGTBQ as well as fashion communities, the marketer later apologized for his statement posted on the brand's X handle, calling his remarks "insensitive" and adding:

"To be clear, we absolutely would cast a transgender model for the show... We’ve had transgender models come to the castings ... And like many others, they didn’t make it ... But it was never about gender."

In August of the following year, Razek stepped down from his position at L Brands. The very same month, Victoria's Secret hired Valentina Sampaio as its first openly transgender model.

Following Razek's comment, public information about Les Wexner's link to the convicted s*x offender Jeffrey Epstein was another blow to Victoria's Secret's reputation. Wexner was the CEO of L Brands at the time, with his acquaintance with Epstein coming to light following the offender's reported suicide in 2019.

According to CNBC News, Wexner first met Epstein in the mid-1980s, and the two appeared to be close friends. Clearing his name from the Epstein debacle, Wexner released a statement in September 2019. The CEO called his former friend's crimes "abhorrent," adding:

"Being taken advantage of by someone who is ... so depraved is something I’m embarrassed I’m even close to. We are all betrayed by friends. At the end of the day, people have secret lives because ... they’re so good at hiding those secrets."

Wexner also added that L Brands had cut ties with Jeffrey over a decade before and had hired an outside counsel to conduct a review.

In light of all that was going on, the brand thought it best to cancel the 2019 Victoria's Secret fashion show, announcing that it was done to "evolve the messaging of the company."

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A report stating the toxic culture at Victoria's Secret was published in 2020

Victoria's Secret was still recovering from the damages of 2019 when The New York Times published a report highlighting the alleged culture of misogyny, harassment, and bullying prevalent in the company.

The report, which included interviews of over 30 former and current Victoria's Secret models and employees, pointed fingers at Razek for allegedly misbehaving with models and Wexner for his inaction when informed of it.

Following this, Victoria's Secret fashion show announced that it was separating itself from L Brands and was "intensely focused" on corporate governance, workplace, and compliance practices. Subsequently, Wexner resigned from his position as L Brand's CEO.

Having become a public company in 2021, Victoria's Secret fashion show focused on appealing to a large audience, including plus-sized and body-positive models in its ad campaigns.

In 2023, the brand launched a revamped version of Victoria's Secret fashion show on Amazon Prime Video, with Gigi Hadid and Candice Swanepoel.

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In the wake of the criticism the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show has received this year, there's no saying whether or not the lingerie brand will return for another show in 2025.