Dear Victoria’s Secret you did great but why so late

American lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret, a brand that was founded in 1977 and has drooled women across the globe with their collection time and again, has signed a new roster of female brand representatives to promote women empowerment. 

After showing supermodels, which they dubbed as angels, strutting the catwalk in little more than lingerie, feathers, and gems for so many years, they are re-branding their image by roping in female voices that also include Indian actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

In 2019, the brand had abandoned its famed fashion show which saw supermodels parade down the catwalk ramp in lingerie studded with gems and laced with feathers. This came following criticism that it was leading to the objectification of women.

“When the world was changing, we were too slow to respond. We needed to stop being about what men want and to be about what women want,” chief executive Martin Waters told The New York Times.

In a time when the world is waking up to body positivity, and changing the definition of beauty, VS following suit is nothing but an obvious step to avoid any controversy. After all, we previously saw Savage X Fenty – the underwear brand founded by singer and make-up mogul Rihanna – focusing majorly on “athleisure” inspired underwear.

In India, many brands are already moving towards diverse representation when it comes to fashion.

Brand SHIVAN & NARRESH, one of the finest swim and resort wear line, is already getting appreciation for designing for all shapes and sizes.

Shivan Bhatiya, Head Designer, SHIVAN & NARRESH, told Opoyi, “Since past generations, beauty has always been defined and consumed from the lens of a set standard – advocated through mediums of traditional advertisements and fashion stereotypes.

However, now with millennials dominating this landscape, they have really taken upon the opportunity to help widen the mindset of beauty that people often feel pressured to match, making it a lot more inclusive and real today.

Added Narresh Kukreja, Creative Director of the brand, “Now that the power has been dismantled from top-tiered fashion giants and commercial advertising into the hands of real consumers through the democratic tool of social media, it reinstates us all to be collective pioneers of what beauty actually needs to stand for. This has also helped to evolve our role as luxury fashion designers to further redefine and curate the holistic meaning of what true beauty should be, i.e, real and inclusive.”

For Niraj Jawanjal, Founder & Chief Ideator of India Intimate Fashion Week, one of the largest Asian Intimate Fashion Platform, Victoria’s Secret move is definitely a welcome step.

“Objectifying women is something that no society or culture should accept or promote. Inclusivity and diversity are getting more prominence now than ever globally and it’s definitely changing the way fashion sees beauty. Also, it becomes all the more important for brands like VS to create trends as the brand has a huge fan base and people would like to follow what they do.

“We as IIFW have always maintained that and have endorsed beauty of all kinds irrespective of shape, size, or colour. We even invited transgender to be the leaders in setting examples in our past editions and we will continue to do so in days to come,” he told Opoyi.

Indian supermodel Sonalika Sahay is happy to see the world is embracing the new definition of gender fluidity.

“I strongly believe that women should look the way they want to look and not the way men want them to look. I’m very happy that brands like Victoria’s Secret have embraced the new age Mantra of women empowerment and gender fluidity. It is a proud moment as an Indian to also see Priyanka Chopra on this list,” she told Opoyi.