Here's why Victoria's Secret have cancelled their fashion show
After facing increasing criticism and decreasing viewers, Victoria's Secret have finally called it quits on their annual fashion show.
Rumours about the show's impending closure came back in July, when model and Victoria's Secret Angel Shanina Shaik told the Daily Telegraph that the show would not be happening this year.
Now, chief financial officer Stuart Burgdoerfer announced that the show has officially been cancelled, stating that: "we will be communicating to customers, but nothing similar in magnitude to the fashion show."
Launching back in 1995, in its hay-day the show was considered to be one of the biggest events of the year. With high profile celebrity guests and performers, including Arianna Grande and the Weeknd, millions of people tuned in to watch.
However, last year there were just 3.2 million viewers - a stark contrast from the 12 million back in 2001, and their lowest ever ratings.
The show that kickstarted the careers of supermodels Gisele Bundchen, Tyra Banks and Adiana Lima, saw Kendall Jenner, Bella and Gigi Hadid walk last year.
In 2018, VS chief marketing officer Ed Razek came under fire for his controversial interview with Vogue where he said that the brand wouldn't cast plus-sized or transgender models "because the show is a fantasy." Shortly after he resigned and the first transgender Victoria's Secret model was cast.
Many people have complained about the VS show's lack of diversity and outdated views, and the brand's parent company L Brands stated that the decision was made to "evolve the messaging of [the company]."
The launch of Rihanna's all inclusive lingerie brand Savage x Fenty has undoubtedly facilitated the decline of VS. Unlike Victoria's Secret, RiRi's 2019 show was praised for openly celebrating diversity and has been going from strength to strength ever since.
We have reached out to Victoria's Secret for a comment.
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