Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is a fantastic production, but it doesn’t seem to have a real place in the modern world anymore.
Mainly because of how non-inclusive it is.
Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer, proved this in an interview with Vogue ahead of the show. The 70-year-old man discussed how they won’t include “plus-size” models or trans women in the show, which was upsetting to a lot of people.
Louisa O’Reilly, a model who was among the many people annoyed with his comments, wrote, “Prime example of why brands need to be careful of casting directors opinions. Especially when it’s a 70 year old man who’s living in the past. Thank god [Rihanna] brought us @SavageXFenty this year with genuine attention & love of diversity in her branding,” she tweeted.
A fan proceeded to then take a screenshot of Louise’s tweet, posting it on Instagram, writing, “Queen of diversity”.
Rihanna was obviously checking her mentions later that day because she proceeded to ‘like’ the tweet. BURN.
It’s particularly shady for Rih to have liked it, as Ed was dissing her Savage Fenty line in that same interview.
“Everybody keeps talking about Rihanna’s show. If we had done Rihanna’s show, we would be accused of pandering without question,” Ed said. “Because the brand has a specific image, has a point of view. It has a history. …By the way, we’ve had three pregnant models walk the show. Everybody had the conversation about Savage [x Fenty] having the pregnant model in the show. We watch this, we’re amused by it, but we don’t milk it. And all of these things that they’ve ‘invented,’ we have done and continue to do.”
Ed received an abundance of backlash from these comments, so he proceeded to apologise. “My remark regarding the inclusion of transgender models in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show came across as insensitive. I apologise. To be clear, we absolutely would cast a transgender model for the show. We’ve had transgender models come to castings… And like many others, they didn’t make it…But it was never about gender. I admire and respect their journey to embrace who they really are.”
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