Industry insiders suggested that Victoria’s Secret Angels’ latest walk for Boohoo, a down-market online fast-fashion retailer, might be a sign that everything is going not-so-well for the angelic models.
“A year ago, there is no way that would have happened,” a modelling industry source told Page Six. “Victoria Secret Angels were so unattainable and wouldn’t have been aligned with a brand like [Boohoo].”
It is hardly an ordinary year for the lingerie giant. For the first time since 1995, VS won’t be staging its annual fashion show — known as the Super Bowl of modelling. Televised since 2001, it’s been an international showcase for the elite group of contracted models known as the Angels. Such models as Gisele Bündchen, Karlie Kloss, Heidi Klum, Miranda Kerr, Tyra Banks and Stephanie Seymour have all been Angels.
The group has had a rough time in recent years: declining lingerie sales, falling TV ratings, a seeming resistance to keep up with cultural trends and even an uncomfortably close connection to the late Jeffrey Epstein might have led to a decline in popularity.
“It used to be that you did VS and you became this superstar,” a Victoria’s Secret insider told The New York Post. “The industry has just changed overall. I could see the Angels going away.”
Among other things that VS might need to change are the working conditions of their models. The Angels are reportedly under contract conditions which are quite strict — demanding a certain number of hours from the models and also restricting the other work they can do. According to the insider, Angels are forbidden from working with other beauty, swim or fragrance brands.
Now, as the VS show goes dark, Angels might be in need of other gigs – with or without the company. The VS insider said that the brand has brought back the company’s swim collection after a three-year hiatus and that some of the Angels — including Josephine Skriver, who this week was announced as the face of a new beauty line for the company — are being spun off for specific products.
“But that doesn’t replace the fashion show,” the insider added, noting that they still hope for it to eventually be revived, even though they “don’t think there is the prestige anymore.”
