The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2019 has been officially nixed.
L Brands, the company that owns VC, made the announcement during a phone conference on Thursday (November 21), revealing that the lingerie big-wig needs to “evolve the messaging” of the company. “We will be communicating to customers but nothing similar in magnitude to the fashion show. We will communicate to customers through lots of vehicles including social media and other channels,” CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer said via The Wrap.
Initial word of the cancellation arrived in July when VS model Shanina Shaik, who has walked in the show for several years, revealed that the tradition was no longer happening, at least in 2019. The Australian broke the news in her interview with the Daily Telegraph, saying, “Unfortunately the Victoria’s Secret show won’t be happening this year. It’s something I’m not used to because every year around this time I’m training like an angel. But I’m sure in the future something will happen, which I’m pretty sure about. I’m sure they’re trying to work on branding and new ways to do the show because it’s the best show in the world.”
1995 marked the inaugural year for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, but the series hit a speed bump when it was announced in May that it would no longer be televised. Word of the revised format arrived after chief marketing officer Ed Razek spoke about excluding trans women in the annual TV special. “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,” he said in an interview with Vogue. After Razek quit his position, the brand walked back on his statements and tried to do damage control by hiring its first transgender model in August. Still, that didn’t seem to improve Victoria Secret’s sales decline.
