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- Ex-Victoria’s Secret Angels Walked in Savage X Fenty Vol.3, Proving That We’re in a New Era
Ex-Victoria’s Secret Angels Walked in Savage X Fenty Vol.3, Proving That We’re in a New Era
@savagexfenty
Okay, it’s official, Rihanna has rightfully replaced the once-beloved Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show with Savage X Fenty Vol.3. We’re witnessing a real-life evolution, y’all.
Savage X Fenty Vol. 3 just dropped on Amazon Prime, and unsurprisingly, RiRi has outdone herself once again, proving that diverse representation, inclusivity and pushing the boundaries outside beauty norms will always be more iconic than playing it safe.
But first, let’s go back a few years.
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show used to be an event of mammoth proportions. It was the first runway show to truly double as a live music event, with historic guests such as Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Taylor Swift, Rita Ora, Lady Gaga, Halsey and even Rihanna herself.
The Victoria’s Secret Angels were known as a group of models—reminiscent of the “Original Supermodels”—that always walked in the VS show, with their ‘perfect’ bodies, bouncy hair and itty bitty titties.
These were models like Miranda Kerr, Adriana Lima, Cara Delevigne, Candice Swanepoel, Behati Prinsloo, Gigi Hadid, Kendal Jenner… basically, all the top working models of the time.
Young girls across the globe (including myself), looked up to these models as the epitome of beauty; an unrealistic goal of perfection that felt hopeless to pursue but they were being celebrated in a way that you couldn’t help but dream of being them.
Victoria’s Secret became well-known as the lingerie show for all of the most beautiful models and at that time, the mainstream definition of beautiful meant extremely thin, cisgender and mostly white.
But, back in 2019, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was cancelled, seemingly all of a sudden. L Brands — the parent company of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works — wanted to “evolve the marketing” of its signature lingerie brand, or so they said to media at the time. But of course, there was more to it than that.
The brand’s sales had been declining in recent years, with consumers beginning to favour bralettes and body inclusivity over push-up bras and abs, the final VS show brought in under half of its regular viewers, going down from 6.7 million to 3.3 million in only a few years.
But more poignantly, in 2018, then-marketing chief Ed Rezak told Vogue that he did not think that transgender models had a place in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. He also claimed that there was no TV or commercial interest for plus-sized runway shows.
He later apologised for his “insensitive” remarks about transgender models, however, the damage was already done.
But babes, it doesn’t stop there. L Brands’ CEO, Les Wexner, had longtime ties to accused sex trafficker and offender Jeffrey Epstein, which were aptly brought to the forefront of media interest in 2019, as Epstein was under investigation.
It became impossible to ignore the misogynistic and problematic framework that surrounded the power structures of L Brands, who were the parent company of Victoria’s Secret and therefore, directly related to the brand’s lack of representation and sometimes outright abusive measures in the pursuit of setting unrealistic beauty standards.
In simple terms, the lingerie brand and fashion show was outed for being an unhealthy symbol of what was expected in the high-fashion industry. It represented a world that wasn’t moving with the times. There was no expression of individuality, no diverse representation, no openness, no positive messaging, and no inclusivity whatsoever. It was time for change.
And then, with impeccable timing, Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty was born. It was a lingerie show like we’d never seen before. Similarly to Victoria’s Secret, there were epic musical performances… but the similarities ended there.
It was the first time we’d ever seen a lingerie fashion show that doubled as a live performance but was all about diversity. Different body types, different skin colours, different genders, different identities and unique stories, told with minimal clothing and optimal celebration of our imperfections.
As soon as the Savage x Fenty Vol.1 dropped in 2019, it was pretty clear that fashion shows as we knew it were about to change.
It’s crazy to think that this was only a couple of years ago, given the amount of growth and positive change we’ve seen in the fashion industry since then.
This growth has been more apparent than ever in the past few weeks, with fashion week shows including more plus-sized models, models of varying genders, colours, shapes, sizes and abilities walking their runways.
And now, with Savage X Fenty Vol.3 including past Victoria’s Secret models Joan Smalls, Gigi Hadid, Adriana Lima and Behati Prinsloo, Rihanna is sending a gloriously loud message to high-fashion snobs of the past, that exclusivity isn’t fashion.
With a musical performance from Normani, Vogue-ing from Leiomy and an iconic appearance from trans drag queen Gottmik, there’s absolutely no doubt that Rihanna continues to work towards a future we all want to be a part of.
You can watch the Savage X Fenty Vol.3 show on Amazon Prime now.
