From 2001 to 2018, millions of TV viewers watched the one-hour show, which alternated between runway presentations and interviews with the models in the changing room. But already last year the Angels lost a little of their glitter when the audience fell to the worst level in five year in the US (3.3 million vs 5 million the preceding years).
Models pose on the runway during the 2016 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo Paris, France - November 30, 2016 © FashionStock.com)
No plus size models, no transgenders. What is causing the decline? The brand’s image is battered by its directors who refuse to bend the lines. The marketing is composed of the same ingredients it had 20 years ago, with push-up bras and sexy - even ultra-sexualized girls, airbrushed and photo-shopped to perfection.
In two years, Victoria’s Secret lost over 3.8 million clients and closed more than 80 stores in the US - only to open again overseas. After having the Angels parade beneath the glass ceiling of the Grand Palais in 2016, the brand opened its first French store in the Forum des Halles in Paris.
Rihanna - singer turned entrepreneur - set the business world on fire with her Savage X Fenty shows, which made their appearance in Fashion Week New York for the second consecutive year. Critics claimed it was everything Victoria’s Secrets was not: inclusive and diverse, with models of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities.
Victoria’s Secret store front in the Vaughan Mills mall in Toronto. Victoria’s Secret the largest American retailer of women’s lingerie. (Photo: Toronto, Canada - January 19, 2018 © JHVEPhoto / shutterstock.com)
By selling on Amazon, Rihanna can reach a vast ocean of potential clients - with over 100 million Prime members in the US alone - what better way to make her brand a household name? By selling on the Internet site, she also became available to the large public.
