Plus-Size, Transgender And Disabled Models Speak Out Against Victoria's Secret

The Victoria's Secret fashion show reportedly enjoys over 800 million viewers across 190 countries. But despite its popularity, it fails to adequately represent the audience it claims to serve. The lingerie behemoth is based in America, where the average woman is a size 16/18 – yet in 23 years, the brand has failed to cast a single plus-size model. And there's no shortage of beautiful, capable plus-size models who are willing to work with Victoria's Secret. In 2015, model Tess Holliday shared an image of herself in lingerie with the caption "If Victoria's Secret needs a plus-size angel, call me. (PS. Us fuller ladies like to wear lingerie and look sexy. Get with it)." A year later, Ashley Graham posted an illustration of herself as the first plus-size model at the Victoria's Secret fashion show that garnered over 150,000 likes on Instagram. The brand didn't respond to either post.

Though the transgender and non-binary community is finally gaining more visibility at fashion weeks across the globe, landing a record 91 runway spots during the spring 2019 season, Victoria's Secret has never cast a transgender model for the fashion show or even for their ad campaigns. In 2013, over 50,000 people signed a petition urging Victoria's Secret casting directors to consider transgender model Carmen Carrera; that petition went ignored by the brand. This April, Leyna Bloom launched a Twitter campaign to become the first transgender woman to be cast in the catwalk spectacular. "Trying to be the first trans model of colour to walk a Victoria's Secret fashion show," she tweeted, garnering over 100,000 likes and 34,000 retweets. She's a regular on the Chromat runway, but has yet to be contacted by Victoria's Secret.

The fashion industry still has a long way to go in terms of representation for disabled models, but progress is being made. During the spring 2019 season, disabled models like Mama Cax and Madeline Stuart hit the runway, Jillian Mercado, Chelsea Werner and Mama Cax covered the September issue of Teen Vogue, and Chella Man became the first deaf transgender model to sign to IMG. In an interview with Teen Vogue, Madeline Stuart expressed her desire to become the first Victoria's Secret model with down syndrome, calling it her "biggest dream." Her comments went ignored.

While Victoria's Secret has made some effort to diversify their model cast in recent years, enlisting the first model with Vitiligo (Winnie Harlow) and the first Filipino model (Kelsey Merritt) for this year's show, there are still several marginalised groups that are glaringly absent from the runway. In a recent interview with Vogue, Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer of Victoria Secret's parent company, explained why they don't cast transgender models. "Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should," he said. "Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. It’s a 42-minute entertainment special. That’s what it is. It is the only one of its kind in the world, and any other fashion brand in the world would take it in a minute, including the competitors that are carping at us. And they carp at us because we’re the leader." (According to GLAAD, transsexual is not an umbrella term, and the term transgender is preferred.) Ed has since offered an apology, but the damage is done – several former supporters of the brand are already organising a boycott.

Leyna Bloom took to Instagram Saturday morning to respond to Ed's statement, saying: "If you support this and this brand, you support transphobia and you are part of the problem in the world. Hate has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet." Carmen Carrera addressed the statement as well, pointing to the brand's declining sales as evidence they need to make a change. "All of this “Holier than thou” casting process isn’t helping the company either," she wrote on Instagram. "Their sales have been on a steady decline since 2016 and I hope they change that real soon! If they are ready for a positive change with a big impact, they know where to find me!"