It was too late, though, and the damage was done. I admire and respect their journey to embrace who they really are.” “We’ve had transgender models come to casting… And like many others, they didn’t make it…But it was never about gender. “To be clear, we absolutely would cast a transgender model for the show,” he said. During an interview in November 2018 with Vogue, Victoria’s Secret’s Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razek said the brand would not put transwomen on the runway because “the show is a fantasy.” After an immense amount of backlash, Razek apologized for his comments coming “across as insensitive,” and ultimately backtracked on them. Though in the beginning, the Victoria’s Secret show was pushing boundaries in the form of body diversity-featuring models that couldn’t find a place on the ultra-thin high fashion runways in the early 2000s-by the 2010s, it was clear they could no longer keep up with the diversity demanded of them by the public. At the time, CEO of L Brands, Les Wexner, (Victoria’s Secret’s parent company), said network television was no longer the “right fit” for the show.

Back in 2019, the mounting criticism surrounding Victoria’s Secret due to their lack of model diversity reached a breaking point and the brand decided to cancel the show for only the second time since 2001.

Why did the Victoria’s Secret fashion show ever get canceled?įirst, though, a reminder.

Victoria secret runway show