Victoria’s Secret has signed a new supermodel to promote their brand.
Blonde hair, hazel-eyed Hailey Bieber, 24, has become the face of their limited edition stretch lingerie campaign. The Arizona native was also named a VS Collective Member for the massive lingerie company.
This comes after the beleaguered international lingerie brand vowed to change its image by embracing diversity.
All-American blonde beauty: Victoria’s Secret has signed a new supermodel to promote their brand. Blonde hair, hazel-eyed Hailey Bieber has become the face of their limited edition stretch lingerie campaign. The Arizona native was also named a VS Collective Member for the massive lingerie company
In the images, the former Guess and Versace model looks nothing short of stunning with her bouncy flaxen locks and fresh Malibu tan.
The wife of Justin Bieber had on a black-and-white bra and undie set with a robe. She was also seen in pink and red set. And there was a purple-and-black outfit with an eye pillow on her forehead.
She shared the new photos to her Instagram Stories while the VS Instagram page said, ‘Indulge in our limited-edition 4-piece capsule that feels as good as it looks —starring @haileybieber #VSForTheHolidays2021.’
Not very diverse: In the images, the former Guess and Versace model looks nothing short of stunning with her bouncy flaxen locks and fresh Malibu tan
The blonde pinup said on the brand’s website, ‘I’m humbled to be in the company of these amazing women, many of whom have inspired me in countless ways with their own stories.’
She then touched on how VS is trying to take a different approach with their image: ‘I look forward to helping create positive change as part of the VS Collective.’
Bieber is not the first big name ‘it’ model who has become a part of Victoria’s Secret this year.
Last week Bella Hadid was seen in the new holiday Mad For Plaid lingerie campaign.
A new move: The wife of Justin Bieber had on a black-and-white bra and undie set with a robe. She was also seen in pink and red set. And there was a purple-and-black outfit with an eye pillow on her forehead
I will bring positive vibes: The blonde pinup said on the brand’s website, ‘I’m humbled to be in the company of these amazing women, many of whom have inspired me in countless ways with their own stories.’ She then touched on how VS is trying to take a different approach with their image: ‘I look forward to helping create positive change as part of the VS Collective’
Though Bella is part Middle Eastern (her father is Mohamed Hadid, who is Jordanian-American), she hardly falls in line with the brand’s promise for more diversity.
Bella is radiant as she makes the most of the lacy red plaid lingerie. She comes off as captivating as she spins around and pouts.
This is not her first time modeling for Victoria’s Secret. She made her VS fashion show debut in 2016, before returning for the 2017 and 2018 shows.
In 2019 she said she did not feel confident when she walked the shows for the lingerie giant and it seemed that she may not want to return to the brand.
And in February 2020 a New York Times article claimed Victoria’s Secret executive Ed Razek made ‘lewd’ remarks about Bella’s private parts. The model did not respond to the claim.
Another A lister: Last week Bella Hadid was seen in the new holiday Mad For Plaid lingerie campaign. Though Bella is part Middle Eastern (her father is Mohamed Hadid, who is Jordanian-American), she hardly falls in line with the brand’s promise for more diversity
Back in 2021: This is not her first time modeling for Victoria’s Secret. She made her VS fashion show debut in 2016, before returning for the 2017 and 2018 shows
Another veteran: The Mad For Plaid commercial she stars in also features VS vet Taylor Hill
Bella’s return this year to the brand signals the model and the company worked out any prior tension.
The Mad For Plaid commercial also features VS vet Taylor Hill, another slender, all-American beauty.
But there is plenty of diversity in the clip.
There are several plus size models like Paloma Elsesser as well as a transgender model, Brazil’s Valentina Sampaio.
And South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech, 21, is featured prominently.
There is diversity: But in the new Victoria’s Secret holiday Mad For Plaid commercial there are plenty of diverse faces, including transgender and plus-size models. Seen here is Paloma Elsesser
Cute look: And South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech, 21, is featured prominently
A fresh take: Also seen was transgender model Valentina Sampaio from Brazil
New attitude: The company has tried to rebrand itself after facing years of plummeting sales figures and ongoing backlash over its lack of diversity which helped cause its famed catwalk show was cancelled in 2019
Happy faces: Adut, left, and Paloma, right, smile for the camera as they get snowed on
The company has tried to rebrand itself after facing years of plummeting sales figures and ongoing backlash over its lack of diversity which helped cause its famed catwalk show was cancelled in 2019.
There was also the issue of a huge backlash following reports of owner Les Wexner’s historic friendship with disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein.
In June, its new ‘diverse’ line-up of spokeswomen, which includes Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Megan Rapinoe.
Neither Priyanka nor Megan are in the new holiday ads, but they were never intended to be.
Indian actress Priyanka, 38, who is married to singer Nick Jonas, and LGBT advocate and footballer Megan, 35, did not sign up to model undies.
Rather PageSix claimed in June they would ‘instead appear on a podcast and in marketing materials for the recovering brand.’
Priyanka and Megan will reportedly join Akech, freestyle skier Eileen Gu, Sampaio, Elsesser, and journalist Amanda de Cadenet, who is set to host a 10-episode podcast where the women will share their stories.
Traditionally, the brand has been promoted by a roster of high-profile supermodels, with those under contract to the company known as Victoria’s Secret ‘Angels’.
Star power: Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Megan Rapinoe were revealed in June as two new spokeswomen for Victoria’s Secret; Priyanka (left) seen in 2020 and Megan (right) seen in 2019
Angel: Traditionally, the brand has been promoted by a roster of high-profile supermodels, with those under contract to the brand known as ‘Angels’ (pictured: Stella Maxwell in 2018)
Asked whether the Angels would make a comeback in the relaunch, brand chief executive Martin Waters said earlier this year: ‘Right now, I don’t see it as being culturally relevant.’
Waters, who was appointed chief executive in February after serving as head of Victoria’s Secret’s international business, told the New York Times that the brand ‘needed to stop being about what men want and to be about what women want.’
He added: ‘I’ve known that we needed to change this brand for a long time, we just haven’t had the control of the company to be able to do it.’
Fallen Angels: How Victoria’s Secret went from a once global phenomenon and the lingerie of choice for the world’s biggest stars to a brand fighting to stay relevant
Victoria’s Secret was founded in 1977 by US businessman Roy Raymond, who set up a small chain of boudoir lingerie shops when he could find no man-friendly women’s stores.
In 1982 he sold the company to clothing magnate Les Wexner for $1million – a fraction of its current value. Raymond later committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
He chose the name Victoria after Queen Victoria, thinking it sounded refined, and added Secret to refer to what was hidden under the clothes.
Eventually, hundreds of stores opened coast to coast, but it was the glitzy launch of Victoria’s Secret’s first blatantly sexy catwalk show at the Plaza Hotel, New York in 1995 which made the difference.
Beginning: The first Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1995 with models such as Angelika Kallio (left) and Leilani (right) walking the runway
Broadcast on network TV to 185 countries, millions tuned in to see supermodels Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Tyra Banks and Karen Mulder – among others – stripped back to the barest of essentials.
Victoria’s Secret opened its first flagship store in London’s Bond Street in 2012, and staged its first catwalk show in 2014, featuring Ed Sheeran as star turn, but recent years have been more challenging.
Aside from a small rise in the first quarter in 2018, the lingerie retailer had falling sales every quarter since the fourth quarter in 2016.
Victoria’s Secret shuttered 20 stores in 2018 amid a poor annual sales performance, ending the year with former CEO Jan Singer resigning last November.
The lingerie giant’s parent company, L Brands, confirmed in November 2019 that its famous show wouldn’t take place. The decision was part of a move to ‘evolve the messaging of [the company],’ Fortune reported at the time.
Famous faces: The show has featured some of the world’s most in-demand models over the years, including Bella Hadid in New York in 2018 (left) and Heidi Klum in Miami in 2008 (right)
Supermodel Tyra Banks displays an outfit during the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York in 2003 (left)
It came a year after marketing chief Ed Razek said the brand would not cast plus-sized or ‘transexual’ models because the show is a ‘fantasy.’
In 2020, more than 100 models signed an open letter to the then CEO of Victoria’s Secret calling for him to take action on the company’s ‘culture of misogyny and abuse’.
The letter urged John Mehas to end what the group – which included Christy Turlington Burns, Iskra Lawrence, Edie Campbell, Amber Valletta and Felicity Hayward – described as an ‘entrenched culture of misogyny’ at the lingerie chain.
With consumers turning away from glamour towards comfort, plus a huge backlash following reports of Wexner’s historic friendship with disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein, Victoria’s Secret faced an identity crisis.
As well as a shift in public perception of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, the brand faced a continued decline in sales.
Last year, the brand tried a new approach, posting photos on its Instagram account that promote neutral underwear in a variety of skin tones and using models from different ethnic backgrounds and showing size diversity.
However, some lingerie fans said the company’s bid to finally become more diverse was ‘too little, too late’ and accused the brand of ‘playing catch-up’.
In May 2020, parent company L Brands announced the closure of 250 stores in the US and Canada, after being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The closures represented nearly a quarter of Victoria’s Secret’s 1,091 locations in North America.
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Former chief executive Cynthia Fedus-Fields added that although it was ‘probably time for the Angels to go’ the brand had to find a way to ‘move forward while maintaining existing customers.’
She continued: ‘If it was a $7billion business pre-Covid, and much of that $7billion was built on this blatant sexy approach, be careful with what you’re doing’.
One of the brand’s newest recruits, Rapinoe is a vocal advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights, and works with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Athlete Ally.
In with the new: Priyanka and Megan will reportedly join Brazilian transgender model Valentina Sampaio, 24, (left) and plus-size model Paloma Elsesser, 29
Striking: Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech, 21, (pictured on the Miu Miu runway in 2020) will also be joining the line-up
The footballer has earned a host of awards and titles through her incredible career, and solidified her status as an activist when she knelt during the national anthem at an international match as an act of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.
She, along with 27 of her US Women’s Soccer teammates sued the United States Soccer Federation in 2019 for gender discrimination in efforts to receive equal pay.
Speaking to the NYT, Rapinoe said the old Victoria’s Secret was ‘patriarchal, sexist, viewing not just what it meant to be sexy but what the clothes were trying to accomplish through a male lens and through what men desired.
‘And it was very much marketed toward younger women,’ which promoted a ‘really harmful’ message.
Meanwhile, a source told Page Six of the overhaul: ‘It’s a group of women inspiring change and positivity.
‘It’s another step they’re taking towards transforming the brand. The entire industry thought Victoria Secret was done’.
Another insider added: ‘[The Collective] is completely cause-driven… The idea is to create this community of outsiders looking in. It’s a new generation for the brand that is more about inclusivity.
‘And they [Victoria’s Secret] needed it if they wanted to stay afloat. The brand was stuck in an era that never evolved. It’s a different world now.’
Cancelled: The annual Victoria’s Secret show (pictured in 2001) was cancelled in 2018 after the former chief marketing officer, Ed Razek, quit claiming the public wasn’t interested in seeing plus-size or transgender models on the catwalk
Former chief marketing officer, Ed Razek, left Victoria’s Secret in 2018 after claiming the public wasn’t interested in seeing plus-size or transgender models on the catwalk, admitting ‘The show is a fantasy.’
The day he left, trans model Sampaio shot her first campaign for the lingerie brand.
Following Razek’s comments the annual Victoria’s Secret Catwalk show, which began in 1995, was cancelled and has not returned since.
In 2020, more than 100 models signed an open letter to the then CEO of Victoria’s Secret calling for him to take action on the company’s ‘culture of misogyny and abuse’.
The letter urged John Mehas to end what the group – which included Christy Turlington Burns, Iskra Lawrence, Edie Campbell, Amber Valletta and Felicity Hayward – described as an ‘entrenched culture of misogyny’ at the lingerie chain.
Adding to the controversy, it revealed that Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder of Victoria Secret parent company L Brands, had ‘business ties’ to now-deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
For decades, Wexner was Epstein’s only publicly named client as a financial advisor, and the billionaire appears to be a key source of the $500 million fortune that Epstein left behind when he died in 2019.
A cloud of mystery has surrounded the two men’s relationship, and internal investigations commissioned by L Brands resulted in Wexner stepping down as CEO and then resigning from the board, though the findings were not made public.
Wexner has never been criminally accused of involvement in Epstein’s sex crimes, and despite rampant speculation, no evidence has emerged that the two men were romantically involved.
Controversial: It was recently revealed that Leslie Wexner (left) the billionaire founder of Victoria Secret parent company L Brands, had ‘business ties’ to Jeffrey Epstein right)
Last month, Wexner severed his last official ties with the L Brands, the retail giant that he founded in 1963, stepping down from the board after resigning as CEO.
Wexner, 83, along with his wife Abigail, did not stand for reelection to the board in May.
In January, L Brands shareholders filed a lawsuit alleging that the retail tycoon and his wife Abigail not only knew about Epstein’s conduct but allowed him to ‘use their home for liaisons with victims.’
It further claims that Wexner was so close to Epstein that he ‘knew or should have known’ that the dead pedophile was posing as a modeling recruiter for Victoria’s Secret to prey on aspiring young girls.
The bombshell allegations are part of a shareholder lawsuit brought against senior leadership at L Brands, the global fashion retailer.
The new faces of Victoria’s Secret: From Priyanka Chopra to American soccer player Megan Rapinoe and transgender model Valentina Sampaio, FEMAIL reveals the brand’s ‘diverse spokeswomen’
Priyanka Chopra Jonas: From Bollywood star to Hollywood A-lister
Priyanka Chopra Jonas poses backstage for the 2021 Billboard Music Awards
Priyanka Chopra Jonas is one of the most high profile famous faces to be announced as a new spokesperson for VIctoria’s Secret.
The Indian actress, singer and film producer, 38, is married to Jonas Brothers singer Nick Jonas, 28, and was the winner of the Miss World 2000 pageant.
She made the move from Bollywood to Hollywood in 2015, becoming a hit with shows such as Quantico and movies Baywatch and Isn’t It Romantic.
The actress is thought to be one of India’s highest-paid and most popular entertainers, having received a number of accolades, including two National Film Awards, two People’s Choice Awards and five Filmfare Awards.
But it’s not just her work on the screen which is award-winning, with the star’s activism also netting her gongs.
This year, Priyanka was given GLAMOUR’s Women of the Year Gamechanging Actor award.
She has previously featured on the cover of Time magazine’s ‘Time 100’ issue in which she was named one of the ‘Most Influential People’ in the world and has been recognised as one of Forbes ‘Most Powerful Women’.
She is also a global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and a Global Citizen ambassador.
Megan Rapinoe: American soccer player known for her activism
One of the brand’s newest recruits is American soccer player Megan Rapinoe (pictured)
One of the brand’s newest recruits, American soccer player Megan Rapinoe, 35, is captain for Washington team OL Reign, as well as the United States national team.
Playing as a winger, she was the winner of the Ballon d’Or Feminin and named The Best FIFA Women’s Player in 2019. She won gold with the national team at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Megan is an advocate for numerous LGBT organizations, including the Athlete Ally, and is known for her activism. She attracted national attention for kneeling during the national anthem at an international match in September 2016 in solidarity with NFL Colin Kaepernick.
She, along with 27 of her US Women’s Soccer teammates sued the United States Soccer Federation in 2019 for gender discrimination in efforts to receive equal pay.
Speaking to the NYT, Rapinoe said the old Victoria’s Secret was ‘patriarchal, sexist, viewing not just what it meant to be sexy but what the clothes were trying to accomplish through a male lens and through what men desired.
‘And it was very much marketed toward younger women,’ which promoted a ‘really harmful’ message.
Valentina Sampaio: The first transgender model to appear in Sports Illustrated
Valentina Sampaio (pictured) in June 2021
Valentina Sampaio made history as the first transgender model to pose for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2020.
The Brazilian model, 24, was fired from her first job in an ad campaign for a clothing company in 2014, when the company found out she was trans.
However, in November 2016, she walked her first runway at São Paulo Fashion Week and has since booked gigs with L’Oreal, Dior, H&M, Marc Jacobs, Moschino, and Philipp Plein.
In 2017, was the first trans model to appear on the cover of Vogue Paris.
She has previously worked with Victoria’s Secret, becoming their first openly transgender model in August 2019.
Paloma Elsesser: Outspoken voice for plus-size models
Plus-size model Paloma Elsesser in 2018
British-born plus-size model Paloma Elsesser is also joining the new spokespeople.
The 29-year-old has become an outspoken voice for plus-size models through her vast Instagram following, fronting campaigns for Fenty Beauty, Glossier and Nike, and appearing in editorials for Allure and Elle.
She appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine in January 2021 wearing a wet Michael Kors Collection dress.
The size 14 model (size 16, UK), has said she feels it is important for her to appear in Fashion Week because she is still an anomaly as a plus-size model and hopes her participation will continue to change fashion to offer more inclusive sizing.
Adut Akech: Named world’s number one model in 2019
Joining the group is Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech, pictured in 2020
Joining the group is Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech, who was named the world’s number one model by Models.com Industry Awards in 2019.
Adut was born in South Sudan before her family fled to a refugee camp in Kenya, and arrived in Adelaide when she was just seven-years-old.
She was initially scouted by modeling agencies as a 13-year-old, but didn’t start her career until she was 16, when she joined prestigious Chadwick Models in Australia.
From there her career skyrocketed.
She has worked alongside some of the biggest brands in the industry, including Saint Laurent, Valentino, Calvin Klein and Tom Ford.
In July 2018, Adut was chosen by creative director Karl Lagerfeld to be the first black Chanel bride in over a decade at Couture Week. The last black Chanel bride was the British-Sudanese model Alex Wek in 2004.
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This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
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