The Official Victoria's Secret Thread

[Siemgi]

Yah I love Miranda but I know she's a major attention seeker. I doubt paps follow her around same for Ale. I'm sure they are called by them or their team. Every person who gets into this type of industry in some way wants fame.

Well, it's a smart move to call the paps. It gets their names out there and keeps them relevant, which, in turn, makes them more likely to book work.

[Kevork89]

Yah I love Miranda but I know she's a major attention seeker. I doubt paps follow her around same for Ale. I'm sure they are called by them or their team. Every person who gets into this type of industry in some way wants fame.

Well, it's a smart move to call the paps. It gets their names out there and keeps them relevant, which, in turn, makes them more likely to book work.

Yeah of course.

[track]

I actually to a degree like it when these models call the paps and stuff like that because lord knows they need the name/face recognition. I don't even mind Ale doing it because she doesn't seem to make it look like she's important that's why the cameras follow her around. Miranda on the other hand, wants people to believe that she's an all-important famous celebrity, who doesn't endorse anything she doesn't believe in (yet she the face of a shampoo that is full of chemicals), and who thinks there should be a limit to how the paps follow her (yet she calls them). I mean, fame is good for them, as Coco said, when a company have to choose between a model and celeb, the celeb usually wins. But I find Miranda's approach to it to be, uh, aggressive. I'm sure Gisele and Adriana and Kate didn't become popular by just booking a campaign and going home. They probably also purposely made sure people knew there names, and that's cool, but Miranda i think wants to do it by the way of the Kardashains. She needs to know that supermodels being super stars is so 90s. She still doesn't hold a candle to Kate Upton in terms of popularity. And probably never will. Can't blame a girl for trying.

[ILUVAdrianaLima]

Victoria's Secret Geisha Lingerie Sparks Controversy: How One Blogger Took on a Brand

By Piper Weiss, Shine Staff | Fashion

It takes hundreds of employees, thousands of hours and millions of dollars to launch a mass market lingerie line. And one blogger to take it all down.

"I never thought they would pull the Geisha outfit off the market," Nina Jacinto tells Shine. "I imagine there were a number of factors that went into that decision."

Two weeks ago, Jacinto, a 26-year-old Bay Area blogger and non-profit development manager, most likely became one of those factors.

It all started here. "I saw a link to [Victoria's Secret's Go East] line on the blog, Angry Asian Man," she says.

"Hooray for exotic orientalist bull----," wrote the blogger who included a link to the "Asian-inspired" lingerie line's centerpiece: "The Sexy Little Geisha," a mesh teddy that comes with an obi belt, chopsticks and a fan.

Immediately Jacinto sat down to write an insightful post on why she found the outfit, and the line in general, offensive. "It's the kind of overt racism masked behind claims of inspired fashion and exploring sexual fantasy that makes my skin crawl," she wrote in article published September 6 on the blog Racialicious, a site for commentary on the intersection of culture and race.

"There's a long-standing trend to represent Asian women as hypersexualized objects of fantasy," wrote Jacinto. She also took umbrage with the lingerie description as "your ticket to an exotic adventure" and the fact that none of the models for the collection were of Asian descent.

"The lack of Asian women here simply exposes the deep-rooted nature of the Orientalist narrative, one that trades real humanness for access to culture," she wrote. "Besides, it can only feel sexy and exotic if it's on an "American" body—without the feeling of accessing something foreign or forbidden, there can be no fantasy."

One week after Jacinto posted her piece, the feminist website Bust picked up on the story. When the Bust reporter went to check out the teddy described in Jacinto's story, it had disappeared from the site. According to Bust, a Victoria's Secret rep suggested the teddy had simply "sold out." A week after that, The Frisky's Jessica Wakemen wrote about the offending and mysteriously missing teddy in question. "Considering the complicated history of geishas, repurposing the "look" for a major corporation to sell as role-playing lingerie seems a bit tasteless," she wrote.

By the afternoon, major news outlets like the Huffington Post began calling blogger backlash to Victoria's Secret a "controversy." The Daily Mail noted that the teddy and the Go East line in its entirety had been removed from the company website and replaced with the main product page.

The company still hasn't released a statement or confirmed its decision to remove the line, and had not returned Yahoo! Shine's request for comment at press time.

Over on Twitter, the audience is divided on the issue of whether the geisha teddy is offensive. "Can we please stop fetishizing Asian cultures?" asks one Twitter user. "I'd still wear it," adds another. On the brand's Facebook page, a VS superfan asks when the line is coming to Australia. Don't expect it too soon.

Companies pay attention to the blogosphere, and hard-learned lessons have taught them that they're not immune to the power of a strong and well-crafted opinion. In June, Adidas pulled its plans to create a line of shackle sneakers when over 2,000 commenters on Facebook complained of the design's racist overtones. And last year, American Apparel's plus-size modeling contest was taken to task by a contestant who taught the marketing company a thing or two about women with curves.

Jacinto, meanwhile, has gotten a lot of responses from commenters questioning why she cares so much about some bras and underwear. "It's important that companies like VS know that capitalizing on a stereotype and on a culture is tasteless and offensive," she explains. "The messaging we insert in our culture shapes people's attitudes—so questioning clothing like this is important."

Questioning is one thing, seeing results is another. Whether or not Victoria's Secret confirms it, Jacinto's impact on a massive multimillion dollar line seems obvious. But she still sees room for improvement. "Their Cherry Blossoms line [another Asian-influenced VS line mentioned in her blog] still exists and still contains language such as 'indulge in touches of eastern delight,' " she says. "The clothing itself may not be as overtly distasteful as the Geisha piece, but the language makes it troublesome to me. Surely there must be another way to advertise that line that doesn't exoticize Asian women."

[ILUVAdrianaLima]

Come on...someone actually found that line of VS racist? Have we gone that far off the PC cliff?

[Jennka]

Lol I was JUST about to post it now

C´mon. Someone has a way lot of free time and hell too little of sex.

I mean, we have this cat at the cottage who OBVIOUSLY prefers my amante instead of me. What a racist cat :persuazn: I guess she never heard of equality before!!

[megha86]

"Sooo agree with you. Miranda worked really hard for VS a few years ago, in fact, till she was married and pregnant, she worked a lot and I think she's kinda right in walking away. I don't agree much with what she's working with, like Lipton and Samantha Tavassa, when she could be doing HF, if she wanted. ................"

if she had HF offers i think she would have done them. she strips for scums like terry richardson to get into HF mags. so i assume she is still very much interested in HF.

[dreamss]

When was the fantasy bra unveiled last year? Things are getting boring here

[clubparadise]

In October I think. I guess after Fashion Week we'll get more news.

[dreamss]

^OH thanks.

[dreamss]

I figured. It just can't come soon enough!

[Kevork89]

Usually the show tapes 15th Nov. But this year it's the 7th, so it's sooner. You'd think we'd hear more news by now. But once October starts I think some news will start coming in. Castings will probably start mid October and fittings right after that. Very excited.

[MarVS]

Usually the show tapes 15th Nov. But this year it's the 7th, so it's sooner. You'd think we'd hear more news by now. But once October starts I think some news will start coming in. Castings will probably start mid October and fittings right after that. Very excited.

yay! very excited

[Ness]

Come on...someone actually found that line of VS racist? Have we gone that far off the PC cliff?

[lovemusic102]

Usually the show tapes 15th Nov. But this year it's the 7th, so it's sooner. You'd think we'd hear more news by now. But once October starts I think some news will start coming in. Castings will probably start mid October and fittings right after that. Very excited.

[Kevork89]

Usually the show tapes 15th Nov. But this year it's the 7th, so it's sooner. You'd think we'd hear more news by now. But once October starts I think some news will start coming in. Castings will probably start mid October and fittings right after that. Very excited.

Castings will take place at the end of October.

@passion4runway @swarovski @vs_fashionshow oh no, we have a way to go- casting will be towards the end of oct- but look for usual angels!

[BeachBunny094]

When was the fantasy bra unveiled last year? Things are getting boring here

[bangbangtang]

do not understand how can VS hiring some sticky models for their show like Anja & Karlie, even Karlie flooding their website now... it's nice having new model like Palvin and Sara.

[cherrybomb]

yeah ok

[Siemgi]

So VS is now sending Jessica Hart instead of Chanel to the PINK events? You in danger gurl!

Also, Maiya can breathe a sigh of relief, VS listened to her and changed its VSFS promo pic