Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is officially CANCELED

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show has been officially canceled this year as the company works to save its reputation amid plummeting ratings and ongoing backlash over its lack of diversity.

The lingerie giant’s parent company, L Brands, confirmed the end of the holiday runway extravaganza in an earnings call on Thursday, four months after model Shanina Shaik leaked the news. 

The decision was part of a move to ‘evolve the messaging of [the company],’ Fortune reports, indicating that the over-the-top event is well on its way to becoming a relic of the past in today’s #MeToo era. The brand has also faced declining sales figures and a fall in the number of viewers tuning into watch the catwalk showcase.

It comes a year after marketing chief Ed Razek saying that the brand would not cast plus-sized or ‘transexual’ models because the show is a ‘fantasy.’ 

He was rounded on by celebrities such as Halsey, who wrote on Instagram that she had ‘no tolerance for a lack of inclusivity’, just days after performing at the Victoria’s Secret show. 

The brand has also come under criticism from Jameela Jamil, who accused the company of being a ‘transphobic, fat phobic company that sets out to exclude most women’, during a Twitter spat with model Sara Sampaio. 

The brand has also come under fire for its lack of size diversity, with curvy model Iskra Lawrence among the outspoken critics. 

Iskra shared an Instagram video of herself in a bikini in December last year alongside a caption that read: ‘That cellulite, those rolls are cute, that jiggle is sexy and everybody deserves to feel confident in the skin they’re in.’

Ashley Graham also subtly snubbed the brand following Razek’s comments by sharing several photos of women of all sizes walking the runway in lingerie.  

She captioned the photos #BeautyBeyondSize. 

As well as a shift in public perception of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, the brand is facing a continued decline in sales.  

Sales have dropped seven per cent in the latest quarter compared to a two per cent fall during the same period last year, according to Fortune. 

Aside from a small rise in the first quarter in 2018, the lingerie retailer has 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. 

It has previously been announced that as many as 53 Victoria Secret stores across the US could close by the end 2019.

CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer acknowledged the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is a remarkable marketing achievement,’ but admitted the event did not really impact short-term sales. 

Rumors that the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was getting canned have been circulating for months, with Shaik letting it slip in July that it was canceled. 

‘Unfortunately, the Victoria’s Secret show won’t be happening this year,’ said the 28-year-old model, who has walked in the show five times since 2011.  

‘It’s something I’m not used to because every year around this time I’m training like an Angel,’ she told The Daily Telegraph.  

‘But I’m sure in the future something will happen which I’m pretty sure about,’ she added optimistically. ‘I’m sure they’re trying to work on branding and new ways to do the show because it’s the best show in the world.’ 

The first Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1995, and over the past 23 years, it has featured some of the world’s most in-demand models, including Stephanie Seymour, Naomi Campbell, Kendall Jenner, and sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid. 

However, interest in fashion extravaganza has waned in recent years. 

TV ratings for the annual Victoria Secret Fashion Show fell to a historic low of just 3.3 million in 2018, down from a high of more than 10 million viewers in 2011, according to a February 13 report from CNBC. 

Its official cancellation follows the announcement in May that the show would no longer be aired on network television after nearly two decades.

The New York Times reported that a leaked internal email from Leslie Wexner, the CEO of L Brands, revealed that the lingerie giant was undergoing some changes.

‘Fashion is a business of change. We must evolve and change to grow. With that in mind, we have decided to re-think the traditional Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show,’ he wrote.

‘Going forward we don’t believe network television is the right fit. In 2019 and beyond, we’re focusing on developing exciting and dynamic content and a new kind of event — delivered to our customers on platforms that she’s glued to … and in ways that will push the boundaries of fashion in the global digital age.’ 

The email came six months after marketing chief Ed Razek dismissed calls for plus-sized and ‘transexual’ models, telling Vogue at the time that the show is a ‘fantasy.’

‘We attempted to do a television special for plus-sizes [in 2000]. No one had any interest in it, still don’t,’ he said. 

‘I don’t think we can be all things to all customers. It is a specialty business; it isn’t a department store.’

Razek, who ended up resigning in August, apologized for the gaffe, but not before ThirdLove founder Heidi Zak seized on it with a scathing full-page ad in the New York Times.

‘You market to men and sell a male fantasy to women,’ Zak wrote. ‘Your show may be a “fantasy,” but we live in reality… We may not have been a woman’s first love, but we will be her last.’  

The brand has tried to shake off its image as being outdated and out of touch by hiring a more diverse cast of models, including transgender beauty Valentina Sampaio. 

Victoria’s Secret recently featured a size 14 model — Ali Tate Cutler — in an ad campaign for the first time as part of its partnership with London-based lingerie brand Bluebella. 

The retailer has been facing stiff competition from newer lingerie brands with more inclusive marketing strategies aimed at women of all shapes, sizes, and skin tones.

Rihanna’s wildly successful Savage X Fenty lingerie line is among the brands that have given Victoria’s Secret a run for its money in recent years.

The singer’s second annual Savage x Fenty runway show streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on September 20, a little over a week after it was filmed at Barclays Center in Brooklyn during New York Fashion Week.

Numerous headlines purported that the diverse spectacular, which featured musical performances, dancers, and a wide representation of models, had ‘killed’ Victoria’s Secret.

Bella Hadid recently indicated that she ‘never felt powerful’ during the three Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows she has walked in her career.