Victoria’s Secret trailblazer Tyra Banks has a few things to say about the lingerie retailer’s changing of the guard.
On June 16, the company announced that it would be dropping the iconic Victoria’s Secret Angels and instead launching “VS Collective,” a new partnership platform to help “shape the future” of the brand with new faces (and body shapes) as its representatives.
Founding members of this new initiative include actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas, soccer star Megan Rapinoe, mental wellness supporter Adut Akech, equality activist Amanda de Cadenet, skier and youth and women’s sports advocate Eileen Gu, body advocate Paloma Elsesser, and LGBTQ activist and model Valentina Sampaio.
Taking to Instagram to share her input on Victoria’s Secret’s latest rebranding effort, the groundbreaking supermodel shared a photo of herself from her last walk at the iconic VS Fashion Show in 2005, writing alongside it, “First is hard. First is lonely. But first is necessary.”
“First is crucial so that a door can be opened for others to fit through,” Banks continued, before reflecting on her past with the company. “Within a 10-year span starting in 1995, I was the first Black @VictoriasSecret contract model ever. The first Black Victoria’s Secret Cover model. The first Black VS model to do so many other groundbreaking things with the brand — as well as other brands.”
“But after a first, must come a flow of more. A flow of different. A flow of unique. A flow so strong, a flow of so many that we LOSE COUNT,” she continued. “I retired from the runway 16 years ago — and I’m proud that in my lifetime, I’m witnessing a beauty revolution. To the new collective of bada** ROLE models, I may have cracked that door open, but y’all are charging through.”
Victoria’s Secret’s changes comes following two years of scandal forcing the company to cancel its annual runway show in 2019. Rapinoe described VS’ approach as “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” to the New York Times with the June 16 announcement.
“At Victoria’s Secret, we are on an incredible journey to become the world’s leading advocate for women,” company CEO Martin Waters said in the press release. “This is a dramatic shift for our brand, and it’s a shift that we embrace from our core. These new initiatives are just the beginning. We are energized and humbled by the work ahead of us.”
“Keep on keepin’ on until we all LOSE COUNT of how many are breaking through behind you,” the “America’s Next Top Model” star concluded in her post.
