Fashion blogger's great rant against Victoria's Secret

[Blue_Tires]

As a gender studies major who has been swimming in the conceptual waters of the fashion pool for the past four years, I possess not a single sensibility that is left un-offended by the annual Victoria's Secret fashion parade.

The industry is on my side on this one too. It's a well known fact of modelling that the cheesiest, lowest prestige, most cringe-worthy work (catalogues and the like) is always the best paid, and Victoria's Secret Angels are the highest earning in the world.

The thing about this yearly underthings extravaganza is that it manages to combine some of the most awesome things in the world - high camp, glitter, copious nudity - then froth them into a slimy appletini of trashiness and exploitation. Every year the show feels as if it was shot with the exact same creepy, male-gaze video camera that has caused the rapid decline of the beauty pageant industry.

The clothes displayed are visual assaults so blatant and aggressive, that off-model they could probably be used as some form of aesthetic torture, much in the same way American soldiers use Metallica and Barney the Dinosaur songs to break down prisoners. After thirty minutes alone in a VC change room, I'd be divulging any state secrets I had. But it's not really about what the clothes look like off the girls, it's about the show, the girls, the extravagance, the girls and most importantly, the girls. The Victoria's Secret beam is built on two shining white veneers; the ideals of health and fun, but the teeth under these gleaming caps are hollowed with decay.

First of all, let's talk about fun. I'm not sure about you, but inbuilt into my idea of a good time is a little bit of variety. That's something you won't find on a Victoria's Secret runway, where the casting is about as diverse as an Armani show. Just replace the wan, Eastern European types with a dessert platter of taught, toned confections that range in shade from carmel to very pale coco, all poured from the exact same leggy, golden ratio mould and you're in business.

This year there were only four girls on the runway that weren't of European or Brazilian heritage, and while Chanel Iman, Selita Ebanks and Lais Ribeiro are no-doubt gorgeous, they all represent a 'white-washed' image of black beauty that has of late been much decried. It seems there's no space for the kind of sultry, ebony skinned beauty of girls like Alek Wek or Ajak Deng. And then there's Liu Wenn, who was the only Asian girl on the runway (indeed, she's the only girl of East Asian decent ever to walk a VS show), with her less busty figure and fair skin, she seemed to have far less exits than many of the other girls.

http://www.thevine.com.au/blog/alyxgorman/why-i-hate-the-victorias-secret-parade20101112.aspx

[siligut]

1. Victoria's Secret is not the UN

And the show is just a fun, fantasy exhibition. It has its own aesthetic, which isn't intended to represent egalitarianism or high art.

[Iggo]

2. It's not quite his brand of porn,

Got it.

[TrogL]

3. Victoria's secret is about naughty fun

What a spoilsport.