Will Hulu 2022 Docuseries On 'The Rise and Fall of Victoria's Secret' Focus on Savage x Fenty?

With Rihanna’s major infusion of capital into Savage X Fenty, via L Catterton, a private equity firm connected to LVMH, many lingerie business enthusiasts and Wall Street believe that Rihanna has a serious opportunity to significantly reduce Victoria’s Secret further. Above: a Victoria’s Secret fashion show. Below: Savage X Fenty Fall 2020 fashion show.

In Six Years Victoria’s Secret Is A Shadow of Its Former Self

One simple set of statistics confirms the shocking demise of Victoria’s Secret as a global lingerie giant. In December 2020, Victoria’s Secret had just 19 percent market share in the U.S. women’s intimates apparel space, compared with 32 percent in 2015, according to The NPD Group’s consumer tracking service. WWD reminds us that the situation was worse in the spring of 2020, when the VS market share had fallen to 16 percent — half of its US market position in 2015.

Hulu Charts VS Rise and Fall

The lingerie brand that dominated the global market — and my alma mater for a decade — surely gasped learning this week that Hulu has a three-part docuseries in production. Focused on the rise and fall of Victorias Secret — the very brand they re trying to resusitate — the production will be directed by Matt Tyrnauer, former ‘Vanity Fair’ writer and director of the 2008 film ‘Valentino: The Last Emperor’.

VS in Rehab

The road to rehabilitation for Victoria’s Secret continues, as the brand plunges again into the swimwear business at slsect stores in America. VS swimwear returned online after a three-year hiatus from the category. WWD estimates that the decision cost the dwindling lingerie giant “roughly $525 million in annual sales.”

Launched post-Valentine’s Day Monday, the new swimwear campaign stars Imaan Hamman, Jill Kortleve, Paloma Elsesser and Taylor Hill. Alex White styles the St. Barts shoot, in film footage and images shot by Tyler Kohlhoff [IM]. / Makeup by Jen Myles; hair by Jawara

See the entire campaign Victoria's Secret Swim Spring 2021 Curvy Women | VS Finally Listens to RiRi

The ‘Destination Swim’ seaside campaign is receiving very positive reviews. Featuring two curvy beauties Paloma Elsesser and Jill Kortleve, the campaign is hailed for its body inclusivity.

Yahoo News is running a front page story detailing lots of positive consumer response like:

"I’m really happy to see you incorporating some curvy girls in your campaigns," one commenter responded to a shot of Elsesser modeling a coral bikini for the campaign, which also stars Imaan Hamaan and Taylor Hill. "Keep it up."

"I like this change," read one comment, while another follower added, "It's so good to see VS promoting all body types."

"Thank you for now having models of all body types!" a commenter wrote. "Living for this."

"It’s about tiiiiime!" gushed a fan. "Yeees curvy queen!"

"The first image here is making so many women comfortable in their skin," another commenter said of Elsesser's shoot. "Keep it up."

The swimwear will be sold in select Victoria’s Secret stores, and the 2021 Swim ‘Magalog

Even with a plum feature like the Yahoo News post, Victoria’s Secret is never far from its past. The article rehashes all the negative — but true and well-deserved criticism of Victoria’s Secret — stories about VS.

AOC wont drudge up these facts, as we all know them. Just as Biden is trying to wean us from Trump, AOC is looking forward for Victoria’s Secret, not backwards.

Besides, we are watching the crushing Victoria’s Secret obstacle coming down the road in the form of Savage X Fenty.

I’ve quipped multiple times that if VS isn’t careful, Ms. Robyn Rihanna Fenty, born in Saint Michael and raised in Birdgetown, Barbados — yes that Black island girl — is going to crush them. Still, I couldn’t imagine the possibility in terms of scale until writing this post a few days ago.

When LVMH and Rihanna announced in early February that they were putting Fenty — the designer clothing label — on pause, it was clear that Rihanna’s relationship with Bernard Arnault remained very solid.

AOC’s interest is the $115 million fundraising round for Savage X Fenty by L Catterton, a private equity firm connected to LVMH. We reported in December that the partnership both put swimwear brand Seafolly into administration in Australia in June 2020 and then bought it back again at an attractive price near year’s end. This new round of fundraising by L Catterton in Savage X Fenty resulted in Savage’s valuation exceeding $1 billion, wrote Fast Company.

Forbes also projects that Savage X Fenty is poised to overtake Victoria’s Secret by 2025 — which I find mind-boggling, frankly. Not that Rihanna can’t do it, but that she could do it in such short order.

So let’s just all agree that the swim campaign is great, but Victorias Secret has a treacherous road ahead. We don’t need some posse of ogling white dudes (especially Republican white dudes) telling us how to manage our sexuality. Riri leads the way, in our opinion. ~ Anne

AOC Archives

AOC Archives: Imaan Hammam, Jill Kortlieve, Palomma Elsesser, Taylor Hill,

Ashley Graham Talks Her Rules, Her Game for WSJ Magazine February 2021

Top model and the biggest broadcaster of body loving, self-confidence known to women, Ashley Graham is styled by Dara Allen in Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors Collection, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Saint Laurent and more. Ethan James Green photographs Graham for the February 2021 issue of WSJ Magazine.

Marisa Meltzer interviews Graham, who gets straight to the point of why women like her.

“My brand is about confidence and owning who you are and being honest with who you are,” she says. “I think that’s incredibly reflective of my Instagram, my YouTube, my podcast. I just wish that I had someone that was as real and honest and open when I was in middle school, high school, moving to New York.”

This is the theme that Ashley Graham asserts over and over about herself — and the heavy lift she’s taken on with women at large. Graham wants women to feel the love in a world that makes it pretty damn difficult for females generally to feel worthy most of the time. Women of color pull an extra-heavy load, and so do women whose size is larger than those featured on fashion runways.

In 2005, when she was 17 years old, Graham moved to New York. “I didn’t know how to cook for myself; I didn’t know how to take care of myself. That’s when I got my freshman 30, and my weight skyrocketed,” she says. “My self-esteem plummeted, and I had my agents telling me if you don’t lose weight, then you’re not going to work. The lowest part of realizing that I didn’t get a job because I was ‘too fat’ actually gave me the courage and the ambition to go and fill a void in an industry.”

It’s not the case that Ashley Graham hasn’t wanted to be thinner, but she’s aware of the battle she’s fighting. Halima Aden gave up modeling recently, insulted that a stylist piled denim jeans on her head instead of a proper hijab.

Graham is very different, and the woman has sufferred true abuse at the hands of the fashion industry.

AOC wouldn’t know, but I’d say Graham has dealt with pretty extreme negativity for years and it has only hardened her resolve to show women at large how to overcome these obstacles around self-confidence, in particular as they are tied to weight.

Demi Lovato describes Graham with a metaphor that resonates. ““When I met her I was still struggling with an eating disorder to some degree, [and there was] this woman with full confidence in her appearance, confidence within herself as a woman,” Lovato says. “Imagine she’s this giant waterproof jacket and someone pours [negativity], and it just rolls off of her.”

Silvia Venturini Fendi, one of the brand’s artistic directors who has now deferred to Kim Jones as the new Fendi creative director, is a designer who has championed Graham: “She is an advocate to embrace and support models of all sizes and backgrounds. The casting for the show in September reflected the idea of a family. I wanted to have the sense of sisters, mothers, fathers and sons, including different ages, different body shapes, like in real life,” says Venturini Fendi. “It’s liberating for me to see clothes portrayed in a different way, on different sizes.”

Vogue Italia’s December 2020 issue featured Graham and three of her sisters — Alva Claire, Jill Kortleve and Paloma Elsesser — in a Fendi fashion story ‘We Are Family’,also shot by Ethan James Green.

“I hate that I constantly have to discuss my body, because I don’t know any man that has to do that. But what motivates me to continue to talk about my body is that I didn’t have someone talking about their body when I was young,” she says. “This is why I don’t post like the ‘perfect’ Instagram photos. I keep it real and raw constantly because I want [people] to know that there are women with cellulite, with back fat, with stretch marks.... There are a lot of curvy women, plus-size women, fat women, whatever you want to call them.”

So what would she like to be called? Graham answers, without a pause: “A woman.”