Victorias Secret will resurrect its once-famous New York City runway show tonight in a high-stakes bid to regain the limelight it lost years ago amid controversies over its toxic culture.
The lingerie brand scrapped its iconic show in 2019 thanks to poor ratings and revelations about ill-treated models, and ties to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But even as it reboots the Victorias Secret Fashion Show, it remains dogged by a sordid past, and a new book reveals exactly why the scandal-rocked brand disappeared in the first place.
Selling Sexy: Victorias Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon, exposes shocking new details about its tie-ups with such controversial figures as Epstein and ex-president Donald Trump.
As Tyra Banks, Cher, Gigi Hadid, and others get ready for showtime, DailyMail.com breaks down the scandals and asks if the once-world-dominating lingerie brand can bounce back.
Victorias Secret will on Tuesday night try to reboot the success it enjoyed with its runway spectaculars in the 2000s
PEEPING DONALD
Donald Trump had a reputation for getting too close to curvy young models as far back as the early 1990s, according to the book, by Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez.
Back then, as a New York businessman, Trump was asked by Victorias Secret if they could stage a photoshoot at his Palm Beach country club, Mar-a-Lago, in 1993.
But that request came with a condition — Trump was not allowed to attend the glamour shoot.
The book quotes Frederique van der Wal, the Dutch model who knew Trump socially and wanted to pose semi-naked at his Florida retreat.
I said, the only thing is, you have to sign a contract that you cant some [to watch the shoot], van der Wal said.
The European beauty was photographed in a Mar-a-Lago doorway in the one-day shoot without Trump lingering around, says the book.
Van der Wals comments appear to suggest Trump had a reputation back then among his peers for lewd behavior toward models.
Donald Trump had a reputation for getting too close to contestants, and their dressing rooms, when he owned beauty pageants in the 1990s and 2000s.
Donald Trump kisses Miss Universe, Jennifer Hawkins at a cocktail party in New York in 2004
Dutch model Frederique van der Wal insisted that Trump was barred from attending her scantily-clad photoshoot at Mar-a-Lago
Young women later complained about how Trump would enter dressing rooms of contestants who were naked and getting changed, when he owned Miss USA beauty pageants.
Former Miss Arizona Tasha Dixon said Trump had entered her dressing room when she was a contestant in 2001.
He just came strolling right in, Dixon claimed in 2016.
There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Others girls were naked.
Trump has also corroborated this, saying he was allowed to go in, because Im the owner of the pageant, and therefore Im inspecting it.
You see these incredible-looking women, and so I sort of get away with things like that, he said.
MODEL ABUSE
Organizers of the Tuesday night reboot of the Victorias Secret extravaganza seek to turn the page on past claims of a misogynistic culture and being rife with sexual harassment and bullying.
Alessandra Ambrosio prepares backstage for the Victorias Secret Fashion Show 2024 in New York City
Victorias Secret seeks to turn the page on the era it was headed by Leslie Wexner, who had a close business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
The New York Times interviewed dozens of former staffers and models in 2020, revealing how one of its top executives, Ed Razek, had tried to kiss models and asked them to sit on his lap.
Razek touched one womans crotch before the 2018 Victorias Secret fashion show, according to the allegations, which he called categorically untrue, misconstrued or taken out of context.
Worse still, when insiders tried to tackle the lewd treatment, Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder and boss of the Victorias Secret parent company, allegedly refused to get involved.
Casey Crowe Taylor, a former Victorias Secret public relations employee, told The Times that smutty behavior was ingrained at the brand.
This abuse was just laughed off and accepted as normal, Crowe Taylor said.
It was almost like brainwashing. And anyone who tried to do anything about it wasnt just ignored. They were punished.
The fashion shows increasingly faced criticism for setting impossibly high beauty standards for young women
Critics also panned the use of underage models — notably when launching the PINK line sexualized gear aimed not at adult women but tweens and teens in the early 2000s.
Dorothea Barth-Jorgensen, a PINK runway model, said she had to wear a dress with toy things around on a child-like candy-themed set. Another wore a hoodie and rode a mock tricycle.
FAT-SHAMED ANGELS
Victorias Secret gradually fell out of favor over the impossible beauty standards it set for women with its parade of scantily-clad, leggy and buxom models with bellies as flat as ironing boards.
This made the brand increasingly at odds with the post-#MeToo climate, as rates of anxiety and low self-esteem rose among their target audience of young women.
Things were worse inside the organization, with models fat-shamed for putting on even a few pounds, according to the series Victorias Secret: Angels and Demons.
Crowe Taylor told the Hulu show she was body-shamed by Razek, the firms top marketing executive, as she shared a buffet with models and creatives on set in 2015.
I was going up to get more and Ed physically stopped me, like stepped in front of me and said, "Are you really going to get more food?" and I just kind of froze, she said.
And hes like, "I really dont know how you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning".
Plus-sized models were not the only ones rejected from the runway.
Razek was also slammed for saying in 2018 there was no place for transsexuals in his lingerie shows.
THE EPSTEIN FILES
In damaging new revelations, the book further implicate boss Wexner in the mid-1990s to Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire financier and sex offender who recruited underage sex workers for his island party resort.
The new book uncovers deeper ties between Victorias Secret executives and the billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
Epsteins infamous Pedophile Island featured a mansion with a 10-person shower, guest villas, a helipad, a private dock and three private beaches as well as a room with a dentists chair
The Times in 2019 revealed that Epstein used to present himself as a recruiter for Victorias Secret models, and that he had an unusually strong hold on Wexner, in lieu of financial ties.
The new 307-page book goes further, revealing how, in 1991, within just a few years of knowing each other, Wexner granted Epstein power of attorney, and authority to financially act on his behalf.
It just makes no sense why (Wexner) did any of that, to allow Epstein to manage all his money, a former top company executive told the authors.
It was baffling. Everyone thought Les was such a retail genius, then he did this. It was so bizarre.
According to the authors, Wexners mother Bella and others could not understand Epsteins motives nor the basis of their friendship.
The book claims that Wexner revealed to a friend that Epstein had created much of his wealth.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
The Tuesday night reboot is not the first time executives have taken a defibrillator to Victorias Secret.
Last year, they launched a revamped filmed version of a show for Prime Video.
The firm has now split from former parent company, L Brands, Razek and Wexner, and seeks to rebrand itself and reflect who we are today.
Pro-Palestine model Gigi Hadid prepares backstage at the Victorias Secret Fashion Show 2024
Organizers say the reboot show will have the glamour, runway, wings, musical entertainment, and more, that made it a hit in decades past
That means dropping an exclusionary view of whats sexy and celebrating all women throughout every phase of their lives, according to a statement about the new direction.
But there will still be glamour, runway, wings, musical entertainment, and more, they added in an Instagram post in May.
The show will be headlined by Cher, and feature Hadid and Banks among a bevy of models including Mayowa Nicholas, Barbara Palvin, Behati Prinsloo, Jasmine Tookes, and Adriana Lima.
It starts at 7pm Eastern at the brands flagship store in New York City, and will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Live.
For some die-hard fans, its a chance for the Victorias Secret to retake its place as Americas top lingerie brand.
For others, its the moment a declining company finally went woke, before it went broke.
Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon by Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez is published by Henry Holt and Co