Why Did We Fall for the Angels?
The New York Times
How the pomp and pageantry of Victoria’s Secret worked for so long.
Ever since the news broke that Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie behemoth and Barnum & Bailey of fashion shows, was retiring its bevy of “Angels” in favor of a diverse posse of women with equally diverse resumes, media has been full of gleeful “it’s about time” responses, as well as photos of then and now, taking us down a memory lane of cleavage, costume and sex kitten cliché. On this side of the #MeToo and recent social justice movements, the imagery that drove Victoria’s Secret to record profits and viewership — and made its favored models part of pop culture — seems not just retrograde but practically unimaginable, like coming upon some lost civilization buried beneath a dusty mound of garter belts and thigh-highs. There is, for example, an image of Heidi Klum from 2003 in 12-foot-high fluffy white wings, crystal-studded white push-up bra and panties and ankle-strap white stilettos, with a matching white choker, sort of like a dog collar, around her neck; there are Gisele Bündchen, Karolina Kurkova and Alessandra Ambrosio in fur-trimmed white knickers, bras, hoods and knee-high spike boots in 2005, channeling Santa’s naughty little helpers.
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*Well, maybe only to me. “S.N.L.” fans all have their own idea of the show’s peak, and this is mine.
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