Angels and demons: exposing the dark side of Victoria's Secret
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Loading... - Oliver Holm
- 13 Jul 2022
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The current resurgence of Y2k fashions has prompted recent documentary reappraisals of that era’s biggest brand names, from Von Dutch to Abercrombie & Fitch. Now the mother of them all receives the docuseries treatment with Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons, a three-parter about fashion, sex, power, money and misconduct that’s sure to titillate when it premieres this week.
After all, the multibillion-dollar lingerie juggernaut was an inescapable cultural phenomenon in the late 1990s and early 2000s, known for high-octane fashion shows, suggestive mail-order catalogues, impossibly leggy spokeswomen dubbed Angels, and lacquered stores (and signature pink-striped shoppers bags) ubiquitous in shopping malls and the broader fashion landscape. But behind the glitz and glitter touting female empowerment through in-your-face sexuality lay allegations of bullying and harassment of employees and models; executives dismissive of casting more diverse and inclusive models; and billionaire CEO Les Wexner’s disconcertingly close ties to convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The series traces the rise and fall of the megabrand, telling the story both from the inside (courtesy of two former CEOs, other key employees, damning never-before-seen internal videos, and a few Angels themselves) and out: the late-90s, post-Clinton/Lewinsky, Sex and the City–era cultural shifts that ignited the brand’s particular brand of aggressive sexuality and those that portended its decline decades later in the wake of #MeToo.
That’s around when the controversies encircling the brand appeared on the radar of director Matt Tyrnauer. “In a meeting I had with a fashion company in 2019, it came up that some Victoria’s Secret models were rebelling against the brand on social media,” he told the Guardian. Prior to that, he admits, “I hadn’t really paid any attention to the brand.” Read More...
