Victoria's Secret taped its annual fashion show on Wednesday in Paris, and as is customary, the creatives behind the production bundled looks together by theme. Models dressed in costumes fit for segments called "Dark Angel," "Secret Angel," and "Bright Night Angels" stomped down the runway at the Grand Palais showing off the sculpted results of their life's work and "naturally" enhanced hair.
The segment that opened the show was less Angel-forward, more "It's a Small World." You had all the heavy-hitters â€" Adriana Lima, Joan Smalls, Kendall Jenner, and Gigi Hadid â€" wearing the purple and teal lace lingerie that Victoria's Secret is ostensibly selling during its multi-million-dollar televised panty parade. Lady Gaga was singing. The catwalk was gold and glittery.
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But look closer and you'll see that the golden glitter path is paved with unfortunate intentions.
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Called "The Road Ahead," the segment featured costumes that were supposedly inspired by what you might call multi-culturalism. "This was the geography bit," according to the Telegraph's report, "a kind of round-the world trip courtesy of countless pom-poms and meters-upon-meters of fringing. American model Taylor Hill donned a rather beautiful Chinoiserie printed robe while Liu Wen, one of the four Chinese models cast in the show, jangled with pom-poms. Given the global appeal of the show, it seemed like a fitting way to begin."
Arpana Rayamajhi, a Nepalese jewelry designer based in New York City, described the theme this way: She said, "The idea is that you're blending little bits of this and that from all cultures around the world." Rayamajhi created much of the handmade jewelry for the segment; the jewelry included silk threads turned into tassels, coins from Nepal, and beads â€" "a huge part of my culture."
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At a model fitting with Lais Ribeiro, other Victoria's Secret artisans told AOL that making the costume in question involved using "strips of culture." AOL explained that the panels were "truly worldly â€" inspired by the likes of Peruvian, Mexican, and Chinese design."
While Martha Hunt, in another behind-the-scenes video with Vogue, said that her look was "like Pocahontas meets Jasmine and they're going bull-riding."
Indeed, so many "bits of this and that."
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None of that even sounds nice, but if it does, don't let yourself be hoodwinked by Victoria's Secret's brazen attempt to re-label what is clearly cultural appropriation by turning it into a celebration of "culture." The brand and its creative leads shamelessly cherry-picked imagery, breaking apart aesthetic references from wherever they wanted and stitching them back together again. They're telling us it's worldliness. It's not, it's a hack job.
Collection creative director Sophia Neophitou described the hand-painted fabrics used in this segment by saying, "It's meant to be this naive, homespun ... but this is so luxurious."
It doesn't get much more patronizing than that, does it? The original version is made by simple people ("naive") who make crafts ("homespun"), and it's Victoria's Secret that can elevate the primitive to something more "luxurious." What would be the point of the corporation's untold resources and unparalleled knowledge of world cultures if it couldn't do that?
Stripping of cultures aside, the emblems that stood out most were the ones that came from Asia â€" specifically China. The dragon that Elsa Hosk wore wrapped around her body, the embroidered stiletto boots seen on Adriana Lima, the tail made of flames worn by Kendall Jenner. There's a lot of talk of China as a dominant world power of the 21st century, and the U.S. government, Hollywood, and now Victoria's Secret, it seems, are pivoting to face a new reality. But the Orientalism on display here doesn't show an understanding or an attempt at dialogue. It doesn't close any gaps. What condescension, for Victoria's Secret to think that by wrapping a model in a dragon, it could connect directly with a new consumer in China.
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With its positive, pre-emptive spin about globalization and multi-culturalism, Victoria's Secret seems to have anticipated my response. The brand is leading with the notion that we're all members of the human race, therefore everything belongs to everyone. But this is exceptional disingenuousness coming from a brand that once put Karlie Kloss in a Native American war bonnet and leopard print underwear. The fact is that even as the world gets more connected, a sexist, patriarchal, mostly white corporation continues to take what it wants for its own gain. Its exploitation of these cultural references is meant to lead directly to profits. And I'm not buying it.
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