Victoria’s Secret Features Their First Ever Size 14 Model In Ad Campaign
Victoria's Secret might finally be starting to listen to what people have been telling them for years and has decided to feature plus-size model Ali Tate in a collaborative ad campaign with UK lingerie brand Bluebell. We're feeling a lot of ways about this, but we're glad the brand is changing.
Let's not forget that Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer of the brand, in 2018 defended the brand's lack of size range at its runway shows by saying, "we market to who we sell to, and we don't market to the whole world." Looks like Ed's changed his mind.
She's Idolized The Brand For Years
The Bluebella campaign that will be showed in stores in the UK is a huge moment for Ali Tate since she says she "idolized the brand" when she was a teenager." Who hasn't? We've all stayed up late begging our moms to watch the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and buying every bodyspray and bombshell that they had.
Tate is the first size 14 model that Victoria's Secret has ever had and she told E! News how she felt about it. Tate said that, "size 14 is actually the average size of women in America and I do think that we need to see more of it in media and fashion because most women are that size. So, we need to be accurately represented in brands and media." With Victoria's Secret finally catching up to inclusive brands like Aerie and Rihanna's SavagexFenty, hopefully, we'll see more varied sizes of women in advertisements and in shows.
This Isn't The First Time This Year Victoria's Secret Made A Big Change
Remember the little interview I mentioned that Ed Razek gave where he justified Victoria's Secret's lack of size inclusivity in their campaigns and shows by saying he isn't marketing to plus size women? Well, in that same one he mentioned that he would never put "transsexual" models in the show because the show is a "fantasy." Huh.
In a move that was awesome and potentially a response to the backlash from that interview, in 2019 the brand officially hired its first transgender model, Valentina Sampaio. Sampaio is 22 years old, Brazilian, and models for Victoria Secret's Pink brand.
Some Were Shocked Tate Was The First Size 14
When you hear the term "plus-size model" you probably think of models like Ashley Graham and Tess Holiday, so people were interested as to why Tate was chosen. Tate's an experienced model who's walked in Tadsahi Shoji's and Burnett's NYFW shows and done numerous ad campaigns, so it's really not that shocking.
Twitter user @readytoshare however, brought to light some fat-shaming comments Tate made in a 2016 Facebook post and said she wasn't surprised that Tate was chosen by Victoria's Secret. Tate allegedly shared in 2016 that she doesn't "care about people's health who are fat" and that "being obese is bad for the environment." I'm not exactly sure where Tate is getting her science, but we clearly haven't been reading the same things.
Tate responded to her alleged comments in a recent Teen Vogue interview and says that she is "proud to share my journey and the lessons I've learned while contributing to the movement of being comfortable being yourself at any point in your life, at any size." We're happy Tate has changed her mindset and is embracing size inclusivity as well as being a positive force for young women to look up to now.
