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As the fashion industry continues to lavish praise on Rihanna’s Fenty x Savage lingerie show at New York Fashion Week, the industry standard is putting out a firestorm following comments from their lead marketing officer.
Ed Razek, the Chief Marketing Officer of Victoria’s Secret’s parent company L Brands, has been facing backlash after telling Vogue that they would not hire trans or plus-sized models for the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
“Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should,” Razek said. “Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. It’s a 42-minute entertainment special.”
When asked about plus-size models, Razek says that the company thought of doing it 18 years ago, but felt “no one had any interest in it.”
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“We invented the plus-size model show in what was our sister division, Lane Bryant,” he said. “We market to who we sell to, and we don’t market to the whole world.”
“We attempted to do a television special for plus-sizes [in 2000],” he added. “No one had any interest in it; still don’t.”
Rihanna appeared to chime in on Razek’s comments by liking an Instagram post by Kendall Jenner – a one-time Victoria’s Secret model – that attacked Razek and praised Fenty x Savage.
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Following the backlash, Razek apologized for his comments with an official statement shared on the Victoria’s Secret social media accounts.
Please read this important message from Ed Razek, Chief Marketing Officer, L Brands (parent company of Victoria’s Secret). pic.twitter.com/CW8BztmOaM
— Victoria’s Secret (@VictoriasSecret) November 10, 2018
“My remark regarding the inclusion of transgender models in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show came across as insensitive. I apologize,” Razek said. “To be clear, we absolutely would cast a transgender model for the show. We’ve had transgender models come to casting… And like many others, they didn’t make it…But it was never about gender. I admire and respect their journey to embrace who they really are.”
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Victoria’s Secret, for its part, has made an effort to expand diversity on the runway, casting 19 models of color including Winnie Harlow, the first runway model with vitiligo, for this year’s show.
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