The end of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion show
Last week the official statement went out: The 2019 Victoria’s secret Fashion Show is canceled. And while many responded with “heart break”, didn’t we all see this coming? From Ed Razek’s bad publicity to the Kardashian’s wearing Angel Wings as Halloween costumes (the wings used to MEAN something)… the company has been tripping over itself for a few years now.
And let’s also be honest with ourselves; how many of us were still tuning in and watching it on TV? VS made it unnecessary to watch the actual show when they pushed so hard for models and influencers to share bts, sneak peeks, and videos from the show on social media and their own website. And thanks to a few mishaps and attention grabs that backfired, Victoria’s Secret has lost many of its cult following over the years as well.
A new(ish) holiday marketing strategy
Victoria’s Secret has a revamped marketing strategy however, and it’s nothing new to any instagram user: collabs. VS is doing big collabs with brands it was (and arguably still is) competing with. I myself was stunned when I saw VS partnering up with brands like For Love and Lemons and Same swim (a brand that most likely made VS close up it’s swim section for a few years before resuscitating it through a collab); but FLL recently explained that the partnership gives them access to many more resources (and probably at a cheaper price too). The collaborations also give the smaller brands access to a wider audience since VS can produce and sell their styles at a cheaper price.
The designs themselves were gorgeous, and very similar to the normal FLL skivvies collections. but I was worried the FLL x VS items would be cheaper in quality. So I waited and didn’t purchase anything from the first collection they did together.
This holiday season, For Love and Lemons designed another collection for VS. The first collection received positive reviews on both sites, so I went ahead and purchased the Fiona Top and Cardigan in black. The Fiona top and cardigan are just as fluffy as the Whitney Faux Mohair sweater I had previously purchased, but were less expensive thanks to VS’s resources.
More options for the buyer
Each FLL x VS collection is available on both brands’ site, and sold at the same price. That means these collabs give the buyer the chance to use coupons or discounts from different reward programs. Take advantage!
The VS Fashion Shows
Thankfully, I was a 90’s child and got to experience the VS cult following’s rise and fall first hand; including following VS Tumblrs and getting VS Pink freebies in the mail as a college student. My favorite VSFS years were 2005, 2008, and 2010. You can watch them and more on youtube!
Will you miss the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows? What year was your favorite to watch? Comment below! xo
1/19/20 Update: Unfortunately Victoria’s Secret is one of the “fast Fashion” brands that I had to break up with.
Soon after writing this post, I decided to transition to the world of slow fashion. Read why I switched in my blog post Kk Bray is an Outfit Repeater and find out what other brands I had to break up with in: Making the Switch to Slow Fashion.