{"id":2519,"date":"2014-12-05T03:37:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T03:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=2519"},"modified":"2014-12-05T03:37:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T03:37:50","slug":"musical-porn-reality-tv-no-its-victorias-secret-fashion-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/musical-porn-reality-tv-no-its-victorias-secret-fashion-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical? Porn? Reality TV? No, it's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span>Gill Stark<\/a>, Regent's University London<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

London has just experienced a fashion show quite unlike any other, despite its long history as one of the world\u2019s four fashion capitals. Victoria\u2019s Secret, for those who are unacquainted, is an underwear empire that had sales of US$6.6 billion in 2013<\/a>. But the show\u2019s focus was not lingerie, but rather the models \u2013 known as Victoria\u2019s angels.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, the brand produces spectacular shows each year, which are later televised with a viewing figure of millions (if you\u2019re keen, tune in<\/a> on December 9 in the US and December 10 in the UK). This year, Victoria\u2019s Secret arrived in London.<\/p>\n

Spectacular shows are nothing new in fashion. Rarely failing to thrill, Karl Lagerfeld\u2019s are eagerly anticipated each season. He transported a nine-metre high iceberg to Paris from Sweden for his autumn\/winter 2010\/11 ready-to-wear show for Chanel, a cruise collection was shown on a private island off the coast of Dubai and in 2007 he produced a show for Fendi on the Great Wall of China.<\/p>\n

Christopher Bailey\u2019s creative vision for Burberry has involved harnessing the latest technology to produce fantastical productions, including a party in Beijing to celebrate the launch of its flagship store \u2013 with hologram models. They shattered into a sprinkling of magical dust on the runway as live catwalk met virtual images. Beautifully choreographed, it was hypnotic to watch.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Girl next door?<\/span>
\n Dominic Lipinski\/PA Wire<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Extravaganza<\/h2>\n

London\u2019s Victoria\u2019s Secret show may well have been as spectacular as those of Lagerfeld and Bailey \u2013 and equally expensive at a reputed US$12m<\/a>, but the focus is not the same. Most obviously, the models are wearing far fewer clothes than the average catwalk show, and very little focus is on these clothes.<\/p>\n

So is this fashion, or a theatrical panoply, boasting singers, dancers and sexualised imagery? The interaction between the stars on the catwalk, the music and the spectacle certainly mean that the show angles itself towards contemporary popular entertainment.<\/p>\n

Fashion shows are one of the industry\u2019s most powerful marketing tools. The fashion show can communicate a dream, a story, a fantasy \u2013 and can do so in a manner that generates huge media excitement. Victoria\u2019s Secret looks to a different audience than Chanel, and the fashion show mutates accordingly. And the underwear empire communicates its particular dream spectacularly well.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Taylor Swift.<\/span>
\n Dominic Lipinski\/PA Wire<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

So what is the dream? The main focus for Victoria\u2019s Secret is the celebrity models. There were more than 40 at this year\u2019s event, carefully selected for their personality and their ability to act as much as for their looks (a homogenous collection of tall, thin models with full busts). They are known as \u201cangels\u201d because of the dramatic wings they wear as they walk the runway, interacting with equally famous musicians \u2013 this year Taylor Swift \u2013 who perform on the catwalk. It could easily be likened to a West End musical.<\/p>\n

The girl next door<\/h2>\n

The point of putting on this supremely extravagant show is to get the audience to relate to the models. So \u201cvideo packages\u201d about the models are posted on the internet in the run up to the show to give the consumer this sense, presenting them as the girl-next-door with some celebrity sparkle. Footage of the run-up to the event, backstage videos and further documentation also add a reality TV feel of the build-up.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the finale, when celebrity models in skimpy lingerie stalk down the catwalk with A-list musicians, also dressed for the occasion \u2013 unsurprisingly garnering considerable press attention and a viewing figure of millions when televised.<\/p>\n

The show is highly sexualised and has in the past been criticised as pornographic<\/a>. But then how could this be pornography when the \u201cangels\u201d wear wings and are just a group of wholesome, fun, girl-next-door personalities playfully partying on the catwalk?<\/p>\n

The show comes just over a month after the company was criticised in the UK for its latest bra advertising campaign, which portrayed the words \u201cThe Perfect Body\u201d superimposed over a line-up of thin models in underwear. The company replaced this with \u201cA Body for Everybody<\/a>\u201d after a petition<\/a> was signed by thousands of people.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n The perfect body \u2026<\/span>
\n Twitter<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This is the company\u2019s first show in London, and its second in Europe, a part of the world with a very different fashion aesthetic from that in the US. Europe is where Jean Paul Gaultier regularly shows his bridal gowns on transgender models<\/a>, Nick Knight<\/a> of fashion website SHOWstudio shoots pin-ups featuring images that play with and subvert the traditional motifs of erotic clothing \u2013 and Agent Provocateur promotes its highly erotic lingerie on the catwalk in aid of a charity about empowering women.<\/p>\n

Fashion is about change, about breaking rules, about the \u201cnew\u201d \u2013 and London in particular is famous for its innovation and its experimental fashion. Virtually indistinguishable from the company\u2019s previous events, and sticking to the well-worn \u201cgirl-next-door\u201d stereotype, this year\u2019s show was, therefore, strangely at odds with the city\u2019s fashion zeitgeist.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\n Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gill Stark, Regent's University London London has just experienced a fashion show quite unlike any other, despite its long history as one of the world\u2019s four fashion capitals. Victoria\u2019s Secret, for those who are unacquainted, is an underwear empire that had sales of US$6.6 billion in 2013. But the show\u2019s focus was not lingerie, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":2520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2521,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions\/2521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}