Victoria's Secret Model Shanina Shaik Says the VS Fashion Show Is Canceled This Year
Shanina Shaik, a 28-year-old model and longtime veteran of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, may have just dropped a bombshell about the brand's annual lingerie runway event. Shaik told Australia's The Daily Telegraph, via The Daily Mail, that Victoria's Secret has canceled the 2019 show.
"Unfortunately the Victoria's Secret show won't be happening this year," she said. "It's something I'm not used to because every year around this time I'm training like an angel. But I'm sure in the future something will happen, which I'm pretty sure about. I'm sure they're trying to work on branding and new ways to do the show because it's the best show in the world."
ELLE.com has reached out to Victoria's Secret for comment.
Shaik walked in the brand's 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2018 shows.
News of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show's possible cancellation comes after The New York Times reported in May that the show would no longer be broadcast on network television due to declining viewership. The chief executive of Victoria's Secret's parent company L Brands, Leslie Wexner, said that he and his colleagues "have decided to re-think the traditional Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Going forward we don’t believe network television is the right fit."
It also comes after L Brands' chief marketing officer, Ed Razek, sparked controversy for his comments about transgender models in his Vogue November interview. Razek had been addressing the show's lack of inclusivity (size particularly). "It’s like, why doesn’t your show do this? Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show?” Razek said. "No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. It’s a 42-minute entertainment special. That’s what it is. It is the only one of its kind in the world, and any other fashion brand in the world would take it in a minute, including the competitors that are carping at us. And they carp at us because we’re the leader.”
Razek clarified that statement to ELLE.com in an email at the time. “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 castings ... And like many others, they didn't make it ... But it was never about gender. Honestly, I really hope that a transgender model will make the show soon. I admire and respect their journey to embrace who they really are."
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