Victoria's Secret features first plus-size model

By

Robin Driver

Published
Oct 8, 2019

As part of the campaign for the launch of inclusive UK-based label Bluebella in its stores, struggling lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret has contracted its first-ever plus-size model, Ali Tate Cutler.

 
The news comes not from the brand, but from Tate Cutler herself, who took to Instagram on Friday to ponder, “I believe I’m the first size 14 on @victoriassecret?”
 
“Regardless I’m pretty stoked to work with a brand I idolized when I was a teen. Great step in the right direction for bodies,” she added in the same post.

As Victoria’s Secret continues its attempts to improve its public image and turn its business around, it’s hard not to think that the brand has missed a trick in not making more of the milestone itself.
 
With inclusivity and comfort cementing their status as the watchwords for a new wave of empowerment-focused lingerie led by labels such as Honey Birdette, ThirdLove, and even Rihanna’s super sexy but body positive Savage x Fenty, the L Brands-owned retailer has been slow to catch on to the trend and has met with its fair share of obstacles along the way.
 
Over the summer, Victoria’s Secret finally began to make concessions to the industry’s shifting focus, featuring its first transgender model, Valentina Sampaio, in direct and deliberate contrast to the controversial comments of the brand’s former chief marketing officer Ed Razek, who said that the label wouldn’t use trans models in its annual runway spectacular “because the show is a fantasy” in an interview with Vogue last year.

The launch of Bluebella in Victoria’s Secret’s U.S. stores earlier this month looks to be a continuation of the retailer’s efforts to forge a more inclusive image for itself, as does the diversely cast campaign accompanying the release.
 
Bluebella will also be available in Victoria’s Secret’s UK locations starting October 11.