I have some notes:
- Is Victoria’s Secret passe as a brand, compared to the way it felt three or four years ago? I….think it might be. And interviews like this one the brand’s chief marketing officer and VP of PR just did with Vogue aren’t going to help. That chat, which they presumably did for positive press, is a defensive mess — they’re mad about Fenty, they’re mad about ThirdLove, they say some shitty stuff about the trans community. It’s just….not a cute look. (You’d think, at least, that their head of PR would be better at this.)
- Is it, or is it not, INCREDIBLY on brand and not in a good way for either of them that the Chainsmokers performed at this thing? (As did Shawn Mendes, Rita Ora, Halsey, Bebe Rexha, Kelsea Ballerini, and a band called The Struts. With the caveat that I enjoy more people on that list than not, as a line-up, it feels more like a lower tier awards show grab-bag than back in the day when the performer would be Rihanna or Taylor Swift.)
- As usual, the bells and whistles here — the wings, the massive amounts of tartan, the headdresses — are beautifully done. Victoria’s Secret worked with Mary Katrantzou on some of these looks and those are fascinating and fun. They certainly spend money well. But are people still spending money on them?
