Photo: Instagram
Looks like the company is changing with the times!
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Oct 11, 2019
Victoria's Secret is a company that has struggled, in recent years, to remain relevant. Whereas the lingerie company was once the harbinger of all things sexy, albeit waifishly so, today's Victoria's Secret struggles with the image as it tries to adapt to a world that accepts all body types. But now, thanks to a collaboration with a new model, it looks like they'll be blasting themselves into the 21st century. So who is Ali Tate Cutler, and what does she have to do with Victoria's Secret today?
Founded in 1977 as a "response" to packaged underwear (remember the days of the Fruit of the Loom multi-pack? Memories...), Victoria's Secret was founded with the intent of making men (!) feel comfortable with buying lingerie. At this time in American history, most people were wearing packaged underwear from Fruit of the Loom & Jockey, and "lingerie" was considered a novelty item. But when Victoria's Secret was launched, the way Americans viewed lingerie changed. No longer content with wearing Fruit of the Loom panties, American women shifted to wearing comfortable, yet sexy undergarments, and the world would never be the same.
Despite the fact that Victoria's Secret currently struggles with its image, it grossed more than $7 billion in sales in 2017 alone. Who is Ali Tate Cutler?
Let's look at what we know about Ali Tate Cutler, and how she plans to take the company into the 21st century.
1. She launched the partnership in cooperation with Bluebella.
According to The Chicago Sun-Times, Ali Tate Cutler launched the partnership with Victoria's Secret in cooperation with Bluebella, a UK lingerie company. The outlet reports that, after the company received a backlash for not including "all" body types, they not only hired Ali Tate Cutler, they hired Valentina Sampaio, the company's first transgender model.
2. Ali Tate Cutler applauded Victoria's Secret for their inclusivity.
“They are listening to their audience who have requested to see more women of diverse shapes and sizes. I think if they continue to head in that direction they will be on to a jackpot because that is reflective of what the average woman is in America," she said to E! News.
3. Was this solely done by Victoria's Secret to stave off criticism?
Women's Health Magazine reports that Victoria's Secret had been facing criticism from both the general public and celebrities — including Halsey and Shanaina Shaik — for lack of inclusion. The blowback was so great, in fact, that Ed Razek, the company's chief marketing officer, resigned from his position after the pressure got to be too much.
4. Ali Tate Cutler said that being a Victoria's Secret model was a "dream come true."
"I never expected that I was going to see an image of myself on the wall next to these top supermodels that I have been looking up to since I was a little girl. It feels amazing. I feel on top of the world," she said to Glamour Magazine.
5. But not everyone is happy about this latest hiring.
Writing for Yahoo, Chanel Vargas said that the hiring of Ali Tate Cutler appeared forced by the brand. "It's encouraging and necessary to see so many different body types and backgrounds in an industry that, in many ways, dictates society's perception and expectations of the everyday woman. Despite this increased effort, diversity in the fashion world remains a prevalent issue, and the fashion industry as a whole has a long way to go before we can truly celebrate," she wrote.
6. Ali Tate Cutler's hiring brings a few interesting things to light about plus-size models.
Lovely as it is for Ali Tate Cutler to be hired as Victoria's Secret's first plus-size model — no matter what the circumstance of her hiring — she brings up some important facts about plus-sized models in the industry today.
According to Racked, 68% of Americans — more than 2/3 — wear a size 14 or above. In the modeling industry, anyone over a size 14 (USA sizing) is considered "plus-size." While this trend suggests that Americans are getting bigger — and that is a whole different discussion, entirely — the modeling industry is far from representative of the average American.
A breakdown provided by The Telegraph represents a sobering reality: of the 422 models who appeared in various Fashion Week runway campaigns, only six — SIX! — were a size 14 or above, which represents a mere 1.4% of all models. What's more, the outlet revealed that no model over a size 12 appeared in a glossy campaign for any major clothing line, unless the clothing line was specifically tailored to plus-size women (like, for example, Lane Bryant). And despite the increased outcry against the fashion industry's discrimination against larger women, Quartz reveals that New York Fashion Week — one of the premier fashion events of the year — typically hires models that are no bigger than a size 4. (Side note: this writer is a size 6, and has been since she was 16 years old, and had a small modeling career when she was a teenager until a casting director told her that she was "too fat" to walk the runway. This complaint is a common one in the industry.)
Congratulations to Ali Tate Cutler on being hired by Victoria's Secret!
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.