It’s that time of the year again! Yes, the holiday season, but also the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. The annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show creates a lot buzz every year. The show, majorly hyped by the brand, models, and special musical guests, generates millions of viewers each year. But it’s not all massive wings and million dollar lingerie–this year there has been some serious controversy behind the scenes.
Model Jourdan Dunn has been walking the VS show since 2012, and has won numerous awards for her modeling career since 2008. Along with her highly successful modeling career, Dunn is a single mother to her son who has sickle cell anaemia. Dunn goes above and beyond her career and personal life with her achievements in promoting awareness toward the disorder, and speaking out about diversity issues in the modeling industry. Her widespread activism helped her win the Inspiration Award at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards in 2015.
Dunn’s impressive career is not one to mess with, but the producers of the VS Show did exactly that. This was brought to the public’s attention in early November when Dunn tweeted: “Feeling so much better about not doing BS… sorry I mean VS now that Rihanna isn’t doing it also.”
Days before this, Rihanna pulled her performance from the show–her people saying that she needed the time to work on her upcoming album. Dunn and Rihanna are very tight, and fans are taking to social media saying that Rihanna’s album demands are just an excuse, that she dropped out to support Dunn. This may seem a little extreme–dropping a prime performance opportunity because your friend didn’t get her spot back, but there’s more to the story.
The same week of Rihanna backing out and Dunn’s tweet, Kendall Jenner announced she would be walking in the show. Rumors speculate that Victoria’s Secret pulled Dunn in order to make room for Kendall Jenner and her BFF Gigi Hadid, who have created waves recently as the industry’s new socialites-turned-models.
In light of all of the announcements and shade being thrown, we have to turn to the producers of the show. Is it worth it to sacrifice Dunn’s expertise for the ratings that Jenner and Hadid’s star power ensure? Or do the faces behind the show genuinely see potential in these young starlets? Only time will tell when the show airs on December 8th. Until then, we can all anxiously wait to see if Dunn throws anymore shade at what might be the biggest mistake of this year’s show.