Jameela Jamil slams Victoria's Secret in public spat with model Sara Sampaio
- Jameela Jamil and Victoria's Secret model Sara Sampaio were embroiled in a fiery Twitter exchange this week.
- The dispute began after Jamil retweeted a clip of models at Vienna Fashion Week captioned with: "Oh my god this looks like the most fun, and not a long-starved terrified teenager in sight. Beautiful."
- Sampaio took offense to Jamil's comments and said calling runway models "long-starved terrified teenager[s]" is "extremely offensive." This sparked a back and forth between the two women.
- Jamil took a direct hit at Victoria's Secret at one point, writing: "You also proudly work for a transphobic, fat phobic company."
- Her comments come as Victoria's Secret continues to face ongoing criticism over its brand image and what critics say is a lack of inclusivity in its sizing and marketing.
- The management team of Victoria's Secret's parent company has repeatedly said that it is taking the necessary steps to fix the business.
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For the second week in a row, the internet has been gripped by a public spat between two high profile figures. This time, it's Victoria's Secret model Sara Sampaio and actress Jameela Jamil who went head to head in a heated debate on Twitter.
Their fiery exchange began after Jamil retweeted a clip showing models at Vienna Fashion Week dancing barefoot down the runway, captioned with: "Oh my god this looks like the most fun, and not a long-starved terrified teenager in sight. Beautiful."
Sampaio took offense to Jamil's comments saying: "Calling runway models "long-starved terrified teenager" is extremely offensive. From someone that is always preaching for body positivity this just screams hypocrisy."Jamil is a former model turned activist.
This led to a back and forth about the modeling industry with Jamil taking a direct hit at Victoria's Secret at one point.
"You also proudly work for a transphobic, fat phobic company," Jamil tweeted at Sampaio, who's famously a Victoria's Secret Angel. "Victoria's Secret is a brand that sets out to exclude most women, so I would check yourself on that before you start policing me for calling out an industry wide epidemic of harm to young girls."
Sampaio defended the brand saying: "I proudly work for a company that has made mistakes and that understands that and has been working on changing that, just like you have made big mistakes in the [past] too. I'm also not someone that is going to resource on personal attacks to try to win some stupid twitter feud!"
Jamil's comments come as Victoria's Secret continues to face criticism around its brand image and what critics see as a lack of inclusivity and diversity in its marketing. This came to a head in November after the chief marketing officer of Victoria's Secret's parent company made controversial comments about transgender and plus-size models in an interview with Vogue.
Read more: The rise and fall of Victoria's Secret, America's most famous lingerie retailer
L Brands CMO Ed Razek said he didn't think the lingerie brand's annual fashion show should feature "transsexuals" because "the show is a fantasy." Razek stepped down from the company earlier this year.
The company has repeatedly said over the course of the year that it is taking the necessary steps to fix the business.
"We are taking a fresh, hard look at everything," L Brands CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer said in a call in February. "Everything is on the table," he reiterated in August.
But some of its rivals, including American Eagle's Aerie - a lifestyle brand that shifted focus to more body inclusive campaigns in 2014 - have been slowly chipping away at its market share in the meantime. Between 2016 and 2018, Victoria's Secret's market share in the US is estimated to have dropped from 33% to 24%, according to a recent report from The Economist.
In January, Jamil joined a group of activists and celebrities to become one of Aerie's newest "role models," who were featured in unairbrushed shots for its Spring campaign.
The brand has achieved explosive success in recent years and analysts say it's because it is doubling down on an area that Victoria's Secret has long ignored. Last quarter, same-store sales at the Aerie brand increased by 16%, marking its 19th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.