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Rihanna zeroed in on Victoria's Secret's crown jewel with a raunchy new lingerie show

Mary Hanbury Β Β 

Rihanna zeroed in on Victoria's Secret's crown jewel with a raunchy new lingerie show
Retail3 min read

Rihanna show

AP Photo/Diane Bondareff

Rihanna's runway show at New York Fashion Week.

  • Rihanna's lingerie show at New York Fashion Week set the internet alight on Wendesday. 
  • The singer turned makeup and underwear designer showcased her lingerie collection, Savage x Fenty, in a racy runway show featuring models of all shapes, sizes, and ethnic backgrounds.
  • While it had the raciness of a Victoria's Secret runway show, the focus was on body inclusivity and acceptance, something that Victoria's Secret has been accused of lacking.

Rihanna is giving Victoria's Secret a run for its money. 

On Wednesday, social media lit up with excitement around her runway show at New York Fashion Week.

The singer turned businesswoman showcased her size-inclusive lingerie collection, Savage x Fenty, in a racy runway show featuring models of all shapes, sizes, and ethnic backgrounds, including two pregnant women, one of whom reportedly went into labor after the show. 

"I wanted every woman on the stage with different energies, different races, body types, different stages in their womanhood, culture," Rihanna said in an interview with Elle ahead of the show.  "I wanted women to feel celebrated and that we started this shit. We own this. This is our land because really it is. Women are running the world right now and it's too bad for men."

Some fans couldn't get enough of it:

While it had the raciness of a Victoria's Secret runway show and even featured two of its so-called "Angels," sisters Bella and Gigi Hadid, the focus was on body inclusivity and acceptance, something that Victoria's Secret has been accused of lacking in the past.

In April, Business Insider reported that data from brand insights firm YouGov showed that women's perception of Victoria's Secret had declined since 2013. Its so-called "Buzz score," which tracks how customers feel about brands based on what they see and hear, declined as Victoria's Secret lost favor with women aged between 18 and 49.

According to YouGov, the brand has found itself struggling in the #MeToo moment. Victoria's Secret annual Fashion Show, which features its famous Angels, aired only a month after allegations of sexual harassment came out against Harvey Weinstein. The show saw its television ratings sink 30%, YouGov researcher Paul Hiebert wrote.

Brands with more body-positive messaging, like American Eagle's Aerie, have swooped in and taken market share as consumers are increasingly turned off by Victoria's Secret's oversexualized ad campaigns. Despite this, it seems resistant to change. 

"We're now on a rocket ship turning 90 degrees left, and we're going to go this way for a long time. It's a lot different generation, they think differently and don't want to be a glamazon or an angel. Victoria's Secret has a lot of work to do, they really do," Lee Peterson, EVP of brand strategy and design at WD Partners, who worked with Wexner at The Limited in the 1980s, told Retail Dive in June. 

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