Victoria’s Secret has declared that their ‘Angels’ are no longer ‘culturally relevant’.
But that didn’t stop Candice Swanepoel, a VS Angel since 2010, from pulling out all the stops for an outing in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood.
The South African beauty, 32, turned heads in a black bra and city shorts worn with an oversized black blazer.
Her hair was styled into a sleek bun and she accessorized with giant gold hoop earrings.
She carried a black clutch in one hand and her phone in the other and basked in the attention she received from delighted admirers.
Swanepoel was spotted by a talent scout when she was 15 and quickly established a career as a sought after fashion and lingerie model.
She was first hired by Victoria’s Secret in 2007, earning her wings three years later.
In 2013, she was the cover model for the Victoria’s Secret Swim Catalogue and the same year she was chosen to wear the Fantasy Bra in the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
Once one of the most glamorous brands in the world, Victoria’s Secret has faced years of plummeting sales figures and ongoing backlash over its lack of diversity,
The company finally succumbed in 2019 when it canceled its famed annual catwalk show.
And now it has unveiled a new roster of spokeswomen that included Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, who’s married to musician Nick Jonas, and US soccer star and LGBTQ advocate Megan Rapinoe.
A source told Page Six that the women won’t be posing in lingerie, but will ‘instead appear on a podcast and in marketing materials for the recovering brand.’
Chopra and Rapinoe will reportedly join Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech, freestyle skier Eileen Gu, Brazilian transgender model Valentina Sampaio, plus-size model Paloma Elsesser, and journalist Amanda de Cadenet, who is set to host a 10-episode podcast where the women will share their stories.
Asked whether the Angels would make a comeback in the relaunch, brand chief executive Martin Waters said: ‘Right now, I don’t see it as being culturally relevant.’
Waters, who was appointed chief executive in February after serving as head of Victoria’s Secret’s international business, told the New York Times that the brand ‘needed to stop being about what men want and to be about what women want.’
He added: ‘I’ve known that we needed to change this brand for a long time, we just haven’t had the control of the company to be able to do it.’