Episode Guide
Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Going into this Hulu original, 3-part documentary series, ‘Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons’, I was hopeful of seeing the origins of Victoria’s Secret and their fashion shows, eventually leading to it being dethroned by ‘Savage by Fenty Beauty’. Although this documentary does show that, it’s also marred with gory details about powerful men running the brand as they exploited young, talented women for years. The show is divided into three hour-long episodes that have the people involved in the business, in one way or another, expose their association with the lingerie brand – Victoria’s Secret. A quick synopsis of this series reveals that the brand was investigated by Matt Trynauer, which led to the production of this documentary that narrates the searing and provocative story of the Victoria’s Secret brand, and its longtime CEO, Les Wexner. The three episodes cover the birth of the brand and how it rose to the top followed by seedy details of the underworld of fashion, the billionaire class, and Jeffrey Epstein – the man behind the fall of the brand. From not having women’s lingerie sold in stores to having them put on display in malls; this societal step forward can be attributed to Victoria’s Secret. Having glamorized and popularized this, the brand saw its highest of highs, eventually giving rise to the infamous fashion show, ‘The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show’. The docuseries reveals how in the beginning there wasn’t an obsession with the weight of the models or how their bodies looked as the brand needed women – not the other way around. Progressing into the narrative of this story, we see how the women were overpowered by the popularity of the brand and thought their careers were made after being associated with Victoria’s Secret. The show reveals how Les Wexner, someone who controlled his businesses and was a very intrusive brand owner, slowly converted into a mere bystander as he watched his empire burn to the ground. Les Wexner was manipulated by Jeffery Epstein, who turned the brand into something no one would have ever imagined. From having rich men place bids over the models to starting a prostitution racket by luring young women aspiring to be models for the brand, a lot of tough details of the fashion industry are exposed here. Angels and Demons examines how just as fashion brands were changing to accept the notion of ‘body positivity’, Victoria’s Secret received backlash for not being size inclusive. Aside from including a few models of color and different ethnicities, Victoria’s Secret didn’t actually make any progress in changing its notion of the ideal body size. It’s explained here that the brand was dethroned only due to their lack of acceptance for models, while Savage by Fenty Beauty from Rihanna accepted women of all shapes, colors, races, and sizes. The regressive mindset of the brand owners and their aversion to making changes essentially broke down the brand. It’s also revealed how the models were forced to starve themselves in order to fit the brand’s ideal body type and how the introduction of ‘wings’ was a fancy way of pitting women against each other. As a young girl watching the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, I was always enamored by the beautiful women I saw and how their bodies were what I then thought were the most ‘ideal’ body types. This goes on to show how the brand needed to be reborn in order to change that narrative in the minds of young women seeking an unrealistic goal. Growing up with the rise of the brand and the birth of the ‘body positivity movement’, things started changing and it became clearer that the body type advocated by Victoria’s Secret was not ideal in any way, and actually unachievable. Angels and Demons revealed how the photos were retouched and edited over and over again to attain the ‘perfect body’ for models who are already starving themselves to maintain their shape. The yearly ordeal of the Victoria’s Secret fashion show is something that – like me – many other women (and men) waited to watch. Angels and Demons shows how it was actually exposed to appeal toward the perverted fantasies of some men. This proves how the bodies of women were ‘up for grabs’ and sold like commodities for men who wish to see women with the so-called ideal body type. This is essentially a 3-hour-long movie that exposes the gory details of the downfall of the brand. If you go into this expecting a joyride of how fashion shows took place in the past, you are going to be in for quite the wake-up call!
