Indian actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas has become a female brand representative of Victoria's Secret, the American lingerie giant. The actress has already signed the brand agreement along with other notable figures.
Called the VS Collective, the new roster also consists of American soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Brazilian transgender model Valentina Sampaio, 17-year-old Chinese American freestyle skier Eileen Gu, 29-year-old biracial model and inclusivity advocate Paloma Elsesser, photographer and Los Angeles-based media celebrity Amanda de Cadenet and South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech. The seven new brand ambassadors will advise and model for the brand and promote it on social media.
The official Instagram page of Victoria's Secret celebrated the new spin by saying, "we are proud to announce an exciting new partnership platform, #TheVSCollective, designed to shape the future of Victoria's Secret. These extraordinary partners, with their unique backgrounds, interests and passions will collaborate with us to create revolutionary product collections, compelling and inspiring content, new internal associate programs and rally support for causes vital to women."
Though Victoria's Secret has been hailed for its lingerie since the 1970s, it had earned widespread criticism in recent years for their quintessence of female fantasizing over men rather than what women truly seek. It had witnessed a sales decline of 7.7 percent in 2019 even before the advent of the coronavirus pandemic.
"When the world was changing, we were too slow to respond. We needed to stop being about what men want and to be about what women want," said chief executive Martin Waters to The New York Times. Waters added that the brand's fashion show will more likely resume in 2022 in a very different form.