Victoria’s Secret transformation continues.
On Thursday, the Pink brand — part of the Victoria’s Secret & Co. portfolio — introduced plus-size TikTok star Remi Bader as its latest brand ambassador and size consultant, as the innerwear, swimwear and loungewear brand begins to roll out larger sizes.
“We love how Remi uses her platform to push the boundaries and make real change,” said Amy Hauk, chief executive officer of Victoria’s Secret Pink. “We’re always striving to improve as a brand and ensure our customers feel empowered and confident in our products. We also admire how she’s real about all aspects of being an influencer and how she’s been so open about her own mental health journey.”
The partnership begins with the inclusion of additional, larger sizes in Pink’s swimwear category, for the first time up to a size XXL, followed by expanded sizes, up to XXL, in intimates and apparel across all stores next month. Previously, larger sizes were only available online. In addition, Pink’s Wear Everywhere bras now available in 33 sizes, from 30AA to 40DDD.
“What intrigued me so much about this partnership — besides the fact that I grew up wearing Pink — is the brand’s openness for my honesty and desire to see change,” Bader said. “Pink has made a lot of strides over the years to be more inclusive and focus on mental health and I’m really honored to work with the team to help young adults embrace their bodies and be an honest voice for the amazing community I’ve built.”
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As an ambassador, Bader will be involved in various Pink events during the yearlong partnership, as well as launch a curated selection of her favorite Pink styles. The brand added that Bader will also provide insight and help with product testing among its plus-size customer base. In addition, the social media star — who has also worked with intimates brand Aerie and has nearly 2.5 million followers combined across TikTok and Instagram — will serve as a judge on the annual Pink With Purpose panel, which awards financial assistance to young women and men to help them make positive changes within their communities.
Victoria’s Secret — parent company to the Victoria’s Secret Lingerie, Beauty and Pink brands — has been deep in transformation mode since 2018, a year after revenues began declining, thanks to changing consumer preferences and the #MeToo Movement, which sparked backlash over Victoria’s Secret’s unattainable beauty standards.
After the deal to sell a majority stake of the Victoria’s Secret’s leg of the business (then part of what was then L Brands) to private equity firm Sycamore Partners fell through in early 2020, the retailer spun off the lingerie and beauty businesses as its own company on the public market last August.
Since then, the company has hired plus-size and transgender models, including most recently Emira D’Spain, the first Black transgender woman to rep the brand; updated its C-suite and board; optimized its retail fleet by closing unprofitable locations for more lucrative markets, such as India and Israel, and unveiling new store formats; and updated the assortment with the addition of things like mastectomy bras.
Victoria’s Secret also launched the VS Collective in summer 2021.
The initiative includes a group of women from diverse backgrounds — such as Eileen Gu, Megan Rapinoe, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Bella Hadid, Paloma Elsesser, Valentina Sampaio, Hailey Bieber and tennis champion Naomi Osaka, among others — who will share their stories by way of collaborations, partnerships and social media.
Most recently, Victoria’s Secret hired Sofía Jirau, the retailer’s first model with Down Syndrome, as part of the lingerie brand’s Love Cloud collection of bras and underwear.
“I am the first Victoria’s Secret model with Down syndrome,” Jirau wrote in an Instagram post in Spanish earlier this month.
The collection, which launched on Valentine’s Day, features 18 women from various backgrounds, age groups and with differing body types.
The company said the campaign reinforces its “commitment to welcoming and celebrating all women.”
“I have a bold ambition that Victoria’s [Secret] should be the world’s biggest and best advocate for women,” Victoria’s Secret Lingerie chief executive officer Martin Waters has said. “And that’s an incredibly powerful vision and mission for us to aim toward and it’s energizing for all of our people. And it does reflect a very significant turnaround from where we’ve been, where we’re moving from what men want to what women want. We’re moving from sexy for a few to sexy for all. We’re moving from a look to a feeling. It’s about including most women rather than excluding most women and being grounded in real life rather than mostly unattainable.”