This Year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Will Be Set In Shanghai
The angels are currently touring the city
This year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show could be far away from Paris. The lingerie brand is set to stage the annual runway show in Shanghai, China at the end of the year, WWD reports. VS has yet to make the official announcement, but if the news is confirmed, Shanghai will join cities like Paris, London, New York City and Los Angeles as locations for the famed event.
A handful of Angels—Josephine Skriver, Alessandra Ambrosio, Ming Xi and Sui He—are currently touring the city and promoting the new VS store openings on their tour of China. Naturally, they’ve been documenting the trip (and their killer street style) on social media.
The new fashion show venue reflects VS’ aim to appeal to Chinese consumers and plan to expand in the nation’s “fast-growing market,” according to CNBC. A flagship in Hong Kong is expected to be completed later in the year. In the meantime, 26 beauty- and accessories-only storefronts are already open in mainland China, and the brand’s first lingerie store in the country just opened in February.
However, the location change might present a few problems. After the 2016 runway show, the brand was accused of appropriating Chinese culture (especially with that giant dragon wrapped around Elsa Hosk). The collection also received mixed reviews from Chinese viewers. Jing Daily reported after the runway broadcast that some conservative critics believed the lingerie didn’t align with the country’s “reserved” style of dress. Users on blogging site Weibo and messaging app WeChat also joined the discussion but were “less harsh.”
And while the record number of Chinese models in the lineup were celebrated, they only accounted for four out of 54 girls in the show. (The first time a model of Asian descent walked the VS runway was in 2009.) If the Shanghai venue is confirmed, perhaps the show would include even more.