Over the past year, Victoria’s Secret has been prominent amid scandals regarding discrimimation with their annual fashion show, which was cancelled on November 2019. This scandal mainly had to do with the actions and words of former Chief Marketing Officer, Ed Razek. This scandal revolved around comments Razek made about not having any desire to include plus size or transgender models in the annunal runway show, because the show is supposed to be a “fantasy” and “no one had any interest in it.” Razek then left his long-time position from his executive role at the company in August of 2019. Recently, accusations from past models have surfaced, who claimed to have experienced sexual harassment by the Victoria’s Secret executives.
The New York Times reported that supermodel Bella stated that Razek has previously made inappropriate comments towards her. This includes a lewd comment about Hadid’s “perfect” breasts and another one of “forget the panties.” Bella had also mentioned in comparison to modeling for Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty line that she felt as though she could “walk however she wanted.” There were also reports of the former Executive reaching and touching another model’s crotch during the same event. Repeated sources also claim that Razek tried to kiss models and was persistent in getting them to sit on his lap. Over 30 models, employees, and other executives of the company spoke out in attempts to verify these claims. In a comment made to the New York Times, Razek protested “the accusations in the Times story are categorically untrue, misconstrued, or taken out of context.” No further questioning has been made towards Razek at this time.