They said/We said: Victoria’s Secret is not impressed by Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit cover model Kate Upton
Model Kate Upton, with her healthy proportions and self-made rise to fame (read: YouTube celebrity), has been making waves ever since being discovered by IMG Models. But now it’s her cover of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue (can that even be called a swimsuit?) that has people talking—especially Sophia Neophitou.
Neophitou, who’s the casting director for the Victoria’s Secret runway show, has pulled a Lagerfeld, offering her opinion on the buxom blonde. And it’s not a good one.
“We would never use her,” she told the Times, “She’s like a footballer’s wife, with the too-blonde hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy.”
No need to mince words! Granted they do have the multi-million dollar Fantasy Treasure Bra, but since when is Victoria’s Secret the ultimate purveyor of all things unique? We have a feeling the lingerie store has isolated some very important customers—bottle-blondes and footballer’s wives alike. However, in this era of aspirational advertising, we can see why Victoria’s Secret is keen to align their Angels with high-fashion icons and not a so-called everyday aesthetic.
THEY SAID:
Fashionista: “We, for one, are happy to see Upton on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and we hope this marks a trend toward both curvier and social media savvy models. We just have one problem: Is it just us or do her teeny-tiny bikini bottoms make you a little uncomfortable?” [Fashionista]
Huffington Post: “We’re not sure when the Victoria’s Secret fashion show came to represent the paragon of class.” [Huffington Post]
Styleite: “Ouch. One would assume there is a fairly large overlap in customers between Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue subscribers and Victoria’s Secret fashion show fans, but what do we know? We don’t even have a face worth buying.” [Styleite]
WE SAID:
Rani Sheen, copy and health editor: “At first glance a curvy, pretty blonde like Kate Upton seems like an obvious choice for a Victoria’s Secret show, but when you think about the models most recently drafted for the brand’s blockbuster runway extravaganza—high-fashion editorial specialists such as Chanel Iman and Karlie Kloss—a YouTube phenom with mostly commercial and mens-mag appeal doesn’t quite fit the bill.”
