Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Shanghai 2017
December 15, 2017
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was aired on Nov. 28 and held in Shanghai, China featuring 57 models from various countries. The musical guests included Harry Styles, Grammy Award-winning artist Miguel, Tony Award-winning Broadway star Leslie Odom, Jr., and Chinese music sensation Jane Zhang.
The fashion show, scheduled for Nov. 20, was due to feature some of the world’s most famous models and singers; however, China has denied a number of performers entry to the country.
Those rejected include pop star Katy Perry, who has been banned from China indefinitely. Perry was told she would be granted a visa, only to have the decision reversed after Chinese officials became aware of a 2015 performance in Taiwan in which Perry wore a dress adorned with sunflowers—a flower associated with the support of Taiwanese anti-China protesters, who have a sunflower as their emblem.
Katy Perry fan Adriana Ramirez, 11, expressed her disappointment when finding out the singer would not be performing at the show this year.
“Katy Perry came out with a really good album and I feel like she would’ve livened up the show,” Ramirez said, “I wasn’t a big fan of the artists that they [Victoria’s Secret] chose to perform and I probably would’ve actually watched it if Katy Perry was performing.”
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is one of the biggest runway events in the world, which makes it nerve-racking for the chosen models to walk each year.
While strutting down the runway in front of an audience of 18,000 people, Chinese model Ming Xi stumbled on her train and fell onto the floor; however, model Gizele Oliveira helped Ming back onto her feet and let her finish her walk to the end of the runway.
Being a fan of the fashion show, Sara Viveros, 12, was surprised to see that CBS did not edit Ming Xi’s fall out of the show.
“Usually they’ll [CBS] edit out any mistakes that happened at the show so that when it’s aired it’ll look perfect,” Viveros said, “I’m glad that they didn’t edit it out though because when she went backstage they showed all of the models hugging and telling her [Ming] that it was ok and it was just cool to see that support between the girls.”
For the first time ever, Victoria’s Secret partnered with fashion brand Balmain for this year’s fashion show. Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s creative director, created a curation of lingerie that consisted of 27 pieces, ranging from underwear and bras to bustiers and kimonos.
The Victoria’s Secret x Balmain collection was showcased in a segment of the show titled, “Punk Angels” and viewers were able to shop the pieces on the Victoria’s Secret website as the models walked down the runway; however, many of the pieces were sold out within one day of the show being aired.
Taylor Guerra, 12, watched the fashion show the day it was aired and admits to buying a piece from the “Punk Angles” segment.
“It was definitely my favorite part of the show because it was more my style,” Guerra says. “I couldn’t help but to buy one of the bras and I really wanted to buy them all, but they’re just so expensive.”
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is an annual show sponsored by and featuring the lingerie and sleepwear brand Victoria’s Secret. Though there are still 12 out of the 27 items available, they are going quickly, so people who are interested in buying any pieces from any segments of the show can shop the full collection at victoriassecret.com under the tab “Fashion Show”.