Fun & Famous
16 THINGS YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT VICTORIA'S SECRET
Today is D-Day for the world's most toned models. Want to know how you can prepare for the show that will be broadcast next Monday? Then I would like to refer you here to it.
The show attracts an insane amount of viewers and press every year, but there are indeed a few things you didn't know.
1. Want to know who Victoria actually is? It's a man named Roy Raymond who started the company in 1977 with the hope of making it much easier for men to buy lingerie for the ladies in their lives.
2. The choice to use the name Victoria was made because the name radiated the elegance and fame of the Victorian era. And the ‘secret’ is of course the secret you wear under all your clothes.
3. It's a bit hard to swallow when you hear that a Victoria's Secret show costs over 12 million dollars annually. But that's pocket change for a company that's worth about 7.2 billion.
4. Ever wondered how heavy the wings are? Well, the heaviest ever were over 18 kilos (!) and were worn by Alessandra Ambrosio in 2011. 105,000 Swarovski crystals. Do you now understand that being a model for VS is also just top sport?
5. And the price tags on some bras can go up to 15 million dollars. I kid you not. Worn by Gisele Bündchen in 2000 and still found in the Guinness Book of World Records sixteen years later as the most expensive bra ever.
6. Just a bit cheaper is the Fantasy Bra of 11 million dollars that Heidi Klum paraded around in 2003, along with the largest wings ever at over three meters high. I'm telling you: this is top sport.
7. From a debut as a PINK Lady to Angel within a year? That can happen if your name is Lily Aldridge.
8. And all that angel hair? Did you honestly think that was all from the models themselves? No way, extensions, extensions, extensions.
9. Just in case you also genuinely think they all have flawless skin from head to toe without any scars or cellulite? They get thoroughly tanned over. And this process can take several hours. Think of it as a kind of live photoshop airbrushing.
10. Always wanted to know how the models eat? See here their diet tips.
11. The trick to keeping the nerves under control? Alcohol. But I wonder how Kendall and Gigi did this last year, because they were both not old enough to drink in the US. Shame.
12. The oldest veteran of the bunch? That's Adriana Lima who has been walking in the show since 2000.
13. Many girls dream of walking in the show someday. In 2009, this dream came true for model Kylie Bisutti, who won the ‘Victoria's Secret Model Search’. But four years later she released a memoir ‘I'm No Angel: From Victoria's Secret Model to Role Model’, in which she took a big swing at the VS team and her negative experiences with the company.
14. Victoria's Secret stores are also paradises for lingerie kleptomaniacs. A woman from Pennsylvania managed to steal nine times from different stores until she was caught. She took away twenty-four thousand dollars worth of underwear. Oh my god.
15. Gigi Hadid had auditioned for the show twice before she was finally booked in 2015, along with her model BFF Kendall Jenner. Now the big question is: will she ever become a VS Angel?
16. Always thought that Victoria's Secret also had an HQ in London? False. ‘No. 10 Margaret Street, London’, which was often found in their catalog, does not exist. It just sounded nice for their image. At least better than Columbus, Ohio, where they actually are.
Bring it on girls, I'm ready for Monday. With pizza and all. That's tradition, because I've long given up hope that I will ever look like that.
