Victoria's Secret models Watch Videos and Photos
victoria s secret models See Photos, videos coupon code models fashion show 2009
NEW YORK — The men in uniform wear combat boots and flags on their arms. Veterans of conflict overseas, they are somewhat unsure of how to act around the Victoria's Secret Angels, who are wearing silk robes and high heels in their New York clubhouse.
"I said, 'Please, Mrs. Model, all I want is a hug,' " explains a man in uniform named Rosario, who was being teased by his platoon for being unable to approach any of the lingerie models.
Victoria's Secret models, a worldwide television phenomenon that will be seen by more than one billion people this Tuesday night, was held at Manhattan's 69th Regiment Armory. Eventually, Rosario screwed up the courage to approach one of the girls.
"'Wow, you're tall,' was all I could say," he later admitted, as his fellow infantrymen howled with glee. "I know she was feeling me, though-what she didn't put into words, she screamed with her eyes."
Since 1995, the multimillion-dollar production has been the centrepiece marketing campaign of a bra and lingerie chain that helped its parent company, Limited Brands, quadruple their 2010 sales. The Victoria's Secret supermodels, dubbed Angels, include alumni such as Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks and Gisele Bundchen, and are a step away from super-stardom, their comings and goings already tracked by their fans as if they were Hollywood stars. Victoria's Secret's brand-strategy is world renowned: they sell inexpensive bras in shopping malls but give them the oomph of glamour with their trademark catalogue and televised show.
The models are, of course, used to the attention.
"I really don't get hit on that much," Lily Aldridge insists. She's engaged to Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill and looks like a cross between a gazelle, Wonder Woman and an exotic bird. She's tall and thin, with legs that begin where the average person's rib cage might.
"Sometimes if I have to take the subway or something, I might wear a hat," Aldridge says. "It's not that men are always bothering me, but guys can be sort of creepy sometimes."
Erin Heatherton is a 21-year-old blond Angel from Skokie, Ill., with an hourglass figure that's best described as being built for modelling bras.
"I'm proud of my body, I love my body and I think every woman should feel the same way," Heatherton says, wearing painted-on blue jeans and a tight white T-shirt at the time. Since Victoria's Secret aims to define what both men and women think of as sexy - and officially so in Canada since they opened their first store in Edmonton and then Toronto, with more store openings planned for the new year - the Angels were happy to provide their own definitions.
"I think sexiness is really just confidence, and everyone, no matter how they look, can and should feel sexy if the want," Heatherton says. "Me personally, I'm jealous of people for all kinds of stuff - Behati [Prinsloo] for her butt, Adriana [Lima] for her eyes - but my body is the way it is and I accept that: I think being sexy ultimately has to come from within."
Selita Ebanks has been an Angel since 2005. Her advice to potential suitors: "Be not afraid." Ebanks was most recently featured in the new Kanye West film and she was once engaged to the actor Nick Cannon. At press time, 44,005 people followed her on Twitter.
"I like it when guys aren't too into themselves, when they're smart and polite and not too aggressive," said Ebanks, originally from the Cayman Islands and desirous of a puppy this Christmas. "Sexiness isn't something that's stamped on your forehead. The sexiest look on guys or women is when someone's completely comfortable with themself."
Of course, it's easy for a rail-thin supermodel who still manages to have hips to talk about self-confidence. Canadian Angel Jessica Stam was discovered at Tim Hortons, after all. Her stated criteria for a date are even less exacting.
"I like it when a guy gives me a genuine compliment or else something stupid, like just asking me about my day," says Stam, who's rumoured to be dating a left winger on the Anaheim Ducks. Stam, as she's referred to in the fashion world, has a Marc Jacobs bag named in her honour. Her legs are longer than certain brands of automobiles.
"Sexiness is being able to exude your personality," she says, and then later revealed that she too wanted a puppy for Christmas. (Would-be Victoria's Secret Angels suitors, get to the pet store.)
The show's elaborate set looks like it could host Pink Floyd. There's dramatic red lighting and velvet curtains, and the runway is covered with sparkles so the Angels will be walking in their underwear along diamonds and stars.
It takes 50 dressers, 19 hairstylists and 17 makeup artists to get the girls ready for the main event, and the next day, the magnitude of the show has kicked in for this small army. Thanks to its televised audience, Victoria's Secret draws more eyeballs than every other fashion show in the world combined.
Backstage, there are security guards in pink ties with walkie-talkies and each member of the fashion press seems to be in competition with one another about who can put together the most flamboyant look. Some of the girls are barefoot, some wear high heels. Stam, in flip-flops, appears to be wearing nothing beneath her pink satin robe. Again, an opportune occasion to discuss the meaning of the word sexy.
"When I want to feel sexy I might take a shower or just take five minutes for myself," she says, and then drops this bombshell: "I also spend time with my puppy."
An interesting thing about the Angels is how many of them walk for the brand year after year. Take Karolina Kurkova, the Czech supermodel who first appeared on the show at age 16.
"This is my first time doing the show after being pregnant," says the model and aspiring actress who wore the $10-million bra in Victoria Secret's 2002 show. Motherhood, Kurkova said, changed her evaluation of sexy. When little Tobin Jack was born last October, she admits, she didn't know if she'd ever feel sexy again.
"Coming back into my body took a couple of months," says Kurkova, whom Esquire magazine put on their cover to celebrate their 75th birthday. "I was breastfeeding for the first time and exhausted, you're feeding the baby every two hours and I wasn't focusing on me."
Kurkova wasn't sure if she even wanted to return to modelling, but when she began exercising again, she started to feel more confident. And as any Angel will tell you, confidence is the sexiest thing.
"I began to feel more like myself, more in control of my body, and then I wanted to spice things up," Kurkova says, flashing her famous mega-watt grin. "The show's a phenomenon and I'm so glad I'm back."
Upon close examination, this phenomenon can best be described as the Rockettes meets Transformers, with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue providing the costumes. Rumours spread through the Armory that tickets are being scalped for $5,000.
When the runway show finally begins, Paris Hilton, Vin Diesel and Gerard Butler are in the audience; onstage it's peacock feathers, moon boots and dazzling lingerie. Katy Perry and Akon give a series of lip-synched performances. As each Angel walks down the runway, they smile into the camera. Even from way up in the back, it's clear why Victoria's Secret is a brand that's as well-known as Coke. Serviceman Rosario and his friends made it clear when an Angel passed them by.
"She's looking at me, man," says one of the soldiers.
"No way, bro, she smiled right at me," his friend responds.
They were both right. Now one of them just needs to run out and by her a dog.
The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show will air on CBS on Tuesday, Nov.30 at 10 p.m. ET.
victoria s secret models See Photos, videos coupon code models fashion show 2009
NEW YORK — The men in uniform wear combat boots and flags on their arms. Veterans of conflict overseas, they are somewhat unsure of how to act around the Victoria's Secret Angels, who are wearing silk robes and high heels in their New York clubhouse.
"I said, 'Please, Mrs. Model, all I want is a hug,' " explains a man in uniform named Rosario, who was being teased by his platoon for being unable to approach any of the lingerie models.
Victoria's Secret models, a worldwide television phenomenon that will be seen by more than one billion people this Tuesday night, was held at Manhattan's 69th Regiment Armory. Eventually, Rosario screwed up the courage to approach one of the girls.
"'Wow, you're tall,' was all I could say," he later admitted, as his fellow infantrymen howled with glee. "I know she was feeling me, though-what she didn't put into words, she screamed with her eyes."
Since 1995, the multimillion-dollar production has been the centrepiece marketing campaign of a bra and lingerie chain that helped its parent company, Limited Brands, quadruple their 2010 sales. The Victoria's Secret supermodels, dubbed Angels, include alumni such as Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks and Gisele Bundchen, and are a step away from super-stardom, their comings and goings already tracked by their fans as if they were Hollywood stars. Victoria's Secret's brand-strategy is world renowned: they sell inexpensive bras in shopping malls but give them the oomph of glamour with their trademark catalogue and televised show.
The models are, of course, used to the attention.
"I really don't get hit on that much," Lily Aldridge insists. She's engaged to Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill and looks like a cross between a gazelle, Wonder Woman and an exotic bird. She's tall and thin, with legs that begin where the average person's rib cage might.
"Sometimes if I have to take the subway or something, I might wear a hat," Aldridge says. "It's not that men are always bothering me, but guys can be sort of creepy sometimes."
Erin Heatherton is a 21-year-old blond Angel from Skokie, Ill., with an hourglass figure that's best described as being built for modelling bras.
"I'm proud of my body, I love my body and I think every woman should feel the same way," Heatherton says, wearing painted-on blue jeans and a tight white T-shirt at the time. Since Victoria's Secret aims to define what both men and women think of as sexy - and officially so in Canada since they opened their first store in Edmonton and then Toronto, with more store openings planned for the new year - the Angels were happy to provide their own definitions.
"I think sexiness is really just confidence, and everyone, no matter how they look, can and should feel sexy if the want," Heatherton says. "Me personally, I'm jealous of people for all kinds of stuff - Behati [Prinsloo] for her butt, Adriana [Lima] for her eyes - but my body is the way it is and I accept that: I think being sexy ultimately has to come from within."
Selita Ebanks has been an Angel since 2005. Her advice to potential suitors: "Be not afraid." Ebanks was most recently featured in the new Kanye West film and she was once engaged to the actor Nick Cannon. At press time, 44,005 people followed her on Twitter.
"I like it when guys aren't too into themselves, when they're smart and polite and not too aggressive," said Ebanks, originally from the Cayman Islands and desirous of a puppy this Christmas. "Sexiness isn't something that's stamped on your forehead. The sexiest look on guys or women is when someone's completely comfortable with themself."
Of course, it's easy for a rail-thin supermodel who still manages to have hips to talk about self-confidence. Canadian Angel Jessica Stam was discovered at Tim Hortons, after all. Her stated criteria for a date are even less exacting.
"I like it when a guy gives me a genuine compliment or else something stupid, like just asking me about my day," says Stam, who's rumoured to be dating a left winger on the Anaheim Ducks. Stam, as she's referred to in the fashion world, has a Marc Jacobs bag named in her honour. Her legs are longer than certain brands of automobiles.
"Sexiness is being able to exude your personality," she says, and then later revealed that she too wanted a puppy for Christmas. (Would-be Victoria's Secret Angels suitors, get to the pet store.)
The show's elaborate set looks like it could host Pink Floyd. There's dramatic red lighting and velvet curtains, and the runway is covered with sparkles so the Angels will be walking in their underwear along diamonds and stars.
It takes 50 dressers, 19 hairstylists and 17 makeup artists to get the girls ready for the main event, and the next day, the magnitude of the show has kicked in for this small army. Thanks to its televised audience, Victoria's Secret draws more eyeballs than every other fashion show in the world combined.
Backstage, there are security guards in pink ties with walkie-talkies and each member of the fashion press seems to be in competition with one another about who can put together the most flamboyant look. Some of the girls are barefoot, some wear high heels. Stam, in flip-flops, appears to be wearing nothing beneath her pink satin robe. Again, an opportune occasion to discuss the meaning of the word sexy.
"When I want to feel sexy I might take a shower or just take five minutes for myself," she says, and then drops this bombshell: "I also spend time with my puppy."
An interesting thing about the Angels is how many of them walk for the brand year after year. Take Karolina Kurkova, the Czech supermodel who first appeared on the show at age 16.
"This is my first time doing the show after being pregnant," says the model and aspiring actress who wore the $10-million bra in Victoria Secret's 2002 show. Motherhood, Kurkova said, changed her evaluation of sexy. When little Tobin Jack was born last October, she admits, she didn't know if she'd ever feel sexy again.
"Coming back into my body took a couple of months," says Kurkova, whom Esquire magazine put on their cover to celebrate their 75th birthday. "I was breastfeeding for the first time and exhausted, you're feeding the baby every two hours and I wasn't focusing on me."
Kurkova wasn't sure if she even wanted to return to modelling, but when she began exercising again, she started to feel more confident. And as any Angel will tell you, confidence is the sexiest thing.
"I began to feel more like myself, more in control of my body, and then I wanted to spice things up," Kurkova says, flashing her famous mega-watt grin. "The show's a phenomenon and I'm so glad I'm back."
Upon close examination, this phenomenon can best be described as the Rockettes meets Transformers, with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue providing the costumes. Rumours spread through the Armory that tickets are being scalped for $5,000.
When the runway show finally begins, Paris Hilton, Vin Diesel and Gerard Butler are in the audience; onstage it's peacock feathers, moon boots and dazzling lingerie. Katy Perry and Akon give a series of lip-synched performances. As each Angel walks down the runway, they smile into the camera. Even from way up in the back, it's clear why Victoria's Secret is a brand that's as well-known as Coke. Serviceman Rosario and his friends made it clear when an Angel passed them by.
"She's looking at me, man," says one of the soldiers.
"No way, bro, she smiled right at me," his friend responds.
They were both right. Now one of them just needs to run out and by her a dog.
The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show will air on CBS on Tuesday, Nov.30 at 10 p.m. ET.
No comments:
Post a Comment