LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Fans are getting tangled up in their Victoria's Secret underwear as a result of the brand's decision to make Doja Cat the face of their next runway show. The lingerie company announced on Thursday that they were 'thrilled to reveal' that they had chosen the controversial rapper to be the featured performer in the reboot of their fashion show The Tour 23, which premieres September 26 on Amazon Prime Video.
The decision comes as the Grammy winner, 27, has courted controversy by criticizing her own fanbase and losing a significant number of social media followers in the process. 'The Kiss Me More' star flaunted her slim 5ft5in figure in lingerie she 'helped conceptualize' with her stylist Brett Alan Nelson in the teaser.
'Being a part of a global phenomenon like the Tour has been an incredible experience'
Doja Cat gushed to Harper's Bazaar on Thursday on the partnership. She said, "Victoria's Secret has always been such a fun, go-to brand for me since early on, and I love that I can still say that today. Being a part of a global phenomenon like the Tour has been an incredible experience." She added, "Because The Tour is a celebration of the strength and unique talent of creatives, we really wanted to channel this message through this look. I felt so powerful and confident wearing these pieces, which is so important to me."
The 'Attention' rapper, who has 62 million social media followers, has a problem as 566,040 Instagram users unfollowed her in the last month for disparaging her fans' devotion to her and her last two "cash grab" pop albums, according to Social Blade.
'Terrible choice. She is so disrespectful'
Fans criticized the partnership in the comments section of two Instagram posts. One of the Instagrammer commented, "Idk. Might make your brand worse based on her latest behavior. May need to reconsider." A different user showed outrage and said, "Terrible choice. She is so disrespectful."
Another user slammed the choice of Victoria's Secret and wrote, "Nobody's gonna support them if she's the face of their campaign or whatever." The last user wrote, "Respectfully reconsider please after her latest backlash with her wide fan base her fan pages are all cancelled you won't get even 50% of the views you would like to get and you will get a lot of backlash as well after the show."
Only tall, thin, and long-haired models appeared in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which ran from 1995 until 2018 before being discontinued by ABC due to poor viewership. The association between Les Wexner, the former CEO of L Brands Inc., and the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the Me Too movement and its call for greater diversity, led to a massive reckoning for the San Francisco company. The creator of Savage X Fenty, Rihanna, quickly seized the opportunity presented by Victoria's Secret's absence and started hosting her own annual panty extravaganza in 2019 on the same streaming platform, Amazon Prime Video, as reported by DailyMail.