Rihanna is making waves in the lingerie market with her new size-inclusive brand, Savage x Fenty.
Following on from her racy runway show at New York Fashion Week in September – featuring models of all shapes, sizes, and ethnic backgrounds – the singer-turned-businesswoman on Wednesday launched her latest collection for Valentine's Day, with sizes that range from 32A to 42DD for bras and from XS to 3X for panties and bralettes.
Read more: Rihanna zeroed in on Victoria's Secret's crown jewel with a raunchy new lingerie show
Its accompanying ad campaign on social media celebrates the diversity of the brand and addresses one of the biggest criticisms made against Victoria's Secret: that its marketing and ad campaigns are designed with men — rather than women — in mind.
The Savage x Fenty video is captioned with: "V-Day is about to get real XTRA! The new collection drops tomorrow... no mans needed."
Victoria's Secret, long the leader in the lingerie market, has been accused of losing relevance in the era of #MeToo. Critics have said it is failing to resonate with women shoppers because of its sexualized ads and annual runway show that does not feature plus-size women.
These sentiments came to a head in November, when one of its executives was called out for making "insensitive" comments about the show during an interview with Vogue.
Ed Razek, chief marketing officer of Victoria's Secret parent company L Brands, said he didn't think the company's annual fashion show should feature "transsexuals" because "the show is a fantasy."
"It's a 42-minute entertainment special. That's what it is," he said. "It is the only one of its kind in the world, and any other fashion brand in the world would take it in a minute, including the competitors that are carping at us."
Razek also said Victoria's Secret had no plans to add larger sizes to its assortment or include plus-size models in its runway show.
"We attempted to do a television special for plus-sizes [in 2000]. No one had any interest in it, still don't," he said.
This year's show didn't get quite the fanfare it had hoped for. According to ABC, the network that ran the show, 3.3 million people tuned in to watch the fashion show at the beginning of December. This was a substantial drop from 5 million viewers in 2017 and 6.7 million in 2016, when it previously aired on CBS.
