A model has made history by becoming the first person with Downs’ Syndrome to ever pose for Victoria’s Secret.
Puerto Rican model and activist Sofia Jirau, 25, announced she is taking part in the campaign for the American lingerie brand’s new Love Cloud collection of comfortable everyday underwear.
She captured the fashion industry’s attention when she made her catwalk debut at New York Fashion Week in February 2020 and her career has been building momentum throughout the pandemic.
Sofia, who also founded her own brand, Alavett, said posing for Victoria’s Secret is a ‘dream come true’, but online commenters have admitted to feeling ‘mixed emotions’ over the campaign and raised concerns over sexualising an individual with Down’s syndrome.
The Love Cloud is a new initiative for the lingerie brand, which has been trying to claw back credibility with a string of intiatives such as its first mastectomy bra, racially diverse models promoting underwear in different skin tones, and hiring transgender beauty Valentina Sampaio. after being criticised for its lack of diversity.
TV star Jameela Jamil once brandied it a ‘transphobic, fat phobic company that sets out to exclude most women’, while declining sales figures, shop closures and the cancelling of its high-profile catwalk showcase have added to the company’s woes in recent years.
Puerto Rican model and activist Sofia Jirau, 25,as made history by becoming the first person with Downs’ Syndrome to ever pose for Victoria’s Secret
Celebrrating the news of her campaign today on Instagram, Sofia said: ‘One day I dreamed of it, I worked on it and today it is a dream come true. I can finally tell you my big secret… I am the first Victoria’s Secret model with Down syndrome.’
Sharing a black and white picture of her modelling the brand’s bra, she continued: ‘Thanks to all of you for always supporting me in my projects. Thanks to @victoriassecret for seeing me as a #NoLimits model and making me part of the Love Cloud Collection inclusion campaign. This is just the beginning, now it’s formed.’
‘Inside and out there are no limits, Alavett,’ she said, quoting her own brand, which is named after the English phrase ‘I love it.’
Sofia, who boasts 167,000 followers, shared a black and white snap where she models a floral balcony bra from the brand.
The model made her modelling debut at New York’s Fashion Week in February 2020 and has been raising awareness about Down’s Syndrome on social media
Her No Limits campaign, called Sin Límites, focuses on raising awareness about Down’s Syndrome.
The model is also a designer who launched Alavett’s online store in 2019.
She made her catwalk debut at New York Fashion Week in February 2020 and captured the attention of the world.
She said at the time: ‘I am proud as one of the few models with Down’s syndrome who have managed to participate in the important fashion event.
Keeping fit! Sofia, who looks after her model physique, said posing for Victoria’s Secret was a dream come true
Sofia has created the No Limites campaign to encourage other people living with Down’s Syndrome to keep working on their goals
‘Modelling in the United States was the beginning of conquering the dream I have had since an early age – to model on the most important runways in the world.’
She said she hoped the move would inspire other people living with Down’s to meet their goals.
Her ultimate idol is JLo and Sofia said she would love to meet her one day.
On Monday, Victoria’s Secret launched their Love Cloud collection, the next step in their rebrand after a rough patch.
The 25-year-old modelling a Victoria’s Secret bra from the Love Cloud collection which launched on Monday
Sofia launched her own brand, called Alavett, in 2019 and shares a glimpse into her life as a model on social media
The Puerto Rican beauty said she was proud to be one of the few models with Down’s Syndrome to have taken part in a Fashion Week
The brand’s line of everyday comfortable bras sees 18 women model the garments.
Some of them, like Hayley Bieber and Taylor Hill, are professional models, but the campaign also features inspiring women to hammer home the message that the brand is accessible to everyone.
The inclusive campaign features Celilo Miles, a Nez Perce Tribe-Wildland firefighter and Sylvia Buckler, an accessory designer who models the bra while cradling her pregnant belly.
The model and designer wants to show that anything is possible if you work at your dreams and thanked Victoria’s Secret for including her in the campaign
Sofia is taking part in the new Love Cloud collection campaign alongside 17 others women, including a firefighter
Speaking to Vogue, Celilo said she still cannot believe she was selected for the campaign.
‘I used to watch the Victoria’s Secret fashion show and wish that I could be up on that stage.
‘Everyone wanted to be in that club, but you knew you didn’t belong there, she said.
She added that when she started modelling she tried to lose weight in order to fit a size she could not sustain because she believed it was the done thing.
The campaign also features plus-sized models like Paloma Elsesser, and Devyn Garcia.
Vogue has noted the collection is the first under the tenure of Victoria’s Secret’s new creative director Raúl Martinez, who has been working hard at rethinking how the brand markets itself to women.
Fallen Angels: How Victoria’s Secret went from a once global phenomenon and the lingerie of choice for the world’s biggest stars to a brand fighting to stay relevant
Victoria’s Secret was founded in 1977 by US businessman Roy Raymond, who set up a small chain of boudoir lingerie shops when he could find no man-friendly women’s stores.
In 1982 he sold the company to clothing magnate Les Wexner for $1million – a fraction of its current value. Raymond later committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
He chose the name Victoria after Queen Victoria, thinking it sounded refined, and added Secret to refer to what was hidden under the clothes.
Eventually, hundreds of stores opened coast to coast, but it was the glitzy launch of Victoria’s Secret’s first blatantly sexy catwalk show at the Plaza Hotel, New York in 1995 which made the difference.
Beginning: The first Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1995 with models such as Angelika Kallio (left) and Leilani (right) walking the runway
Broadcast on network TV to 185 countries, millions tuned in to see supermodels Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Tyra Banks and Karen Mulder – among others – stripped back to the barest of essentials.
Victoria’s Secret opened its first flagship store in London’s Bond Street in 2012, and staged its first catwalk show in 2014, featuring Ed Sheeran as star turn, but recent years have been more challenging.
Aside from a small rise in the first quarter in 2018, the lingerie retailer had falling sales every quarter since the fourth quarter in 2016.
Victoria’s Secret shuttered 20 stores in 2018 amid a poor annual sales performance, ending the year with former CEO Jan Singer resigning last November.
The lingerie giant’s parent company, L Brands, confirmed in November 2019 that its famous show wouldn’t take place. The decision was part of a move to ‘evolve the messaging of [the company],’ Fortune reported at the time.
Famous faces: The show has featured some of the world’s most in-demand models over the years, including Bella Hadid in New York in 2018 (left) and Heidi Klum in Miami in 2008 (right)
Supermodel Tyra Banks displays an outfit during the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York in 2003 (left)
It came a year after marketing chief Ed Razek said the brand would not cast plus-sized or ‘transexual’ models because the show is a ‘fantasy.’
In 2020, more than 100 models signed an open letter to the then CEO of Victoria’s Secret calling for him to take action on the company’s ‘culture of misogyny and abuse’.
The letter urged John Mehas to end what the group – which included Christy Turlington Burns, Iskra Lawrence, Edie Campbell, Amber Valletta and Felicity Hayward – described as an ‘entrenched culture of misogyny’ at the lingerie chain.
With consumers turning away from glamour towards comfort, plus a huge backlash following reports of Wexner’s historic friendship with disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein, Victoria’s Secret faced an identity crisis.
As well as a shift in public perception of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, the brand faced a continued decline in sales.
Last year, the brand tried a new approach, posting photos on its Instagram account that promote neutral underwear in a variety of skin tones and using models from different ethnic backgrounds and showing size diversity.
However, some lingerie fans said the company’s bid to finally become more diverse was ‘too little, too late’ and accused the brand of ‘playing catch-up’.
In May 2020, parent company L Brands announced the closure of 250 stores in the US and Canada, after being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The closures represented nearly a quarter of Victoria’s Secret’s 1,091 locations in North America.
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