Angela Weiss / Getty Images
Doutzen Kroes’ Shoe Gets Stuck on Runway in 2024 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Malfunction
Victoria’s Secret model Doutzen Kroes didn’t let a little problem ruin a big night! Doutzen’s shoe seemingly got stuck on the runway during the 2024 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and it took a moment for her to free herself.
Fans saw Doutzen, 35, pause mid-walk and lean over as she worked to pull her shoe free from a place on the floor. Another model coming the opposite way offered to help, but Doutzen managed to get her shoe unstuck in the nick of time.
The 2024 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show returned for the first time in six years on Tuesday, October 15, with some of the most iconic names in modeling, including Tyra Banks, Kate Moss and more, hitting the runway. While the event was considered “must see TV” from the mid-’90s until 2018, it was hit with a large amount of backlash relating to body positivity, lack of transgender models and the #MeToo movement.
Fans slammed Ed Razek, who was the president and chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret at the time, for his comments about why the show didn’t include older models and transgender people in 2018. He also used the outdated term “transsexuals” in his explanation.
“So it’s like, why don’t you do 50? Why don’t you do 60? Why don’t you do 24? It’s like, why doesn’t your show do this?” Razek, 76, said in an interview with Vogue on November 8, 2018. “Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. It’s a 42-minute entertainment special.”
The backlash became so great that Razek issued an apology for his remarks the following day.
“My remark regarding the inclusion of transgender models in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show came across as insensitive. I apologize,” Razek wrote in a post from the official Victoria’s Secret social media account via X. “To be clear, we absolutely would cast a transgender model for the show. We’ve had transgender models come to castings…And like many others, they didn’t make it…But it was never about gender. I admire and respect their journey to embrace who they really are.”
On top of Razek’s insensitive comments, the brand was embroiled in controversy when former CEO Les Wexner’s association with Jeffrey Epstein came to light. Epstein was considered Wexner’s confidant and managed his finances for several years. He was even named the trustee of the Wexner Foundation. The two men’s friendship led people to believe that “Epstein was using his close ties to Wexner and Victoria’s Secret to seduce young women,” according to Women’s Wear Daily.
After Epstein’s crimes were exposed and he was arrested in July 2019, Wexner, 87, distanced himself from the financier.
A complaint filed in the Court of Chancery in the state of Delaware in January 2021 claimed, “Mr. Wexner knew or should have known that Epstein was using his relationship with the Wexners and to the company to recruit aspiring models by posing as a recruiter and lying to them about his ability to get them Victoria’s Secret assignments.”
Wexner claimed that he had cut ties with Epstein years earlier, but he stepped down as CEO in 2021, and L Brands, the company that owned Victoria’s Secret, reached a settlement agreement.
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Life & Style does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.