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Sofía Jirau becomes the first model with Down Syndrome to pose for Victoria's Secret
Sofía Jirau, who is also a designer, is the first model with Down syndrome to front a Victoria’s Secret campaign.
Lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret & Co. is moving further away from its exclusionary casting choices of the past in a new advertising campaign that features a model with Down syndrome.
The campaign, which promotes the company’s “Love Cloud” intimates collection, features 18 women with diverse backgrounds and identities. Sofía Jirau, who is also a designer, becomes the first model with Down syndrome to front a Victoria’s Secret campaign. She is joined by models including Adut Akech, Hailey Bieber, Paloma Elsesser, and Imaan Hammam, as well as actor Miriam Blanco and Celilo Miles, a firefighter for the Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho. Also in the campaign is legacy supermodel Shalom Harlow, and Valentina Sampaio, who in 2019 became the first openly transgender model to work with the brand.
“One day I dreamed of it, I worked for it, and today is a dream come true,” Jirau, who designs the line Alavett, wrote on Instagram.
Lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret & Co. is moving further away from its exclusionary casting choices of the past in a new advertising campaign that features a model with Down syndrome.
The campaign, which promotes the company’s “Love Cloud” intimates collection, features 18 women with diverse backgrounds and identities. Sofía Jirau, who is also a designer, becomes the first model with Down syndrome to front a Victoria’s Secret campaign. She is joined by models including Adut Akech, Hailey Bieber, Paloma Elsesser, and Imaan Hammam, as well as actor Miriam Blanco and Celilo Miles, a firefighter for the Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho. Also in the campaign is legacy supermodel Shalom Harlow, and Valentina Sampaio, who in 2019 became the first openly transgender model to work with the brand.
“One day I dreamed of it, I worked for it, and today is a dream come true,” Jirau, who designs the line Alavett, wrote on Instagram.
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Gucci in 2020 cast Ellie Goldstein, a model with Down syndrome, as a face of its beauty campaign.
The bras and panties in the “Love Cloud” collection are available in six styles and several colors. While the bra sizes offered range from 32A to 40DDD, they fall short of the size options available from brands such as Rihanna's Savage X Fenty, Kim Kardashian's Skims and Nubian Skin. Those brands have found success in recent years by offering a larger range of sizes and skin tones to underserved customers — often in stark contrast to a much narrower standard of female beauty that was led by Victoria's Secret.
Raúl Martinez, the brand’s head creative director, said in a statement that the collection was “a major moment in the brand's evolution” and “an important part of the new Victoria's Secret standard we are creating.” It’s part of Victoria’s Secret move to overhaul its image, which has included leaving behind the so-called “Angels” that previously defined its image.
Victoria’s Secret is following the fashion industry by using models that more accurately represent the population. Savage X Fenty has cast pregnant models in its fashion shows, and featured model Lyric Mariah, who has a limb difference, in campaign images. Skims, which is valued at $3.2 billion, worked with Paralympians. Independent brands have provided offerings to underserved communities, such as LGBTQ people, for years.
