Kendall Jenner reportedly won’t be walking in this years Victoria’s Secret Fashion show because of her deal with Italian lingerie brand La Perla.
According to TMZ, Jenner apparently didn’t even audition because her role as a face of La Perla includes a non-compete clause. When Jenner first appeared in a campaign for La Perla in November last year it was just a few weeks before the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, so perhaps maybe they let her slide. Since that first campaign, Kendall has worn La Perla to the 2017 Met Gala and is also in the brand’s latest campaign, captioning the pictures #LaPerla_Ambassador on Instagram.
You can credit Kendall Jenner’s position as La Perla ambassador with Julia Haart, the brand’s creative director. Haart, a former shoe designer, was hired by La Perla to transform the lingerie label into more of a lifestyle brand, emphasized by the fact that the company just started doing ready-to-wear collections last year.
La Perla’s expansion was immediately compared to Victoria’s Secret. In Vogue’s review for La Perla’s Fall/Winter 2017 show, a critic writes, “She is presumably catering to those women that might tune into the Victoria’s Secret show (as it happens, a number of her Fall cast are also Angels), but would never actually buy Victoria’s Secret—all La Perla, all the way.”
“We may have come from a lingerie background but we have taken it to the next level,” Haart replied to the comparison.
But snatching Kendall Jenner away from Victoria’s Secret seems like a purposeful move, not only because she’s already associated with lingerie. La Perla has historically been a somewhat stuffy luxury brand, heavy on the corsets, and one you might not associate with people Jenner’s age. And when it comes to growth, it’s not like the brand has gained a new audience recently, having reportedly grown only 1.9 percent from 2011 to 2016. Young lingerie brands like Adore Me, or indie boutiques like Journelle, are growing while a mainstay like La Perla lags behind. So Jenner, who is not just a model but a literal brand, injects some youth into La Perla’s image, even if the average 21-year-old certainly can’t afford a $400 bra.