“I’m so bummed I won’t be able to make it to China this year. Love my VS family, and will be with all my girls in spirit!! Can’t wait to tune in with everyone to see the beautiful show I know it will be, and already can’t wait for next year!
x”. Gigi Hadid on November 16 shares on Twitter
Temper Magazine’s Trending segment casts a net upon all that is throwing tantrums within the world of China Fashion across a variety of global sources. This very necessary segment dips its toe into the deep indigo-dyed pool that is the ocean of Middle Kingdom fashionable astonishment.
The 2017 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is rapidly descending into madness Icarus-style. No Katy Perry to send the troops marching melodically down the runway, only one Hadid sister to bear the winged freight and just one big wrapped-in-organza media mess. We tune into infamous little “scoopers” Page Six and People.com as China has denied visa entry to a number of Victoria’s Secret models — slated to appear on the Shanghainese catwalk come November 20 — and is proving one tough nut to crack for international media outlets wanting to cover the coveted event.
“It’s just a nightmare for all the media trying to cover [the show]. These TV companies are spending a fortune on it, and they don’t even know what they can shoot when they get there,” one insider elaborated
The Victoria’s Secret Angels are flying over to Shanghai — well, not all of them. Courtesy of Victoria’s Secret
All That Jazz
Or rather “drama” in this case scenario. Page Six has learned that the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is turning into an international media crisis. Fashion bloggers booked to cover the glitzy event are canceling their trips because the Chinese government won’t give them visas; TV producers are grappling with bureaucrats over permission to shoot outside the Mercedes-Benz Arena, where it’s being held and China-based Victoria’s Secret staffers cannot send out the press releases because they have to be approved by government officials beforehand.
The show — which will be broadcast on CBS — had been mostly held in the US since 2001, but the undie company has had a run of unfortunate luck in the past few years since moving overseas. The 2016 Paris-held show also proved troublesome since Victoria’s Secret had the misfortune of trying to organize the show in the City of Lights at the time of the one year “anniversary” of the Paris terror attacks.
For that particular event, every journalist covering the show had to submit to background checks and provide government ID, with security so tight that cars dropping off VIP guests were only allowed to stop momentarily outside the venue, subsequently causing celebrities to circle the block before being dropped off.
Gigi Hadid walking in the 2016 Paris-based Victoria’s Secret show. Courtesy of Fashionista.com
Only One Hadid
“There won’t be any angel wings for Gigi Hadid this year. After previously sharing her excitement about walking in the 2017 Victoria’s Secret fashion show, which is taking place in Shanghai, China on November 20,” reports People.com. Yep, People.
Hadid is not the only Victoria’s Secret model who won’t be walking in the show. Russian models Irina Sharipov, Julia Belyakova and Kate Grigorieva, along with Ukrainian model Dasha Khlystun, have reportedly all been denied Chinese visas ahead of their trips to Shanghai and will be forced to miss the show.
Katy Perry’s infamous Sunflower dress. Courtesy of Huffington Post
Katy Perry, too, who was set to perform, has now been banned from China indefinitely after being booked in advance for the big event. The singer had tried applying for a visa to enter the communist nation, but was denied by Chinese officials. While she was initially informed that she’d be able to gain access, the decision was apparently reversed after the government caught wind of a controversial incident from 2015, in which Perry donned a bright, glittery dress with sunflowers on it during a performance in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Her outfit wound up causing widespread outrage because the sunflower had been adopted the year before by anti-China protesters.
Get the full no-China-for-Perry feed right here, on Page Six!
Brace your bras and lace those thongs, all you lovely China fashion fillies. It’s going to be a bumpy road to the runway! In the eyes of China, models and mortals are all equal.
