Ex-Victoria’s Secret model calls out ‘performative allyship’ and reveals how underweight she was at 2016 show

‘The sadness behind my eyes from the 2016 show breaks my heart,’ model says

Former Victoria’s Secret model calls out company over unrealistic body standards in viral TikTok (TikTok / Bridget Malcolm)

Former Victoria’s Secret model Bridget Malcolm has criticised the company in a viral TikTok, where she revealed that she no longer fits into the bra she wore during the 2016 fashion show because she was so underweight.

On Monday, the 29-year-old uploaded a TikTok in which she shared that she had found the bra that she wore in the lingerie company’s fashion show in 2016.

According to Malcolm, the white bedazzled bra was a size 30A, with the Australian model then going on to show how the bra fits her now that she is a size 34B, which she described as “healthy for me”.

In the TikTok, Malcolm then revealed that she was “rejected” from the 2018 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show because former chief marketing officer Ed Razek said that her body “did not look good enough”.

“I wore a size 30B at that point,” the model continued, before showing photos from the 2016 fashion show, where the smallest bra made by Victoria’s Secret was big on her. “Look how big it was on me. The sadness behind my eyes from the 2016 show breaks my heart.”

As of now, the smallest size sold on the Victoria’s Secret website for most of the company’s bras is a size 32A.

Malcolm concluded the TikTok telling the company: “Victoria’s Secret, your performative allyship is a joke.”

Since sharing the TikTok, the video has been viewed more than 2.3m times, with many applauding Malcolm for speaking out against the controversial company.

“I idolised Victoria’s Secret angels as a teen back then. Thank you SO much for being brave and talking about this now, and I’m so sorry,” one person commented. “You’re beautiful.”

Another said: “This is beyond horrifying. So glad you are doing better.”

This is not the first time that Malcolm has opened up about her disordered eating habits, as she previously revealed in a 2018 essay for Harper’s Bazaar that, for two years, she “lived off mostly steamed vegetables and protein shakes” and that she was so unhealthy that it took her 10 minutes to climb a flight of stairs.

“I didn’t want to eat anything that wasn’t made by me, so I stopped hanging out with people. I became boring - a hindrance. I was listless. And I couldn’t tell anyone what was going on because I didn’t know what was going on,” she wrote. “Unknowingly, I was battling an eating disorder and chronic anxiety that would soon lead to a ruined digestive system, all because I thought I was doing what I had to do to succeed in the industry that I love.”

In a separate TikTok, the model also spoke candidly about the harmful modelling culture, explaining that there was a “culture that was created that was very, like, ‘if you just stay, if you just get a little bit skinnier, if you just keep doing what we want you to do, you’re going to be an angel and you’re going to be world famous and it’s gonna be amazing’”.

Victoria’s Secret has frequently come under fire for promoting what many have deemed unrealistic body standards, with the brand only recently embracing a range of diverse models.