Barbara Palvin is easily one of the most famous Victoria's Secret models. Regardless of what she actually thinks about the lingerie brand, the Hungarian beauty owes much of her success to being asked to walk the runway at a Victoria's Secret fashion show in 2012 and 2018 as well as rep the brand at various events and shoots. Since then, Barbara has become even more famous due to her various relationships, namely her lengthy and utterly charming romance with Dylan Sprouse. But with a lot of attention has come a lot of pain, frustration, and undeserved scrutiny.
People are always going to be critical of models and the brands that employ them. Currently, Rihanna's Savage X Fenty line is getting a lot of flack. But even though Victoria's Secret is nowhere near as popular as it once was, it remains the most recognizable company in the lingerie business. And that means it deals with more scrutiny than most. And the brand's choice to give Barbara Palvin a pair of her very own Angel wings causes a ton of controversy. Here's why Barbara Palvin became the most hated Victoria's Secret Angel for no fault of her own...
Barbara Palvin Had A Dream Of Becoming An Angel And She Got Her Wish... At A Price...
There's no doubt that Barbara Palvin is one of the most unlucky Victoria's Secret models. Firstly, she had to work her butt off in order to get accepted as a full-blown Angel. Seriously, it took forever despite Barbara having a dedicated fanbase, undeniable beauty, and a talent in print modeling. On top of this, she finally got the job right before the brand decided to do away with their Angels altogether. This process was particularly challenging for Barbara as she became one of the faces of the reason why the Angels were canceled.
"I was this girl from Hungary with a dream," Barbara explained in her behind-the-scenes video of becoming a full-blown Victoria's Secret Angel. "Victoria's Secret is the dream for a lot of girls and I never thought it could happen and it did."
Barbara started modeling when she was 13 and hasn't stopped since. She has been the face of a lot of major products and beauty lines and, of course, a Sports Illustrated model. At the same time, she was invited to model and even walk the runway in the Victoria's Secret shows. But she didn't earn her angel wings until 2019. She spent countless hours keeping her body in the best of shape as well as building her brand and following. All of this led her to become a full-blown Victoria's Secret model and earn her very own set of wings.
One of the reasons why Barbara never thought she could become a Victoria's Secret model is because of her measurements. In runways standards, they are not common. She isn't the height or stature of a traditional runway model, especially a Victoria's Secret runway model. Therefore, she was chosen to be a model when the brand decided to move toward a more "body positive" image.
And this is when things backfired.
Fans Didn't Think Barbara Represented "Body Positivity"
Despite Barbara being nothing but respectful when asked her thoughts about Victoria's Secret's decision to cancel the runway shows and do away with the angels, fans could see that she was upset. A lot of this had to do with the controversy that surrounded her getting hired in the first place. According to Fashionista, some people were furious about Barbara Palvin being the face of the body positivity movement at Victoria's Secret. This is because they didn't think she was a "plus-sized model" like the brand was claiming that she (and the other hired angels) was.
In the world of fashion, Barbara is considered a "plus-sized model" due to her lack of height and curves. However, in the real world, she is straight-up body goals. Seriously, if you don't want to be this woman, you almost certainly want to be with her. But still, many critics were skeptical of her hire and claimed that it was purely based on her Instagram following. According to Fashionista, they claimed that she didn't represent body positivity and was the symbol of the brand being totally out of touch with the movements of 2018/2019 and 2020.
Even though most critics didn't have a problem with Barbara Pavin as a person, they certainly didn't like that Victoria's Secret selected her as one of their 'diverse' new line-up of women. Because of this scrutiny, as well as some behind-the-scenes scandals with execs at the company, Victoria's Secret shut down its modeling activity. Barbara basically lost out on the job of her dreams and was attacked in the process for no fault of her own. All she wanted was to be part of a historic business. But it was the wrong place and the wrong time.
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