U.K. model Jourdan Dunn earlier Tweeted and quickly deleted her thoughts on Rihanna‘s announcement today that she wouldn’t perform at the Victoria Secret’s runway show, after all. In the Tweet, Dunn stated: “Feeling so much better about not doing BS….sorry I mean VS now that Rihanna isn’t doing it also.” (See screen capture below.)
Dunn was selected as an “angel” for Victoria’s Secret’s runway in 2012, 2013 and 2014, but it appears she wasn’t chosen for this year’s show, which will take place on November 8th in New York City. Much has been made over the past week of first-time appearances by Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid in the show. The new follows on the heels of a recent tweet by i-D, in which the magazine tweeted a Balmain/H&M related image, featuring Kendall, Gigi Hadid and Dunn, but only identified Kendall and Gigi. Her absence was noticed by Jourdan’s fans, who called out the publication for leaving her out of the picture’s description in Tweets, one of which Dunn retweeted (screen capture below).
It’s not known what negotiations go into an angel appearance, it is said to not be a great paying gig for most of the models. Dunn certainly appears to be qualified so it’s entirely possible she was invited but wasn’t happy with the contract. And for what it’s worth, she’s not the only model of note not returning. Models Karlie Kloss and Doutzen Kross announced they were hanging up their wings earlier this year though one has to assume if Dunn no longer wanted to walk the show, she, too, would have issued a press release before the selection process.
Whether it was a case of broken down negotiations or not, it’s easy to understand why Dunn would be in a snarky mode given how very tough out there it still is for models of color. Just at the base, there is the energy models of color find themselves constantly expending on “all my life having to fight” thoughts, a stress and source of energy depletion white models never have to deal with. It’s great that Dunn is willing to fight the fight, knowing the toll it takes not just on her mental health, but also on how she might be perceived by an industry that has repeatedly shown itself to have major issues with race.
