Victoria's Secret releases ad featuring its first size 14 model

Victoria's Secret released an ad featuring its first size 14 model on Instagram on Tuesday, Oct. 8. The model, Ali Tate-Cutler, is featured in a campaign for their collaboration with UK-based and female-founded lingerie brand, Bluebella.

Tate-Cutler posted the ad of her wearing the black lace Bluebella Natalia Teddy a few days earlier on her own Instagram, captioning the photo: "At the launch today for @victoriassecret and @bluebella at their flagship store in NYC. I believe I’m the first size 14 on @victoriassecret? Regardless I’m pretty stoked to work with a brand I idolized when I was a teen. Great step in the right direction for bodies."

Tate-Cutler told E! News that she was originally "cast to be in Bluebella in London through my agents at Milk. It all unfolded from there and I was told this was going to be on the wall at VS and carried in their flagship stores."

"It feels amazing, I feel on top of the world," she added. "When I went in today to the VS store for the launch of the collaboration it felt surreal. I never expected that I was going to see an image of myself on the wall next to these top super models that I have been looking up to since I was a little girl."

The Bluebella for VS collection is available now online at Victoria's Secret and in select stores across the US and UK, with prices ranging from $16 to $82.

Bluebella was founded in 2005 and aims to create high-quality, fashion-forward lingerie and sleepwear at an affordable price. It often features models of all sizes on its Instagram and its website states its vision as: "We are doing more than designing beautiful lingerie, our ethos is about empowering women with a strong dialogue and aesthetic to support that, a modern take on sensuality."

For more on Ali Tate-Cutler, check out more from her Instagram below:

The collaboration and new ad comes on the heels of Victoria's Secret hiring its first transgender model, Valentina Sampaio, in August. While featuring both Tate-Cutler and Sampaio is a step forward for Victoria's Secret, the brand has been and continues to be criticized for its lack of body diversity and willingness to include the average size of an American woman, which is sizes 16 to 18, according to a 2016 study. (The Bluebella for VS collection includes sizes XS through XL and up to a 36 DD.)

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Not to mention, just last year the brand came under fire after former L Brands Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razvek said in an interview with Vogue that "no one had any interest" in watching plus-size models and that he didn't think the brand should feature transgender models in its annual fashion show "because the show is a fantasy."

Razvek later apologized for his "insensitive" comments and in August 2019, he retired from the company.