Victoria's Secret 'Sexy Little Geisha' Outfit Fuels Internet Outrage

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Go-to brand for themed-lingerie festoonary Victoria's Secret has come under fire for a particularly "racist" Geisha-style outfit. The company has removed the mesh and floral fabric one-piece—complete with a removable obi belt, matching fan, and, yes, chopsticks modeled by Candice Swanepoel (See: Right)—from their website, along with the rest of the "Go East" collection, after backlash mounted on the internet.

The brand pegged the outfit as "Your ticket to an exotic adventure," but Racialicious, a blog "about the intersection of race and pop culture," called it something different. The summary of their argument follows:

[S]ex and sexuality don't live in a bubble. They intersect with our historical and cultural contexts. Donning a "sexy Geisha" outfit to get the ball rolling in the bedroom remains offensive because it confirms a paradigm in which Asian people and their culture can be modified and sexualized and appropriated for the benefit of the West. This particular kind of racism has existed for a long time, and we're far from moving beyond it.

· Victoria's Secret Does It Again: When Racism Meets Fashion [Racialicious, via Daily Mail]
· Victoria's Secret Has Been Secretly Hawking Lesser-Quality Fish-Net Stockings [Racked]
· Victoria's Secret Joins Pinterest, Amasses Tons of Followers [Racked]