There’s an old saying: ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all’. Yet, in the digital age, this seems to have become ancient history. Scrolling on any social media platform, you’ll quickly come across rampant racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and mean-spirited jibes for no reason whatsoever.
Designer Michaela Stark recently found herself in the centre of a maelstrom of abuse, following her collaboration with Victoria’s Secret on VS World Tour 2023 – a new and improved (read: diverse) offering to replace its annual show bonanza. Stark’s trio of looks, which she modelled herself alongside Ceval and Jade O’Belle, were the subversive lingerie that she has become known for – corsets and knickers that warp and highlight their wearer’s bodies, a celebration of breasts, bulges, and bellies of all shapes and sizes.
Since the collaboration, Stark has been targeted by trolls who got her Instagram account suspended, calling to ‘Bring Back Gisele’ – a throwback to the unattainable body ideals set by Bündchen and other VS models. “The trolls are saying that models should be thin because, according to them, thinness is aspirational,” Stark tells Dazed. “They idolise the old days of Victoria’s Secret and the toxic beauty ideals set by this era. It’s sad because it shows their ignorance and lack of nuance or intellect to these kinds of conversations.”
Courtesy of Michaela Stark
In response, the designer decided to become a troll herself, teaming up with Sports Banger to release a t-shirt together. “I love Michaela’s work, it is important and beautiful. It inspires me and holds up a mirror to society,” shares Sports Banger’s Jonny Banger on the partnership. “The t-shirt follows in the lineage of our slogan tees: ‘FREE TULISA’, ‘TEAM NIGELLA’, and ‘FUCK BORIS’.” While proudly displaying the reclaimed slogan, ‘BRING BACK GISELE’, the back of the tee nods to the OG VS angels with a ribbon detail in the shape of a wing. Size-inclusive (obviously), the tee is available up to an XXXL.
“I knew instantly I wanted to work with him because he is so fantastic at capturing irony and humour in such a succinct and simple way,” Stark says of the collaboration with Banger. “Trolling the trolls and throwing the words back in their face. Playing with how ridiculous and stupid they are. ‘Bring Back Gisele’ is a sentiment of everything I am fighting against and is quite a dumb thing to say given the widespread negative impact we have seen from attitudes like this. Repeating this phrase in a new context feels empowering.”
Courtesy of Michaela Stark
A firm middle finger to the trolls, Stark also appears in a series of images wearing the tee out and about as she chows down – to the shock of a horrified passerby captured in the background. A model… eating?! As unbothered in real life as in the images, Stark says she is most certainly having the last laugh. “What better way to get back at trolls than to make fun of them and profit off their own words?”.
The ‘Bring Back Gisele’ t-shirt is available via Sports Banger.