Ex-Victoria’s Secret Angels talk about body image and the backgrounds of shoots

Former Victoria’s Secret Angels have revealed the hours of intense work that went into creating their glamorous runway image – one of them admitted that her own mother had trouble recognizing her.

Jasmine Tookes, 32, from California, and Josephine Skriver, 30, originally from Denmark, spoke candidly about their experiences when interviewed on the Real Pod podcast with 26-year-old presenter Victoria Garrick.

Victoria asked the models if they processed or understood the impact on people watching the fashion shows and how they felt about it now.

Josephine said, ‘It was a strange time because you realize there were so many eyes watching you.

“We just got signed when social media exploded as well, so it was this combination of everyone will know you for this glamorous side, two hours and an hour in hair and makeup, personal trainers, this whole situation.”

“Yet now you have the opportunity to take them behind the scenes and show them how more you really are.

“I felt like it was like overnight you just let people in and I don’t think I understood, especially in the beginning, how obsessed people could be with the little details.

“Like they wanted to know what kind of toothpaste I was using and I was like, ‘Really? That just seems boring.”

Josephine added that at that point they both realized how much responsibility they had and gave their fans a taste of how much work they had put into maintaining their physique.

Jasmine revealed that she sees comments on her Instagram “every day” saying “you’re always so good together” and “you’re always so perfect.”

She said, ‘I’m like, no I’m not! Not even the slightest.

“If you saw me waking up in my house in the morning, in the middle of the day, walking around with spit all over me from the baby, no makeup on, that’s my real life.”

Josephine agreed, saying that the glamorous side of her on stage was a version of who she was and likened it to a work uniform.

“Some people are told to wear a suit to the office – it’s just part of our image.

“No one wants to be in their work suits twenty-four hours a day, none of us want to be glamorous for twenty-four hours,” she said.

Victoria said that to audiences who would watch the shows or look at pictures of the Angels, it wasn’t immediately apparent that they were photoshopped or using body makeup.

She added that people weren’t aware of the fact that there weren’t that many filters and apps to edit photos at the time.

The host said, “I think it was given to us as this effortless thing and then I put on my bathing suit to go to the pool with my friends and the standard is to look like the picture from the magazine.”

Jasmine then said, “It’s just so crazy because I think it comes so naturally to me when you look back at our old US campaigns.”

Josephine added: ‘I was standing next to the big billboards on the street and I could stand there for 30 minutes and not a single person could bring the two people together.

“I feel like I don’t even look like my photos. Sometimes my mom would say, “Is that you? I didn’t even know you could look like that.”

“Even though you were constantly shooting underwear, I never really felt naked because we had two layers of body makeup and sparkles and glitter and oil.”

The angels would show up in their sweats before undergoing three hours of hair and makeup to make them look glamorous.

Commenting on Victoria’s Secret being more “inclusive,” Josephine said she found the old era of the company more inclusive in her opinion as an insider.

She said, “I got a little bit taller than I was with a 22 inch waist and now I was 24, 25, and they were the first to always [say]”Please don’t lose weight”.

“So for us, that was extremely inclusive from an inside perspective [compared to] when I worked with high fashion, who was the opposite.

‘But [we were] obviously in this very small framework that was the industry at the time, looking back now, not all encompassing.’

Jasmine praised the brand for recognizing the need to change their ways, but said it “definitely took longer” than it needed to.

“I think for me, with Victoria’s Secret, me and Lais (Ribeiro) were considered ‘the black girls.’ Laïs is Brazilian.

“And that’s all there was for years,” Jasmine said candidly.

When asked how she felt about that, the ex-Angel said, “To be honest I didn’t notice that much at the time, but now that I look back on it, I’m like, okay, that’s kind of odd that they only wanted me, basically as their only black girl.

“It didn’t affect me at the time, but I think when I look back on it, I thought, ‘That sucks.'”

MailOnline has contacted Victoria’s Secret for comment.