Who is Celilo Miles? Firefighter lands Victoria's Secret Love Cloud campaign

Victoria's Secret has made a massive turnaround and is focusing their brand towards celebrating diversity and maintaining inclusivity throughout their campaigns. Their latest addition to inclusive campaigns from Victoria's Secret is called Love Cloud.

Love Cloud features eighteen women who come from different backgrounds and are unique to be added to this first-of-its-kind campaign for the brand.

The lingerie giant, Victoria's Secret, is ready to reintroduce itself in a more positive light by ditching the Angels for more realistic women who are more relatable to its consumers. Under the direction of Raúl Martinez, the brand has made inclusion and relatibility its principle. We spot faces like Sofia Jirua, the brand's first down syndrome model, and Celilo Miles, a Nez Perce Tribe-Wildland firefighter.

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Who is Victoria's Secret model Celilo Miles?

Miles was born in Lapwai, Idaho, and grew up on the Nez Perce Reservation, and has always been an outdoorsy kind of girl. However, her talent for modeling was recognized early. In an interview with Vogue, Miles spoke about her childhood anecdote saying,

“I was scouted when I was 12 years old and immediately told to lose weight. I was already skinny, but the focus was always on problems with my body and losing more, so it just wasn’t a good start."

Miles played basketball throughout high school and then, inspired by her elder sister, she went on to become a firefighter.

In 2016, Miles joined a 20-man crew that was part of her tribe's fire department. She had an amazing experience when she started working on the crew and immediately realized that this was her destined place. She added,

“You’re out working with 20 people, usually on mop-up duty getting dirty and digging lines. My goal is just to keep learning and moving up.”

She added how even though she had to work through rigorous training and high-pressure situations, she felt grateful for the career. Even with a high-intensity job, Miles maintained her modeling career. She shared,

“I just love the atmosphere of fashion. The diversity of the people you meet behind the scenes and the creativity you’re exposed to is all so wonderful. After my first bad experiences with modeling, I put it all on the back burner, but once I’d done my first fire season, I felt mentally prepared.”

In 2017, Miles moved to New York to continue her modeling career and pursue her dream. Victoria's Secret approached Celilo Miles when she was living in Idaho, and she loved the surprise.

Miles, in an interview with Vogue, said,

“I’m honestly still shocked that this happened. I had a casting agency email me and say I should apply for this, and I didn’t think anything of it. A month passed, and I didn’t hear back, so I just assumed I didn’t get the job, no big deal. Then the night before, I get a phone call telling me to pack my bags!”

Miles spoke about being grateful for the Victoria's Secret opportunity and expressed her gratitude in the interview, saying,

“I feel grateful to be a part of this. It speaks to my life and the trials that I’ve gone through trying to break into this industry. It was refreshing to know that I don’t have to change who I am to make it in this world.”

We have seen the label making great strides towards inclusivity and the Love Cloud collection is just another step towards the concept. The collection integrates comfort and functionality with the timeless look of the staples. It has a primary focus on diversity and inclusivity. The campaign features eighteen plus-sized, disabled, and older women.

Celilo Miles is yet another inspirational woman out there trying to bring forward a message of comfort and uniqueness.