After 6 years, the Victoria’s Secret fashion show brings big names back to its runway

Some of modeling’s biggest names, from Tyra Banks to the Hadid sisters, donned their iconic wings again on Tuesday when the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show returned to the runway after a six-year hiatus.

The lingerie company’s promotional event — featuring its star roster of models under contract, known as “angels” — was largely considered primetime viewing during its heyday from 1995 to 2018.

But executives canceled it in 2019, as the fashion industry grappled with a backlash amid the body positivity, transgender rights and #MeToo movements.

The company also weathered a series of controversies involving its own leadership — including the association of L Brands’ CEO Les Wexner with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and controversial comments by then-Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razek about transgender and plus-size models. He apologized and resigned that same year.

Cut to May 2024, when Victoria’s Secret announced the show would make its return in the fall.

The company said its values have shifted and promised the updated event would “reflect who we are today, plus everything you know and love — the glamour, runway, wings, musical entertainment, and more!”

The 45-minute show, which was streamed on Amazon’s Prime Video and social media platforms, touted its first-ever all-women musical talent lineup.

It featured performances by K-Pop star LISA, South African singer Tyla and pop legend Cher, who closed out the show with “Strong Enough” and “Believe.”

Cher performs during the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on Tuesday, as part of its first-ever all-female musical lineup.

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

And it brought back many of its best-known angels, including Gigi and Bella Hadid, Jasmine Tookes, Behati Prinsloo, Barbara Palvin, Taylor Hill, Candice Swanepoel and Adriana Lima, who retired from the brand in 2018. Claudia Schiffer participated for the second time, after last walking in the 1997 show.

Tuesday’s show was also a debut for a number of iconic models who hadn’t walked the Victoria’s Secret runway before, including supermodel Kate Moss, 50, and former first lady of France Carla Bruni, 56.

It was also the first Victoria’s Secret show for model and body activist Ashley Graham, who said in the days ahead of it that she was “over the moon” to be featured, especially as a woman in her late 30s and mother of three kids, and looked forward to representing curvy women.

Graham told People that she was originally hesitant to accept the invitation, “because there has been a brand DNA that’s been very hard to be a part of for so many years, for so many of us.”

Ashley Graham makes her Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show debut in New York on Tuesday.

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Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

“When I talked to the head of Victoria’s Secret and they ensured me that their hope and their plan is to have extended sizes, I said, yes so that there could be more women that could see themselves represented on the runway because we did not see that during Fashion Month,” she said.

The final model to take the stage was former angel Tyra Banks, Victoria’s Secret’s first Black contract and cover model who walked in nine of its shows before she retired in 2005 to focus on television.

When she returned nearly two decades later, with a metallic cape and her signature smile, she was greeted by roars of applause from the audience and other models onstage.

That was one of the moments embraced by fans on social media. But the show was not without its critics, who slammed it for being less inclusive — particularly of plus-size models — than it had promised.

The past several years have been tough financially for Victoria’s Secret as competition in the mid-range lingerie market has grown and the brand name lost some of its luster among younger shoppers.

A triumphant return of its annual fashion show, which at its peak saw 12.4 million viewers, could help the company claw back some of its declining market share.