Why a struggling Victoria’s Secret pulled from its old playbook for its new fashion show

As the pink lights dimmed, signaling the start of the 2024 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show at the Brooklyn Navy Yard earlier this week, the voice of Tyra Banks filled the room. The former America’s Next Top Model host—a mainstay of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues and a frequent wearer of Victoria’s Secret angel wings back in the lingerie brand’s early-aughts heyday—announced to the waiting crowd, “Tonight, on the runway, it’s all about the women.” Tyra Banks walking the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show for the first time since 2005. [Photo: Victoria’s Secret] The runway show, Victoria’s Secret’s first since 2018, was an attempt to recapture the brand’s former glory. Banks was back on the runway—in a black bustier, sparkly leggings, and a silver cape—as were other original “angels,” including Candice Swanepoel and Adriana Lima, and more recent ones including Gigi and Bella Hadid. But the show also made contemporary nods to inclusivity. It cast a handful of plus-size models, such as Ashley Graham, and had Alex Consani and Valentina Sampaio, who are both transgender, walk the runway. Kate Moss (50) and Carla Bruni (56), meanwhile, provided age diversity.  The show—which streamed on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube and reverberated across social media, thanks to the savvy model castings and performances by Cher, Tyla, and Black Pink’s Lisa—was engineered to be the triumphant return of Victoria’s Secret after years in the wilderness. The brand spun off into its own company three years ago and, in August, got a new CEO: Hillary Super, from rival lingerie brand Savage X Fenty. As Banks declared, Victoria’s Secret wanted to frame itself—and the show—as by and for women. Cher performs while Bella Hadid walks the runway, at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. [Photo: Getty Images] Life After Les The brand’s feminist positioning for the runway show was a little more honest than it had been during the previous iterations. The last Victoria’s Secret show took place when the company was still owned by L Brands and under the tight control of then chairman and CEO, Les Wexner. Under Wexner, the brand projected a particularly restrictive blend of sex, fantasy, and femininity to the world, especially via its hit fashion shows, where lithe supermodels would strut the runway in strips of fabric and wings, accompanied by performances from the likes Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd.  Gigi Hadid, who modeled for Victoria’s Secret in 2015 and 2018, returned to the runway this year. [Photo: Victoria’s Secret] Behind the scenes, the company was a stew of workplace toxicity, and worse. Wexner had a close relationship with billionaire and criminal Jeffrey Epstein, who had served as his money manager and attorney, while reportedly using his affiliation with Victoria’s Secret to coerce, assault, and traffic young women. Epstein passed away in prison in 2019, and Wexner stepped down from L Brands in 2020. That same year, longtime chief marketing officer and Victoria’s Secret fashion show architect Ed Razek resigned after commenting in a Vogue interview that the company would not cast plus-size or transgender models on the runway because “the show is intended to be a fantasy.” The New York Times later reported that Razek was responsible for a widespread culture of bullying, harassment, and sexual misconduct at the company. In 2021, Victoria’s Secret tore out the seams. It spun off from L Brands to become an independent company (Wexner sold his majority stake and holds no shares of the new company), and instead of using models like Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima as spokespeople, it tapped soccer player Megan Rapinoe, tennis star Naomi Osaka, and actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Sales perked up—momentarily—then plunged. In 2023, the brand made $6.2 billion, down roughly 20% from the $7.5 billion it took in in 2020. For the first six months of 2024, earnings are down 2% year-over-year.  So last year, the company hit Ctrl+Z, and went back to selling aspiration and fantasy while trying to hold only whatever goodwill it had generated from its more inclusive campaigns. It largely started using well-known models in its marketing. And it made plans to relaunch the show. “Our customer was very clear that they missed the iconic show,” says Sarah Sylvester, vice president of brand marketing for Victoria’s Secret, who has been with the company since 2005. She says the company wanted to find a way to “empower and uplift women and their voices.”   The company featured midsize and plus-size models in Tuesday’s show, including midsize model Jill Kortleve. [Photo: Victoria’s Secret] Secret Shoppers What motivates the company’s target shopper—millennials and Zoomers—is harder to discern. In the years since the last Victoria’s Secret show, the body positivity movement (along with Me Too) unended the fashion industry. So while Victoria’s Secret was on hiatus, Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty brand held its own runway