Victoria’s Secret broke the internet before there was even a name for it.
In 1999, more than two million attempts were made to access its online fashion show, overwhelming the dial-up technology of the day and leaving viewers squinting at blurry, postage-stamp-sized supermodels. The company had spent millions promoting a 20-minute parade of beautiful women in lingerie, complete with a Super Bowl commercial and full-page newspaper ads. Pure curiosity and the promise of a fantasy never before seen on screen sent the nation rushing for a glimpse.
Twenty-seven years later, Adriana Lima and Candice Swanepoel are still making headlines in their underwear.
This October, they’re joining Gigi Hadid and a new generation of models for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Los Angeles.
But the brand has bigger plans than just reuniting its famous faces. They've been actively auditioning women in shopping malls, documenting the search for its next star on YouTube, and for the first time ever, taking the runway into movie theaters.
The original show helped launch models into international superstardom, turning Gisele, Heidi, Tyra, Alessandra, and Adriana into household names. Their magazine covers were everywhere, their love lives dominated headlines, and their runway appearances inspired a level of obsession that clearly hasn’t dwindled with time.
The larger-than-life wings are back, and Victoria’s Secret has the world in a chokehold once again.
The Super Bowl Of Fashion
The Victoria’s Secret runway was pure fashion fantasy: feathers, diamonds, towering heels, and sexy, elaborate costumes.
Gisele modeled the $15 million ruby-and-diamond Fantasy Bra in 2000.
Candice wore a $10 million creation in 2013.
Heidi’s wings brought theatrical extravagance to the catwalk.
Tyra supplied the attitude.
Lingerie had officially become worthy of a pink carpet.
The performances were just as iconic. Justin Timberlake performed “SexyBack” in 2006, and the reunited Spice Girls appeared the following year. Victoria’s Secret had become a place where pop royalty and supermodels shared the stage, with the costumes competing for attention alongside the performances.
For beauty lovers, glimpses backstage were a whole other attraction: pink satin robes, bouncy bombshell hair, bronzed skin, and finishing touches. The intense preparation just became part of the collective fantasy.
So did the women’s personalities. Adriana’s sultry stare, Heidi’s playful humor, and Gisele’s commanding walk gave viewers definitive favorites to follow from one season to the next.
That is a substantial legacy to revive, especially after Victoria’s Secret spent several years drastically overhauling its image.
Catwalks And Controversy
The annual show was abruptly canceled in 2019 amid declining ratings, mounting criticism of its narrow beauty standards, and growing competition from lingerie brands such as Aerie and Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty, whose inclusive runway productions were attracting attention of their own.
In 2021, the company pivoted by introducing the VS Collective - a group of prominent, diverse women whose work with the brand emphasized advocacy and multi-dimensional women’s experiences. Later, in 2023, The Tour ’23 brought international designers and artists into a documentary-style fashion presentation that swapped the traditional runway for global art pieces.
Victoria’s Secret’s reinvention proved every bit as divisive as the original show. Some welcomed its broader approach to beauty and representation, while others felt the brand overcorrected, abandoning the aspirational supermodels, extravagant lingerie, and unabashed sex appeal that had made the runway a cultural phenomenon.
For the latter, the show was never intended to reflect everyday life. Its unattainable beauty was part of the hype. It was fashion fantasy on steroids. The company’s challenge remains finding room for both perspectives without sacrificing the show audiences had spent decades celebrating.
Plus-size supermodel Paloma Elsesser offered her own perspective on the balance between representation and sex appeal in Angels Among Us:
“It's not like, ‘Inclusivity! Diversity! Here’s a campaign of us jumping around with stretch marks!’ It's real. And it doesn't just mean, ‘Oh, we need the big girl, we need the trans girl.’ You want her to be a baddie. Girls want her to be sexy and want her to also be the fantasy. We get to rewrite that.”
Lights, Camera, Angels
The physical runway finally returned in 2024 with a guest list worthy of the occasion. Legendary Angels reappeared, Tyra made her triumphant comeback, Kate Moss made her highly anticipated Victoria’s Secret debut, and Cher herself performed. Gigi opened the show in sweeping pink satin and mechanically operated wings. The casting had clearly broadened, while the theatrical costumes and megawatt faces were back in full force.
Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret
Behind the 2026 show is executive creative director Adam Selman, whose career has brought him full circle. After getting his start under legendary Victoria’s Secret wing designer Zaldy Goco, Selman went on to dress Rihanna, including her unforgettable Swarovski-covered gown at the 2014 CFDA Awards, before becoming chief design officer at her lingerie label, Savage x Fenty. Now he’s leading the creative direction of the very brand his former employer helped challenge, with one aim in mind:
“Let’s do the thing that only Victoria’s Secret can do”
Selman noted that the production needed significantly more room than the available New York spaces could provide. Instead, he’s taking the spectacle to the West Coast, calling the Los Angeles edition “Fandemonium,” with consumer interaction central to the entire blueprint.
The announced cast gives the public plenty to anticipate.
Adriana and Candice bring decades of Angel history to the runway.
Gigi brings unmatched star power alongside elite runway names including Anok Yai, Imaan Hammam, Joan Smalls, Ashley Graham, Paloma Elsesser, Devyn Garcia, and Alex Consani.
Their vastly different styles and hyper-individual personalities give this year’s show an identity that stretches far beyond a nostalgic reunion. As for the star quality required to earn a pair of wings, Selman explains in Angels Among Us,
“She’s got to have that spark. She’s got to have that drive. She has to be able to stand next to these giants, the women that helped build it, and also sort of represent the new generation.”
And somewhere among the casting hopefuls is a fresh face preparing to join them.
Walk The Walk
More than 100,000 aspiring Angels answered the nationwide casting call.
High-profile mall events in Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, and Chicago brought live auditions into the retail spaces long associated with Victoria’s Secret: pink-striped shopping bags, heavy clouds of fragrance, and lace-trimmed satin pajamas.
The commercial setting has a glamorous precedent. In 2004, the brand’s Angels Across America tour took its core supermodels on a cross-country road trip to meet fans.
This time around, however, the women arriving at the mall weren’t just looking to catch a glimpse - they were hoping to become the new faces and bodies a future generation might recognize.
The high-stakes competition became Angels Among Us, a gritty, glossy YouTube docuseries, produced with Boardwalk Pictures and directed by the acclaimed Nadia Hallgren. Among those evaluating hopefuls is Maja Chiesi, Senior Vice President at IMG Models, whose stamp of approval is among the most coveted in the industry.
The series follows aspiring models through the grueling casting and cutting process toward the ultimate fashion show appearance and an exclusive IMG Models contract.
“Some of these girls have never walked. Some of the girls have never done a photoshoot outside a ring light in their bedroom,” one member of Selman’s creative team admits. “The idea that this concept sort of made it out of the group chat, it’s batshit.”
The competition recalls the excitement of America’s Next Top Model: beautiful women with wildly different backgrounds, fierce ambitions, and a life-altering, career-defining opportunity laid out ahead of them.
But here, the prize includes walking directly beside some of the very models who inspired them to model in the first place.
Established stars take an active part in evaluating the hopefuls, while grueling walking lessons and backstage beauty preparations demystify the intense labor behind the finished, effortless runway appearance. The series gives viewers a chance to know these new women before their big debut, and fans have already begun voicing their favorites and least favorites online.
Social media naturally extends the competition beyond the runtime of each episode. Viewers can track individual contestants, share viral audition clips, and passionately debate casting cuts while keeping up with the real-time preparation of the returning Angels. The familiar faces may bring the nostalgia we crave, but weekly YouTube drops and daily TikTok feeds are giving fans an entirely new way to obsess.
Bombshell Backlash
But not everyone is celebrating the casting decisions.
Just days before the show, former Angel Romee Strijd revealed in an emotional TikTok that she had been rejected after spending the summer training for her return. The Dutch supermodel, who walked five consecutive Victoria’s Secret shows, said she was told she wouldn’t fit this year’s production.
Fellow runway alumna Frida Aasen also confirmed that she hadn’t made the cut, igniting an uproar among longtime fans who questioned why established models were being passed over while influencers and celebrity-connected newcomers secured coveted runway spots.
But the criticism goes beyond the two rejected models.
Fans are increasingly questioning whether social media clout and famous last names are becoming the new qualifications for a runway once reserved for the industry's most accomplished models. Some have even threatened to boycott the show altogether, reopening a debate over whether earning a pair of Angel wings still carries the prestige it once did.
And, just three days before the show, amid the viral casting backlash, Victoria’s Secret has dropped another bombshell: the iconic Fantasy Bra is officially returning for the first time since 2018. Created in collaboration with luxury jeweler Jacob & Co., the diamond-studded masterpiece marks the revival of one of the show’s most extravagant traditions, with the identity of the model chosen to wear it remaining a secret until October 18.
For longtime fans questioning whether the brand has lost the plot, the timing of the announcement suggests the creative team may finally be listening to the calls for a return to the unapologetic extravagance that made its runway famous.
Whatever the critics have to say, Victoria’s Secret appears determined to deliver the high-glamour runway experience that made the show a cultural obsession in the first place. The company will screen the entire show live at 10 select AMC theaters across major markets, alongside a global stream on YouTube and core social channels. Heavy hitters Tate McRae, Megan Thee Stallion, Megan Moroney, and KATSEYE are already locked in to perform, with a few surprises still under wraps.
With the final casting decisions stirring debate and fans eagerly awaiting the new Angel’s debut, October 18 is shaping up to be more than another supermodel reunion.
The runway will bring together some of the industry’s most celebrated beauties, a new generation with its own devoted following, and one aspiring model whose career could change before the evening is over.
For all the changes Victoria’s Secret has undergone, its famous wings remain among fashion’s most recognizable symbols. And as the latest casting controversy has proved, earning them still means something.
The next Angel is about to find out just how much.