The wings were there: faux feathered, quilted, tulle, tinsel and star-spangled. So were the crystal bustiers and bras; the lacy thongs and boudoir silks. So were the superstars: Lisa, hopping off a motorcycle and hip thrusting in little bits of leather; Tyla, shimmying in hot pants; Cher, in sparkling cargo pants and a corset.
And so were the supermodels, almost all of ’em: Gigi and Bella Hadid, Paloma Elsesser, Joan Smalls, Ashley Graham, Valentina Sampaio, Kate Moss and her daughter, Lila. Even Eva Herzigova and Carla Bruni, the 56-year-old former first lady of France, strutting down the runway in a lace body stocking. Even, especially, Tyra Banks, in leggings, a silver waist cincher and a cape.
All the ingredients were there for the rebrand of the rebrand of the Victoria’s Secret show, six years after the whole shebang was cancelled under a cloud of shame and in the wake of #MeToo. That was when the world suddenly woke up to the fact that what had been billed as a camp spectacle of controversial kitsch was actually complicit in creating a culture that prioritised a certain body type over all others Also, not forgetting how it treated women simply as vehicles of male fantasy (Naughty Santas! Naughty lion tamers! Naughty Rob Roys!) And that was when the lingerie giant that had successfully branded women-in-underwear as “angels” embarked on an extended period of shrinking market share, soul-searching, corporate reorganisation and public pledges to devote itself to fem.