After a six-year hiatus, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is officially back. And though the brand’s classic “angels” have returned, this year’s event promised to be different. The iconic lingerie runway show was a bona fide pop-cultural phenomenon throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s, featuring legendary supermodels like Gisele Bündchen and Heidi Klum.
Since the first show in 1995, the event continued to grow in scale, introducing major A-list performances from artists like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, and dressing models in diamond and emerald “ fantasy bras ” that were valued at over $22 million. Tyra Banks walks the runway at the new and improved Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP However, controversy began to surround the brand, causing interest in the show to dwindle significantly by 2018.
Audiences took issue with the former chief marketing officer Ed Razek, who was accused of harassment and misogyny . He also told Vogue he did not think “transsexuals” should be included in the show. Though he later apologised, Razek stepped down in 2019.
This was followed by the departure of the company’s then-chief executive Les Wexner in 2021, after he was exposed for allegedly having past ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Arguably the most damning concern, however, was the company’s treatment of its models. In 2020, The New York Times revealed a culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment at Victoria�.
