#Victoria secret runway show 2021 full

It’s a trope that extends from “Dangerous Liaisons” to the librarian who whips off her glasses and lets down her hair to reveal she is actually a hottie. They actually wanted to be known (or at least were OK with being known) as Angels, a term the brand invented in 1997, which itself now seems utterly cringe-worthy, referencing as it does the Playboy stereotype of the good girl who is bad in the bedroom. Yes, women actually wanted to strut down a catwalk looking like what may have happened if Big Bird had his way with a bordello. “A model would do their high fashion editorial, their runway, an ad campaign - and Victoria’s Secret.” “It was highly legitimate,” said Ivan Bart, the president of IMG Models and Fashion, the agency that represented Angels including Ms. The fantasy bra and the wings were covered like actual industry news by Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Elle (and, on occasion, The New York Times).Īt a time when actors were ascendant as magazine cover stars, being an angel was one of the most coveted gigs in modeling - not just among lingerie or Sports Illustrated models, but for those who already had a comfortable berth on the cover of Vogue. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars vied to perform. Olivier Rousteing (of Balmain), Clare Waight Keller (then of Chloé) and Riccardo Tisci (then Givenchy) were in the audience. The company invested hefty amounts of capital to buy legitimacy in the fashion world - and in the eyes of those who followed the industry.īefore cruise fashion shows traveled the world, Victoria’s Secret shows traveled when the runway show touched down in France in 2016, it was held in the Grand Palais, the locale normally reserved for Chanel. There is, for example, an image of Heidi Klum from 2003 in 12-foot-high fluffy white wings, crystal-studded white push-up bra and panties and ankle-strap white stilettos, with a matching white choker, sort of like a dog collar, around her neck there are Gisele Bündchen, Karolina Kurkova and Alessandra Ambrosio in fur-trimmed white knickers, bras, hoods and knee-high spike boots in 2005, channeling Santa’s naughty little helpers.īut before we dismiss this pageantry as an embarrassing blot on the collective culture, perhaps we should ask a different question: Why did it work for so long in the first place?Īt its height, after all, the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, which lasted from 1995 to 2018, was broadcast in more than a hundred countries, seen by millions around the world and helped drive almost $7 billion in annual sales. On this side of the #MeToo and recent social justice movements, the imagery that drove Victoria’s Secret to record profits and viewership - and made its favored models part of pop culture - seems not just retrograde but practically unimaginable, like coming upon some lost civilization buried beneath a dusty mound of garter belts and thigh-highs.

#Victoria secret runway show 2021 full

Ever since the news broke that Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie behemoth and Barnum & Bailey of fashion shows, was retiring its bevy of “Angels” in favor of a diverse posse of women with equally diverse résumés, media has been full of gleeful “it’s about time” responses, as well as photos of then and now, taking us down a memory lane of cleavage, costume and sex kitten cliché.