The Secret’s Out: We Want Sexy Angels, Not Inclusive Ones

Victoria’s Secret was once the queen of the lingerie world, and its fashion show was an annual cultural moment. The once-ubiquitous brand has lost much of its luster, but a return to form remains within reach. With this edition of the yearly tradition bringing back many classic Angels in an attempt to recapture its past glory, we’ll see whether fun and glamour win out or efforts to win with the woke prevail.

After a post-MeToo shutdown of the fashion show to focus on more “inclusive” marketing in 2019, it returned in 2024 as part of a larger rebrand intended to integrate the classic appeal of the golden age with the progressive sensibilities of the intervening years under the new leadership of CEO Hillary Super. Super previously ran Savage x Fenty, the lingerie brand founded by pop star Rihanna, which has marketed itself from the start as a woke, inclusive brand rather than the conventional lingerie positioning of showing bras and panties on beautiful women with great bodies.

Victoria’s Secret started as a five-store chain founded by a man seeking a sexy gift for his wife and a middle ground between dowdy department store offerings and trashy novelty shops. It grew into a multibillion-dollar company with stores worldwide. The catalog, sensual but tasteful and made to exacting standards, was a high watermark for quality, and its arrival was an event before it slowly faded as online shopping overtook mailers.

The fashion show is especially important, as it sets the tone for the brand and provides a huge platform to declare the company’s values with fun, glamour, and fantasy.

If Victoria’s Secret wants to win back women and reclaim its crown, it needs to stop chasing trends and return to its roots: sexy, not trashy, pieces on stunningly beautiful models. And the fashion show is the ideal venue to launch this return.

Victoria’s Secret is not just selling undergarments; it’s selling a fantasy. When women slip into expensive, sometimes uncomfortable lingerie instead of more practical alternatives, it’s not just because the combination of lace and straps appeals to them. Shoppers want to imagine that, if they buy, they’ll look like Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel, or other iconic Angles.

There’s a secret confidence that comes from wearing sexy lingerie under clothes, even if no one is going to see it but the bathroom mirror. And if that special someone happens to catch a glimpse, she wants him to see her as the Angel of beauty and desirability the lingerie promised.

This fantasy isn’t achieved through representation, but through aspiration. Not every woman can or will look like a Victoria’s Secret Angel. But if the fantasy is spun effectively, any woman can feel like an Angel.

But the fantasy only arrives when the Angels provide the dream. Despite small pockets of the online discourse loudly complaining about representation and body image, women don’t want to be told that they need “attainable beauty standards” to be represented. We want to see ourselves as Helena Christensen, and it’s insulting to tell us that we’re not. By representing the brand with gorgeous goddesses of glamour, the brand suggests women around the world can attain that beauty.

Along with the absolute necessity of keeping the models aspirationally attractive rather than ordinary, the fantasy depends on the Angels being women. Then-president Ed Razek had the right idea in 2018 when he stated, “Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy.” His apology and the subsequent inclusion of biological male models Valentina Sampaio and Alex Consani in the Fashion Show in 2024 were the exact opposite direction the brand needed to travel.

Along with the sex appeal, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is unapologetically girly, overloaded with feminine aesthetics. Beyond the crystals, lace, and silk of the products being advertised, models wear feathered headdresses, ruffled capes, themed costumes, and, most iconic, angel wings.

There’s a playfulness to the proceedings. At times, the stylings can feel like the sexiest game of dress-up ever designed. The looks can be stunning or ethereal, but they can also stray into kitsch and downright weirdness. Even in the golden age of the fashion show, hilarious misses matched timeless hits, and that added to the fun.

For every Taylor Hill in a sheer cape resembling a sky full of stars or Carmen Cass in a floral fairy corset and headdress, Izabel Goulart wears a sexy airline safety raft, and Heidi Klum sports a Robin Hood look straight out of Spirit Halloween.

Since the revival in 2024, some of the classic glamour has returned, but efforts to blend in“woke” sensibilities have fallen flat, especially with Super bringing the wrong lessons from Fenty to Victoria’s Secret.

Some recent looks match the heights of elegance and allure the show regularly hit, including Grace Elizabeth’s bejeweled negligee, Jasmine Tookes channeling the Birth of Venus, and Anok Yai’s pink wings and headdress, a cross between a showgirl and a confection. But there are just as many misses: models added to the lineup only for progressive sensibilities, inclusion, or fame outside the realm of beauty.

Yet beneath the wings and dramatic accessories, many of these newer runway costumes are based on actual lingerie, some of which you can buy, unlike the pure fancy-dress spectacle of pre-hiatus.

This idea is excellent in theory, using the cultural moment to drive customers to Victoria’s Secret’s existing product line. While women are unlikely to pair a lacy pink set with a giant flower straight out of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting, as Emily Ratajkowski sported last year, shoppers can borrow some of her glamour and the confidence that comes with it.

The only concern is that, by shifting from fun themes and exaggerated costumes to more grounded products, the fashion show could lose its cultural status and become a blatantly commercial venture. The creativity needs to shine through, or it will read as a very expensive, overlong commercial. The concern is already seeping through, such as Bella Hadid’s red look, which, while gorgeous, was indistinguishable from a conventional ad for an existing product.

Millions don’t tune in to just see what they can buy off the rack, or should I say “on.” The brand didn’t reach iconic status by showing ordinary looks on ordinary women, but extraordinary costumes on stunning supermodels.

If Victoria’s Secret wants to regain its status as an object of desire, it needs to return to basics. Ditch the woke “inclusion,” prioritize spectacle over approachability, and celebrate beauty, sensuality, fashion, and fun. Give women something to aspire to and men to fantasize about.

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Paulina Enck is a media specialist in Washington, D.C.

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