The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show made its grand return Tuesday for the first time since 2018 — and its coming back on the scene says a lot about where the world stands with regards to body diversity.
When the show was cancelled six years ago, dwindling sales were largely to blame — dwindling sales which appeared directly related to consumers' growing desire to see body diversity both on the Victoria's Secret runway and throughout its stores.
Zero curve models were cast in the 2018 show and, that same year, the brand's former chief marketing officer Ed Razek made comments that were widely read as transphobic. So for the show's highly anticipated comeback, viewers were obviously eager to see how Victoria's Secret had chosen to evolve its image in line with evolving cultural standards. They were also just excited, full stop.
While many people looked forward to the show's casting as well as its glitzy theatrics, critics were quick to point out that the "new and improved" Victoria's Secret Fashion Show had fallen something short of the mark on the inclusivity front.
To the 2024 VS show's credit, curve models including Ashley Graham, Paloma Elsesser, Jill Kortleve, and Devyn Garcia walked the runway, as did trans supermodels Valentina Sampaio and Alex Consani. This resulted in a much more diverse catwalk than the bulk of Fashion Week shows this season, where just 0.8% of the Spring/Summer 2025 looks presented were plus-size - and the lack of representation across the board did not go unnoticed.
In this context, the VS show's inclusions were more than welcomed by both the public and the models themselves, with one X user writing: "Alex Consani on the Victoria’s Secret Runway. I don’t think you guys understand this is history."
alex consani on the victoria’s secret runway. I don’t think you guys understand this is history pic.twitter.com/LOS6B6eV4rOctober 15, 2024
In an interview with Marie Claire US, Valentina called her casting a "major victory for trans people" and added: "Being a trans woman often means facing a closed door to people's hearts and minds. So working with Victoria’s Secret meant everything to me."
Meanwhile, in her casting announcement, Ashley said: "First VS Fashion Show, I am over the moon excited because I am in my late thirties, I just had three children, and I am feeling so curvy and so sexy, and my outfit is fire."
But despite these inclusions, some viewers were disappointed. "There's certainly some diversity, although it feels like they just casually waited out the body positivity movement," wrote one Reddit user.
Teen Vogue's associate editor Aiyana Ishmael felt equally short-changed: "as I watched thin model after thin model take the runway, I was catapulted right back to my childhood living room, watching women who didn’t look like me set a beauty standard most women will never meet," she wrote.
Marie Claire UK's Senior Health and Sustainability Editor Ally Head shares a similar sentiment: "I personally feel that, while they did make some steps to diversify and platform a range of models of all different ages, races, and sizes, more could still have been done. While VS have undoubtedly made an effort, I'm not convinced a show of this calibre is really necessary in 2024."
Beyond the diversity issue, some Reddit users weren't convinced by the runway looks themselves, nor by the staging. "Wow some of these outfits were really really bad. Like if someone did a knockoff VS during its prime," wrote one person.
"Where is the fashion? Where is the glamour?" asked another.
Elsewhere, X users appeared overwhelmingly enthused about both the models and the outfits, and doled out praise for the likes of Bella Hadid, Adriana Lima, Gigi Hadid, Barbara Palvin, Kate Moss and Anok Yai.
Lily Russo-Bah, Marie Claire UK's Fashion Director, is hopeful for the show's future judging from Tuesday's offering. "Twenty years later, and after a 6 year hiatus, it was refreshing to see a more diverse casting for their show. But it is important for brands with the the type of reach that Victoria's Secret has to continue to evolve and responsibly target their youngest customers ensuring they are representing an inclusive range of beauty standards, challenging traditional and now outdated ideas of what a 'perfect' body is. I look forward to seeing what else they have planned."
At time of writing, search terms related to Bella Hadid, as well as VSFS performers LISA and Cher were trending, further proving the show's cultural impact and propensity to start a discussion. And while we're still talking about it, isn't that the threshold for relevance?
