Victoria’s Secret is wagering that a generation nurtured on body positivity, rather than the “heroin chic” aesthetic, is prepared to embrace its iconic, glittering runway once more.
Younger consumers appear to have no shame in their admiration for the spectacle, the shimmer, and the allure of the lingerie. The brand’s CEO, who previously led Anthropologie and rival Savage X Fenty, came on board in the fall of 2024 following a series of unsuccessful efforts to alter the story around the formerly dominant brand. Although Victoria’s Secret had earlier abandoned its fashion show, the CEO has revitalized it.
According to the CEO, the Gen Z consumer experiencing the new show today was not exposed to the body image anxieties of the 2000s in the same way millennials were. This generation was often raised by Gen X mothers who consciously avoided projecting their own body issues, aiming instead for daughters who were “strong and unbothered by all that noise.” As a result, Gen Z can enjoy the fantasy of the Victoria’s Secret Angels without necessarily viewing them as an ideal to strive for or as a source of distress.
This change in perspective is fundamental to the brand’s revival plan under its CEO, who describes the company as “the biggest transformation opportunity in retail.” In October 2025, a full year of effort culminated in the relaunched fashion show at Brooklyn’s Steiner Studios. The screen displayed “Lights, Camera, Angels,” before the venue darkened. The event began with model Jasmine Tookes, looking radiant in gold wings while holding her nine-month pregnant stomach—a type of body that would not have been featured on the runway during the brand’s previous chapter.
The audience enthusiastically received longtime Angels such as Adriana Lima, now in her forties and a mother of five; next-generation supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid; curve models like Ashley Graham and Precious Lee; and athletes including WNBA star Angel Reese and Olympic gymnast Suni Lee.
For the CEO, the return of the wings, sequins, and high heels is not a step backwards but a readjustment. “I don’t believe that women ever lost the desire to feel beautiful, sexy, or powerful in their own bodies,” she states. “However, we wish to be the ones to define what that means. We refuse to let others define it for us.”
To learn more about the CEO’s strategy for revitalizing this iconic brand, read the full story .