On Wednesday, Victoria’s Secret announced official plans to replace their once vaunted Angels, the stable of supermodels who strutted down the runway in the glitzy annual fashion show that was often dubbed the Super Bowl of lingerie. Current Victoria’s Secret CEO Martin Waters went as far as to say that the Angels were not “culturally relevant.”
The sexy show was quietly halted in 2019 after the beleaguered brand was tied to a multitude of scandals including complaints about a lack of diversity, plunging show ratings, declining sales and L Brands founder Les Wexner’s cozy relationship with accused child sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.
But for nearly two decades, the show and its models shaped pop culture, launched careers, controversies and headlines.
“Back in the day, becoming an Angel was proof that you had arrived at supermodel status,” said Aliza Licht, author and host of the “Leave Your Mark” podcast. The Victoria’s Secret show and campaign helped turn a virtual United Nations of catwalkers such as Gisele Bündchen, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum and Alessandra Ambrosio into household names. And it didn’t just stop at lithe ladies. The extravaganza featured chart-topping singers and pushed broadcasting boundaries with the sexy display.
“The best example of this was exemplified by the crossover success of the fashion show to globally broadcasted network television, starting on ABC in 2001. Cries of indecency to the FCC from the public didn’t slow them down,” said Licht.
The Angel universe even turned the trainers, who toned the models’ gamine bodies, into bona fide influencers.
But after a two-decade run of holding a monopoly on the lingerie world, the brand was saddled with baggage, unable to pivot and grow with fashion’s new edict of “inclusivity.” The Angels fell to Earth.
Licht said, “The world has changed, though, and today’s Angels are more likely health-care workers and activists than lingerie-clad models.”
As the chapter is officially closed, here are some of the show’s sexiest, most controversial and defining moments.
A daring debut
The show kicked off in 1995 at the ritzy Plaza Hotel in Manhattan and included iconic ’90s supermodel Stephanie Seymour. But it was not a glitzy, winged affair with fantastical costumes. Rather it was a showcase of catwalkers wearing sensible panties and bras, otherwise known as the undergarments normal ladies own.
A wing and a prayer
The Angels officially earned their wings in 1998. Tyra Banks sported a tall ivory pair with her sexy yet simple bra and panties. Over the years, the wings would morph into intricately designed showstoppers that resembled the wildest costume at Rio’s Carnival.
What’s your ‘Fantasy’?
In the late ’90s, the lingerie brand introduced staggeringly expensive “Fantasy” bras encrusted with pricey jewels and impracticality. In 2000, Bündchen wore a $15 million ruby and diamond bra and panty set. The next year, Heidi Klum hit the runway in a $12.5 million bra complete with a 90-carat emerald-cut diamond nestled into the center. More colorful precious breast-holders followed, including Candice Swanepoel’s $10 million cups made of rubies, diamonds and yellow sapphires that were topped off with a giant teardrop ruby.
Stars turn the runway into a stage
Things got spicy on the runway in 2007 when legendary English pop group the Spice Girls reunited for a girl power session. The members, including Victoria Beckham, wore sexy 1940s military costumes and performed “Stop” and “Headlines (Friendship Never Ends).”
. . . And used it to woo their mates
That same year, Klum sang a duet of “Wedding Day” with her then-husband, singer Seal. Also in that show, he serenaded his wife, who was wearing a massive icicle on her back, to “Amazing.” The pair, who had four children, including Klum’s daughter Leni, from a previous relationship, split in 2012.
The runway serenade hasn’t exactly been auspicious. In 2011, sexy Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine performed “Moves Like Jagger.” As his then-girlfriend Anne V hit the catwalk, he grabbed the Angel’s hand, escorted her down and kissed her cheek as the crowd cheered them on. The pair split in 2012 and Levine started dating Angel Behati Prinsloo, whom he later married. In 2013, while she walked, he stayed offstage and gave her a standing ovation from the front row.
Karlie’s runway regret
Leggy Midwesterner Karlie Kloss made her Victoria’s Secret debut in 2011, but it was her second appearance that was most notable. In 2012, she donned a Native American-inspired look that included elaborate turquoise jewelry and a floor-length feathered headdress. The outfit sparked an online controversy with complaints that it was disrespectful to indigenous people, which led the company to apologize and cut it from the broadcast. Kloss, who officially became an Angel in 2013, took to Twitter to offer a mea culpa, saying she was “deeply sorry if what I wore during the VS Show offended anyone.”
Post-baby body brouhaha
Whoa baby. In 2012, Brazilian stunner Adriana Lima gave birth to her second child and, only eight weeks later, made a nationally televised trip down the runway in her skivvies. Three years earlier, Klum returned to the catwalk only five weeks after welcoming son Lou. While many marveled over the transformation, it led to critical discussions about the show’s portrayal of the postpartum body.
Wings gone wild
Earning your wings isn’t easy. And neither is wearing ’em. Lindsay Ellingson’s 22-pound pair from the 2012 show were so heavy, costume designer Marian Hose told Elle that Ellingson had to wear them on her hips, rather than her back, because she was losing circulation in her arms. In 2013, the show got an upgrade, and Ellingson sported light wings that were made using 3D print technology.
The catwalk turns catty
Taylor Swift joined her “squad” on the stage when she performed at the 2013 show. But when WWD asked Australian Victoria Secret model Jessica Hart if the singer could be a catwalker, she gave the thumbs down. “I think, you know what? God bless her heart. I think she’s great, but I don’t know, to me, she didn’t fit,” the gap-toothed beauty said adding, “I don’t know if I should say that.” Sources told The Post that the lingerie giant promptly dropped her from their roster because of her remark.
Ariana gets whacked
What happens when you put a diminutive pop star on a catwalk with Amazonian supermodels wearing giant wings? In this case, a collision. In 2014, 5-foot-nothing Ariana Grande, who ironically performed “Bang Bang” during her set, was accidentally smacked in the face by Swedish model Elsa Hosk’s wings. An image of the singer’s frightened face went viral, but she rebounded nicely and even joked on Twitter that the incident was #goals.
What a trip
Sometimes even Angels fall to Earth. In 2017, Chinese beauty Ming Xi took a tumble on the runway when her heel snagged her flowing white robe. But she was praised for her graceful recovery. In a gesture of supermodel sisterhood, fellow catwalker Gizele Oliveira helped her up, and Xi finished her walk, earning a standing ovation from the crowd in Shanghai. The moment capped off a tumultuous few weeks before the show in which China denied model Gigi Hadid and performer Katy Perry their visas, reportedly because of Perry’s support of Taiwan and Hadid’s disrespect of the Buddha.
Bella throws shade
As competitors in the lingerie space began to proliferate and size-inclusive brands such as Rihanna’s Fenty started to stage their own rival show, it opened the floodgates for some models to express discontent with VS. After Fenty featured Bella Hadid in their 2019 show, the three-time Victoria’s Secret catwalker made a veiled dig at her former employer.
“For me, that was the first time on a runway that I felt really sexy,” she said at the Vogue Fashion Festival. “Because when I first did Fenty, I was doing other lingerie shows and I never felt powerful on a runway, like, in my underwear.”