Victoria's Secret Fashion Show comeback or final goodbye?

After an incomplete comeback in 2024, the iconic Victoria's Secret Fashion Show confirmed its return in 2025, amidst a fiercely competitive fashion market.

Bella Hadid on the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2024 runway - Photo: WWD

People newspaper said that lingerie brand Victoria's Secret announced this information on social media platforms, along with a "teaser" video that made fans excited.

A new chapter for an old brand

"Lights up, cameras up, angels: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2025 is back," the brand wrote on Instagram, attaching a video of models tapping microphones as if preparing for an important announcement.

"The new version of the show is meant to reflect who we are today," Victoria's Secret said, a brand that has been redefining beauty standards, instead of being confined to the "one-color" angel image as before.

Video announcing the return of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

In the book Selling Sexy (2024) by two journalists Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez, Victoria's Secret's glamorous but controversial past was "exposed": from the lack of diversity in model selection to internal scandals surrounding the executive team.

But now, the brand is trying to rewrite itself with tolerance, openness and in tune with the spirit of the times.

Previously, the 2024 show marked a grand return on October 15 in New York, bringing together legendary "angels" such as Tyra Banks, Candice Swanepoel, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Jasmine Tookes, Taylor Hill and sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid.

The event also featured performances by famous music stars such as Cher, Lisa (BlackPink) and Tyla.

Lingerie models at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2024 - Photo: Victoria's Secret

Lisa (BlackPink) is the first female K-pop singer to perform at the Victoria's Secret show - Photo: Rolling Stone

For the first time, plus-size models such as Devyn Garcia, Paloma Elsesser and Ashley Graham, Jill Kortleve - also appeared on the catwalk, which was met with controversy.

Some loyal fans said they preferred the old version of the lingerie show with its skinny, toned Latin American models over the plus-size models.

Plus-size model Ashley Graham shows off lingerie in the 2024 Victoria's Secret show - Photo: Parade

Experts say the addition of plus-size models, or Valentina Sampaio - the brand's first transgender model, while symbolic, is more of a coping mechanism than a real restructuring effort.

Most of the models still stick to familiar aesthetic standards: ideal body shape, "safe" beauty, and a performance style that focuses more on entertainment than conveying a new message.

Victoria's Secret is trying to regain its footing.

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was an icon of the 2000s, when top supermodels like Tyra Banks, Gisele Bündchen and Naomi Campbell strutted their stuff in the brand's signature lingerie and angel wings.

Thanks to the massive investment, the show was quickly broadcast nationwide, reaching out to the international market and turning names like Adriana Lima, Miranda Kerr or Rosie Huntington-Whiteley into global phenomena.

Not just a fashion show, the show is also an entertainment party gathering top music stars - from Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande to Maroon 5 - performing right on the catwalk.

The glorious era of Victoria's Secret Fashion Show - Photo: AFP

However, since the late 2010s, a wave of criticism has begun to emerge amid the widespread "Me Too" movement. The public believes that the image that Victoria's Secret conveys is no longer consistent with the view of diversity and honoring real bodies.

As a result, by 2018, the show recorded its lowest viewership in history, at just over 3 million, compared to over 10 million in 2010 (according to NBC News).

In November 2019, Victoria's Secret officially announced it would stop holding shows to reorient its brand message.

The dazzling finale of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2024 - Photo: PEOPLE

Victoria's Secret's road back has been a complicated one. In its absence, a new generation of lingerie brands like Savage X Fenty, Parade, Aerie, and Skims have redefined the standard of sexy—more diverse, more inclusive, more down-to-earth. The question is: Does Victoria's Secret still have a place? Or is it simply playing catch-up?

In terms of communication, they are doing it "right": hiring female CEOs, investing in women-founded businesses, changing promotional messages, launching VS Collective with prominent faces from sports, arts...

But all this only comes after the public has turned away, sales have plummeted and the old ways have been lost, it's hard not to feel like the moves were staged.

Wearing iconic angel wings, Gigi Hadid opened the 2024 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show - Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK

Now, with the curtain raised, Victoria's Secret is trying to regain its footing. While on paper the efforts at inclusivity and feminism seem sincere, the question remains: Are they too little too late? Is this a true rebirth, or the end of a once-immovable empire?

The challenge for Victoria's Secret isn't just to catch up, but to prove it deserves a place in the future — a future very different from the one it once dominated.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/victorias-secret-fashion-show-no-luc-tro-lai-hay-man-chao-tam-biet-cuoi-cung-20250808160144881.htm