Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (2024)

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was an annual promotional event sponsored by and featuring Victoria's Secret, a brand of lingerie. From 1995 to 2018, Victoria's Secret used the show to market its goods in high-profile settings. Models under contract to the company, known as Victoria's Secret Angels, were key participants at the event. The fashion show was cancelled in 2019, the same year its organizer, Edward Razek, resigned under public pressure.

The fashion show, at its peak viewership in 2001, had millions tuning in to watch and was known to be a lavish event with elaborate costumed lingerie, music by leading entertainers, and set design with changing themes. With dozens of the world's top fashion models selected to perform in it each year, the fashion show attracted celebrities and entertainers, and regularly featured special performers and acts.

American network television broadcast the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show during prime time. The first few shows in the 1990s were held in the days preceding Valentine's Day, linking the brand to the holiday's romantic theme. In 1999 and 2000, the show was webcast. Beginning in 2001, the event was shifted to take place ahead of the Christmas holiday season. The show made its network television broadcast debut on ABC in 2001, with subsequent years (2002 - 2017) broadcast on CBS; the event returned to ABC for the final 2018 edition. The event was frequently held in New York City at the Plaza Hotel or the 69th Regiment Armory, in addition to special host cities including Miami, Los Angeles, Cannes, Paris, London, and Shanghai.

Cancelation, officially announced in November 2019 amid declining ratings and sales and growing criticism of Razek, was influenced by both the Me Too movement and the association of L Brands' CEO Les Wexner with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Due to the immense amount of criticism, Victoria's Secret Fashion Show reconsidered its marketing strategy, which ultimately contributed to the end of the runway shows. The brand diverted towards digital-based platform marketing in hopes to revamp. Critics of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show considered it objectifying, lacking in diversity of body sizes, and repeatedly inclined towards offensive cultural appropriation with its designs.

History[]

1995–2005[]

The first fashion show extravaganza, introduced by Stephanie Seymour, was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in August 1995. The show also featured Beverly Peele and Frederique van der Wal. This first fashion show occurred two months before The Limited, parent company of Victoria's Secret owner Intimate Brands, sold an initial public offering of a 16 percent stake in the company and almost had Stephanie Seymour make an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for the opening bell. She actually did ring the closing bell at the NYSE as part of the publicity campaign. The subsequent three annual shows were also held at the Plaza.

In 1999, during Super Bowl XXXIII, Victoria's Secret announced a 72-hour countdown to the Internet webcast of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which resulted in over 2 million internet viewers of the show. Parent company Intimate Brands bought a $1.5 million ($2.2 million today) 30-second television advertisem*nt during the Super Bowl broadcast and spent an additional $4 million ($5.9 million) for subsequent international newspaper advertisem*nts to publicize the event. The show, which was aired by Broadcast.com, featured Tyra Banks, Laetitia Casta, Heidi Klum, Karen Mulder, Daniela Peštová, Inés Rivero, and Stephanie Seymour. In 1999 and 2000, the show was broadcast live on the internet, but the 2000 show was moved for a year from the usual February event at the Plaza to a May event in concert with the Cannes Film Festival in France to raise money for the Cinema Against AIDS charity; it raised $3.5 million.

In 2001, the show, which was hosted by Rupert Everett, returned to the New York City but at Bryant Park instead of the Plaza. That year, the show made its broadcast debut on ABC, drawing millions of viewers as well as some middle-brow controversy; the Federal Communications Commission received many complaints about the broadcast every year. The show has continued to be broadcast on network television every year since.

From 2002 through 2005, it was held at the Lexington Avenue Armory in New York City. The 2004 show was canceled due to a widespread crackdown on perceived indecency in broadcasting stemming from the Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, in which Jackson encountered a breast-revealing "wardrobe malfunction". Before the 2005 show, Tyra Banks announced her retirement from modeling and embarkation on a television career with The Tyra Banks Show, making the 2005 show a farewell to her decade of fashion shows for the company.

In 2004, instead of the annual fashion show, the Angels (Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Gisele Bündchen, Adriana Lima, and Alessandra Ambrosio) did an Angels Across America Tour, a grassroots campaign for the brand visiting four major cities: New York City, Miami, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

2006–2012[]

The 2006 and 2007 shows were held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. On November 13, 2007, the Victoria's Secret Angels were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame right outside the Kodak Theatre. The 2007 Angels honored in this celebration to mark Victoria's Secret's 25th anniversary on Hollywood Boulevard were Heidi Klum, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Karolína Kurková, Selita Ebanks, Izabel Goulart, Marisa Miller, and Miranda Kerr. The other models, who also appeared in that year's fashion show, were in attendance that day. The 2008 show coincided with the grand re-opening of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel.

In 2006, Victoria's Secret sub-brand PINK made its debut on the runway. Justin Timberlake opened the show with his popular song "Sexy Back". This year fashion show was the final walk of Gisele Bündchen.

The 2007 show featured a performance by Spice Girls and gained prominence as the first American TV debut of the band after their comeback. Kanye West was also scheduled to perform at the event, but cancelled his appearance due to his mother's death. |will.i.am was called to perform in his place.

The 2008 show was held at Fountainebleu Miami Beach, Florida. Usher was appeared on the show as well as opened it. Unlike the other shows, the runway was designed parallel with the audience seats.

In 2009, the fashion show took place in New York City at the Lexington Avenue Armory, where it was last held in 2005. The 2009 show was notable for featuring the results of a competition, called the Victoria's Secret Model Search, to find a new Victoria's Secret "runway Angel." The winner was announced as Kylie Bisutti.

The 2010 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show aired on November 30, 2010 on CBS, and featured performances by Katy Perry and Akon. A promotional ad featured a lipdub for Katy Perry's "Firework". As of 2010, 152 models have walked the show.

In 2011, Kanye West started his song "Stronger" with a tribute to his mother who had died before his scheduled performance four years before, saying: "In 2007, I was supposed to perform this song on this show ...and I lost my superhero. Now she's my super-angel."

In 2012, an outfit worn by model Karlie Kloss, which was reminiscent of Native American attire, sparked controversy due to its alleged stereotypical depiction of Native Americans. Victoria's Secret released a statement of apology shortly after, saying that they will remove it from future advertisem*nts and the broadcast. Karlie Kloss apologized on her Twitter account for the outfit and expressed her support for the outfit's removal in the broadcast.

2013–2017[]

In 2013, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show featured performances by Taylor Swift, A Great Big World, Neon Jungle and Fall Out Boy.

In 2014, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show featured performances by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, and Hozier. During the show, Ariana Grande was performing and was hit by accident by Elsa Hosk's wings.

In 2015, the show featured performances by The Weeknd, Selena Gomez, and Ellie Goulding. Ellie Goulding was contracted as a replacement for Rihanna, who had cancelled her appearance just one week before the show in order to focus on recording her album "Anti".

In 2016, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show featured performances by The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, and Bruno Mars. The executive producer of Victoria's Secret, Ed Razek, chose Grand Palais in Paris, France, as the show's location. A major challenge faced with the show was the size of the building and how the show could be showcased on a small TV, as well as the natural lighting in the building, which would get in the way of the tradition of the show being held at night.

The 2017 show was held in Shanghai, China and was the first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show to be held in Asia. The show featured the first-ever segment in collaboration with another brand, French fashion house Balmain. The theme and designs were co-steered by Victoria's Secret and Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing. Performers included Harry Styles, Miguel, Jane Zhang, and Leslie Odom Jr.. A performance by Katy Perry was cancelled due to her visa to travel to China being revoked. A week before the show was due to be filmed, model Gigi Hadid confirmed that she was also denied to attend the show. Russian, Ukrainian, and Nigerian models, including Kate Grigorieva, Irina Sharipova, Julia Belyakova, Dasha Khlystun, and Mayowa Nicholas, all of which were due to feature in the show, were also reportedly denied visas for entry to China, and therefore were not featured in the show.

In November 2018, the company's chief of marketing Ed Razek was criticized for comments he made in an interview with Vogue, suggesting that the fashion show did not cast trans women - whom he referred to using the now-rejected term "transsexuals" - because "the show is a fantasy". Razek apologized for the "insensitive" comments, noting that trans women have attempted to audition for the show in the past, but that "it was never about gender. I admire and respect their journey to embrace who they really are". Razek also faced criticism for similar comments regarding plus-size models, stating they had not attempted to do a show for them since 2000 since there was no viewer interest. Criticism of Razek for anachronistic and misogynistic business practices intensified, from both inside and outside the company, and he resigned in August 2019.

Cancellation[]

In May 2019, it was reported that L Brands CEO Les Wexner had issued a memo questioning the future of the show, stating that network television was no longer the "right fit", and that the company planned to focus on "developing exciting and dynamic content and a new kind of event". Viewership of the show had fallen from 9.2 million viewers in 2014 to 3.2 million in 2018. Victoria's Secret had also been experiencing an overall decline due to increasing competition, as well as changing perceptions to the company's marketing—which a retail analyst described as encouraging women to objectify themselves to "impress men".

On November 21, 2019, L Brands CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer officially confirmed that the 2019 fashion show had been canceled, citing its declining viewership and lack of immediate "material impact" on Victoria's Secret sales post-broadcast. He re-affirmed that Victoria's Secret was "figuring out how to advance the positioning of the brand and best communicate that to customers". The New York Times reported that the company was seeking to distance itself from the controversy following fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein sexual abuse scandal and Wexner's ties to Epstein. The last official broadcast of the Victoria's Secret Fashion show was in December 2018.

Victoria's Secret Wings[]

Arguably, the most unique feature of each year's collection are the inclusion of wings as part of some of the outfits. The idea to feature wings as part of the collection came in the wake of the immense success of the "Angels"-bra line, which was advertised with the models Tyra Banks, Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Peštová and Stephanie Seymour wearing wings, and was introduced to the annual show in 1998. The very same models who were featured in the campaigns for the "Angel"-bra line, with the exception of Chandra North filling in the spot for Helena Christensen, walked the runway with Angel wings on. Over the years, the show featured various forms and sizes of wings, such as butterfly, peaco*ck, or devil wings, which have become emblematic of the Victoria's Secret brand. In theory, wings are any ornamental back piece worn by a model on the runway, or any sort of structural appendage resembling traditional wings. Even though the amount of wings have expanded over the years and thus far have taken away the prestige to wear wings, a lot of models still consider it an honour to wear wings.

Adriana Lima has worn the most wings in the history of the show. With her count of 22 pair of wings, she's closely followed by Alessandra Ambrosio, who has worn 18 pair of wings.

Critical review[]

The early webcasts were criticized for poor connection, and users that could connect were subjected to low video quality. One critic from The New York Times described the initial 20th-century webcast experience as having felt like he was "watching a striptease through a keyhole".

Some critics have described the 21st-century televised editions of the show as p*rnographic, while others have described it as both "outright commercialism" and an infomercial. The Federal Communications Commission has received complaints regarding the broadcast, but no fines have been imposed, with the FCC, following the 2001 airing, citing the First Amendment and stating that "sexual or excretory activities or organs in a patently offensive manner as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium" were not broadcast. In the initial 2001 airing ABC blurred the screen on particularly sheer lingerie. This enabled the show to pass muster with its internal Broadcast Standards and Practices department and to achieve the TV-14 rating. In 2002, the National Organization for Women protested the show calling it a "soft-core p*rn infomercial". They were joined in protest by the Parents Television Council and other watchdog organizations. CBS has given past shows TV-14 ratings, which is a warning that the show may contain material unsuitable for children age 14 and under. Nonetheless some affiliates have chosen not to air the show in past years including Fisher Broadcasting affiliates in Idaho.[53] In 2009, the American Decency Association organized email letters of protests to sponsors of the show including AT&T, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Netflix, Nikon, and Reebok. CBS has described the event to as "the Super Bowl of fashion".