A Victoria’s Secret show can feel as though it has always existed: music, lights, wings and a walk recognisable from a single silhouette. It has not. The brand began in 1977 when Roy Raymond and his wife Gaye built a lingerie business around an idea about how the shop itself should feel. In 1982 they sold it to Les Wexner’s company for about one million dollars. Wexner then turned it into something vastly larger.
There is a darker part to this history. Raymond died by suicide in 1993. The Social Network uses the sale and his death as a sharp little parable about selling a future too soon. A film can make that line feel inevitable. Real life is not a screenplay. We should not turn a person’s death into a neat consequence of one business decision.
When a show becomes a calendar date
The fashion show grew into a yearly event with its own cast of recurring faces. Adriana Lima is set to make her 21st appearance in 2026; Alessandra Ambrosio her 20th. Adriana holds the record for the most shows. They are not merely names on a list of former Angels; they helped make the runway recognisable across generations of viewers. Candice Swanepoel became another part of that visual memory. I follow the individuals because the brand spectacle is only interesting when somebody makes it personal.
The show was paused after 2018 and returned in a new form in 2024. That pause matters. The old formula had become both globally famous and heavily criticised, especially for a narrow idea of who belonged on its stage. Bringing back an event is easy compared with answering the question that interrupted it.
What makes it worth watching now
My answer is not to erase the past. I want to see Adriana and Alessandra. I want to see Gigi and Candice. I also want the new cast to have room to be more than decoration around them. The most interesting Victoria’s Secret show is one that lets experienced women be experienced, newcomers be new, and the audience discover that beauty is not one rigid measurement.
Tonight in Los Angeles, we will get another chapter. I will watch with affection, curiosity and a little scepticism. That combination feels healthier than either blind nostalgia or pretending the show has nothing left to say.
This column represents the author's view. It is separate from News Beast's automated, source-backed news reports.