Victoria’s Secret Returns To Brooklyn For Star-Studded Fashion Show

The Victoria’s Secret fashion show just made a major reveal. And it wasn’t the plethora of thongs on the runway. The event returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for the second year in a row after reviving their televised titillating fashion show, which was paused in 2018.

Earlier this year the Columbus, Ohio-based brand had fallen in line with several big corporations during the Trump administration and reversed course on some of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) language, reframing it to “inclusion and belonging” in March and doubling down in September when CEO Hillary Super confirmed the company would be backing away from its “woke rebrand.” (While the brand has stated it still works with the Fifteen Percent Pledge, it has stopped its goal to include increasing Black employee representation in leadership roles.)

While under Super’s leadership, the beleaguered lingerie giant is slowly regaining traction. During the first half of 2025, comparable store sales were up 1%, compared with a 4% decline during the same period a year earlier, according to Yahoo News. Thus, the brand still has a road ahead to regain its previous market glory.

The company ethos may have changed its wording on DEI, but the spectacle staged in the Brooklyn Navy Yard featured a rainbow of models and musical acts, signaling that Victoria’s Secret knows its customers want and expect diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The show is almost synonymous with its high-octane musical guests. This show doubled down on diversity as well with an all-female artist lineup that included a black woman, a Latina, a K-pop band whose members are Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese, and an American Jewish woman whose family has roots in Russia, Poland, and Morocco. Missy Elliot closed the show with an electrifying performance of her classic Hip-Hop music. Indya Moore, Jordan Roth, and other front guests broke protocol at the live taping by standing up and dancing along, accompanied by a bevy of black dancers.

Grammy-award-winning sultry Latina reggaeton and urban pop singer Karol G leaned into her culture, adding a bongo drummer to her performance and flashing “Latina Foreva” on a screen behind her. She delighted the audience by donning a pair of wings herself and walking the runway to complete her set.

The K-pop band Twice delighted with a pop music-centric performance to highlight the brand’s Pink offerings, featuring a homecoming football game theme. Meanwhile, Madison Beer opened the musical performances with a cabaret-style act, including dancers donning oversized pink feather fans, reminiscent of classic striptease acts.

The models were even more diverse, representing nationalities beyond American, including Brazilian, South Sudanese, Australian, Hungarian, South African, Chinese, Dutch, and Hmong, thanks to athlete-turned-angel Sunisa Lee, among others. Their religious affiliations range from Christian to Muslim to Jewish, as well as non-denominational.

A pregnant Jasmine Tookes opened the show in a very “tree of life” looking apparatus (Beyond feathered wings, the models often don a variety of sculptures attached to their backs). Trans model Alex Consani stunned in sculpted red resin wings paired with a red bralette and satin pants, while size-inclusive models Ashley Graham, Paloma Elsesser, and Precious Lee demonstrated that sexy is more than a number.

Icons sisters Bella Hadid and Gigi Hadid, whose family is Dutch and Palestinian, and Emily Ratajkowski, who is Polish Israeli and is both Catholic and Jewish, also returned to the runway. Along with Olympian Lee, basketball star Angel Reese also displayed her sexy side. Acting and modeling Nepo babies Iris Law and Lila Moss also walked the show.

Overall, the show’s aesthetic remained sexy but pulled back on the camp element, leaning more into fashion, most likely due to the recent change in artistic direction with the appointment of designer Adam Selman as Victoria’s Secret’s Executive Creative Director. Though the brand has pushed its female-led direction, it took a male gaze to imagine sexy through the eyes of a woman. Italian shoe brand Rene Caovilla, known for its embellished styles, was the exclusive footwear partner for the show.

The show was live-streamed on the brand’s social channels and aired on Prime Video and Amazon Live beginning at 6:30 PM so viewers could catch a glimpse of the red-carpet guests such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Chloe Sevigny, Jodie-Turner Smith, Isan Elba and more who chatted with carpet hosts Law Roach and Zanna Roberts Rassi ahead of the 7 PM show time and in an effort to connect with fans and customers in real time.

It also offered select styles shoppable from the runway. Styles such as the Bombshell add-2-Cups sparkle crystal shine strap push-up bra, the Shine patch lightly lined demi bra, and the Shimmer lightly lined full-coverage bra were among the pieces launched both on the runway and the designated websites in tandem. Like most runway shows, clients shouldn’t expect to find line-for-line styles on both Amazon.com and Victoriassecret.com, as the pieces released for sale from the show are more commercialized.

An IRL shopping event, the official Victoria’s Secret fashion show livestream 2025 viewing party was held simultaneously at Vornado’s The Penn District property, where guests saw a live stream of the show, and were able to check out an exclusive VS pop-up shop on the corner of 34th & 7^thwhich among other items included the new Angel Essentials collection that dropped online and in-stores to coincide with the show.

It’s too soon for the reviews to be in on whether or not this expensive marketing exercise will pay off. However, they maintain that through the various revenue streams, including television licensing, ad sales, and sponsorships, it pays the expense and then some (The brand spent as much as $20 million on the 2016 show accroding to the New York Times and reportedly spent $12 million in 2018 according to Vogue). The brand faces even more competition from brands such as Aerie, Savage X Fenty (Super’s alma mater), Thirdlove, Skims, Lively, and the old standby Calvin Klein, as well as European lingerie stalwarts Intimissimi and Etam, who have recently entered the U.S. market.