OPINION: It’s been five long years since the final Victoria’s Secret Runway Show was televised to the masses in 2018, an annual spectacle credited with propelling the careers of now-supermodels like Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks. Yesterday Victoria’s Secret debuted a “reimagination” of this runway show, a 90-minute video dubbed The Victoria’s Secret World Tour (The Tour).
Earlier this year, The Tour was lauded by Victoria’s Secret as “a celebration of women and global creatives, looking at fashion and art through a cinematic narrative lens”. This was a marked departure from the over-the-top glamour, diamond-encrusted bras and skimpy underwear synonymous with the original runway format.
Essentially, The Tour’s format is an attempt to make amends after a slew of scandals and missteps by Victoria’s Secret that ultimately led to the runway show’s demise. But The Tour is largely unsatisfying as multiple ideas and actors compete for the viewer’s attention. It’s easily forgotten while watching the show that at the core of it, Victoria’s Secret sells lingerie.
It’s no wonder the Internet was divided over the announcement of The Tour as a replacement for the iconic runway format. Traditionalists yearned for the sex appeal and stilettos associated with the brand’s traditional catwalk shows. “Bring back the wings”, read the comments on TikTok, referring to the feathered pieces donned by the former ‘Angels’. Others were more cynical, saying the company’s recent moves towards embracing body inclusivity and gender diversity was a performative, money-making ploy.
In the American lingerie giant’s heyday, it was best associated with the Victoria’s Secret Angels — tall, leggy, slender supermodels embodying the brand’s sex appeal, starring in its runway shows. But as the years went by, Victoria’s Secret was slow to pivot from airbrushed images, padded push-up bras and lacy G-strings when, around 2013, more practical lingerie like bralettes and sports bras rose in popularity, along with body-positive messaging. Sales dropped as disillusioned consumers began favouring brands like American Eagle’s Aerie for championing self-love and natural beauty, and Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty for its then-radical size inclusivity and ethnic diversity.
Victoria’s Secret was no longer relatable. It was, after all, a brand that only introduced its first plus-size model in 2019, and only after a backlash when its former chief marketing officer Ed Razek said he wouldn’t put plus-size or transgender models in a Victoria’s Secret Runway Show because it was supposed to be a “fantasy”.
![The Victoria’s Secret Angels were tall, leggy, slender supermodels embodying the brand’s sex appeal and starring in its runway shows.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/AAUTXGLN3RGKTLFAHKJXZDS66I.jpg?auth=ff429059efa27d2de159eff517afd93b515b2f028a986c696883082ff0631386&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
Since the fantasy came crashing down, Victoria’s Secret has been working towards reprising its annual extravaganza in the form of The Tour. Available to stream on Amazon Prime, The Tour is part-documentary, part-fashion event. It traverses the four cities of Bogotá, Lagos, London and Tokyo, each featuring five local creatives and their artistic efforts (a fashion designer, film-maker and three artists). The brand’s decision to include Bogotá and Lagos instead of main fashion capitals like New York and Paris is welcomed, exposing viewers to fresh talent and cultural perspectives not often shared in the mainstream media.
Narrated by model Gigi Hadid in a light-hearted, if slightly cringeworthy tone, The Tour includes interludes from an aesthetically pleasing house in Barcelona. These shorter clips feature former angels like Adriana Lima and Naomi Campbell alongside mainstream ‘It Girls’ like Emily Ratajkowski, Lila Moss and Hailey Bieber. Attempting to retain the brand’s celebrity factor, they model the fashion designers’ wares, paying homage to the old Victoria’s Secret runway show format. There are even two separate performances by singer and rapper Doja Cat.
Other personalities such as model and activist Quannah Chasinghorse-Potts also feature in these interludes — a deliberate move from a company that has previously come under fire for cultural appropriation on two separate occasions for sending models down the runway in feathered Native American-style headdresses.
Yet the contrast between the It Girl interludes and city segments turns The Tour into a mishmash of ideas. Meaningful themes like gender identity, societal protest and body dysmorphia conveyed by the local creatives through art forms like painting, poetry and dance activism are lost in the noise.
Highlights from the show’s city segments include Lagos fashion designer Bubu Ogisi, who created a collection of garments embodying Yoruba and Edo mythology in conjunction with artisans throughout the African continent. Due credit to Victoria’s Secret for giving Ogisi a prominent opportunity to push her creative boundaries and showcase her homeland’s talents to the world — she is a worthy artist who doesn’t even have her own Wikipedia page.
![Nyagua Ruea, Bubu Ogisi and Mayowa Nicholas at the Victoria's Secret World Tour 2023 event at The Manhattan Center on September 6, 2023 in New York. Photo / Getty Images](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/2M2FHETHINAWNFZ5XSPBKQP2YA.jpg?auth=7640d59d9c724794202dde9e2ab84d389c3f5c0ff6783ff67847420a0deeb46b&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
The London segment offers a new cultural perspective through the eyes of Supriya Lele, a British-born designer of Indian heritage. Her pieces include a mix of elements like punk, 90s fashion imagery, ancient Indian sculpture, and goddess motifs. The city’s portion of the video also highlights the intriguing work of artist Michaela Stark, who constructs lingerie accentuating parts of the body like rolls or stretch marks we’ve traditionally been conditioned to hide.
Referencing the nostalgia of past Victoria’s Secret runway shows, Stark stated that as a high schooler, “we’d all put it in our diaries, go and watch it – it was a big thing. But it was also that culture around it of not wanting to eat after you saw it.”
Although this was a thought-provoking reflection on Victoria’s Secret past transgressions, and The Tour was the first time the brand had included a better representation of body shapes, more figures and abilities could have been celebrated.
What’s also striking is that its primary focus is not on lingerie. Unlike the runway shows, it features no off-the-rack garments available to purchase online. As a critical exercise in reimagining an embattled brand, Victoria’s Secret’s identity now doesn’t hero the product it’s renowned for, leaving viewers feeling disconnected.
According to the New York Times, this remarkable move was intended to give the featured creatives “as big a platform as possible while receiving nothing in return”. But The Tour is obviously part of a broader strategy to rejuvenate profits, so it’ll be interesting to see what Victoria’s Secret does next.
![Although this was a thought-provoking reflection on Victoria’s Secret past transgressions, and The Tour was the first time the brand had included a better representation of body shapes, more figures and abilities could have been celebrated. Photo / Getty](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/UKJK2FF7NRFBFF57PCTU4RI5RY.jpg?auth=0b680fa7aea634810d92132d5362c8367fd8fd6fc163f8b79048738fb388338a&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
The Tour ends on a lacklustre note – if you can even be bothered to make it that far. Viewers’ hopes are high after the final Toyko segment, where the selected creatives offer a comically refreshing take on the classical glamour usually associated with the brand. But then, we jump to yet another performance by Doja Cat and a cheery closing narration from Hadid (“And that concludes my favorite Victoria’s Secret show ever”).
Ultimately, The Tour is a disjointed 90-minute video desperately attempting to appeal to everyone while retaining elements of its former fashion showcases. As a result, it loses the viewer’s focus — a typical runway show runs for 15 minutes.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying a 15-minute fashion show focusing on sexy push-up bras and bedazzled G-strings with better diversity and inclusivity is preferred. But it’ll take more than a 90-minute mishmash of “fashion and art through a cinematic narrative lens” for me to consider the Victoria’s Secret brand in a different light.