When the lights dimmed at Brooklyn Navy Yard, Missy Elliott’s bass rattled the runway, and Angel Reese took her first step onto it—six feet of confidence wrapped in pink lace wings. The 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show wasn’t a revival; it was a recalibration. After years of criticism, cancellations, and corporate rebranding, Victoria’s Secret returned to center stage with a message written in sequins: anyone can be a part of the fantasy.
The lineup looked nothing like the supermodel legions of the 2000s. Reese, a Chicago Sky forward, became the first WNBA athlete to walk the show, her stride as commanding as her on-court presence. “It’s a full-circle moment,” she told Vogue. Olympic gymnast Suni Lee took the stage in crystal-lined micro-shorts for the brand’s Pink segment. While Lee faced criticism of her small stature online, she stood firm in her stance that she "want[s] young girls to know they don’t have to fit into just one box. [They] can chase Olympic gold and still own [their] femininity." These athletic debuts reframed beauty as discipline and strength, not mere conformity.
If Reese and Lee redefined what an angel could look like, influencers like Gabi Moura and Quenlin Blackwell redefined who could become one. Moura, a Brazilian TikTok creator with more than eleven million followers, documented her first VS show from her hotel room to the after-party. Her posts doubled as marketing collateral, flooding TikTok’s “For You” page before the show even began. Blackwell, the YouTuber once known for comedic skits, was suddenly dubbed “the face of Gen Z” by Grazia—proof that charisma can now carry as much weight as a modeling contract.
As Cosmopolitanargued, this lineup wasn’t a dilution of the brand but rather its evolution. In a world where followers equate to influence, it was only a matter of time before social media feeds became the new casting call. Still, the internet bristled. “Where are the real models?” one X user wrote, echoing a generational divide that the brand seems more than willing to exploit. According to critics, the angels are no longer untouchable—they’re clickable.
The soundtrack underscored that point. The all-female lineup—KAROL G, Missy Elliott, Madison Beer, and TWICE—turned the show into a global music event. Each act targeted a different audience: K-pop stans, Latin pop loyalists, nostalgic millennials, and Gen Z-ers. By the next morning, clips from TWICE’s “This Is For” performance had racked up millions of reposts, and the brand’s TikTok follower count surged overnight.
That surge wasn’t incidental—it was strategy. After its 2019 cancellation, Victoria’s Secret built its comeback on the metrics of modern attention. The 2025 show was livestreamed across YouTube, Prime Video, TikTok, and Instagram, drawing over 40 million views within 24 hours, according to Grazia. The format blurred entertainment, e-commerce, and social marketing; every outfit was tagged, every performer reposted, and every angel was algorithmically amplified.
This year’s production wasn’t about lingerie innovation—it was about influence monetization. By enlisting creators with built-in audiences, the company outsourced its marketing to the models themselves. Each Instagram carousel or GRWM vlog extended the show’s shelf life far beyond the runway. Meanwhile, casting global stars like TWICE and KAROL G cemented the brand’s reach into the Asian and Latin American markets—two of the fastest-growing fashion economies worldwide.
But for all its progress, Victoria’s Secret still teeters between reinvention and reputation repair. The company has learned to speak the language of empowerment—diversity, inclusivity, self-love—yet each of those ideals doubles as a marketing keyword. The new angels may look different, but they still sell the same dream: confidence available for purchase.
