The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, a type of affordable sexiness
Victoria's Secret today clearly knows that it is a fast-moving consumer goods brand, selling "practical sexiness".
The just-concluded Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Los Angeles has once again split the internet.
The core conflict is that Kylie Jenner, the "Kylie" of the Kardashian family, wore the Fantasy Bra made of expensive gems that is regarded as the symbol of the show's glory every year, which costs 50 million US dollars. In the past, only top supermodels like Gisele Bündchen were qualified to wear it. Moreover, this year's show still featured a large number of internet celebrities and ordinary people, no longer limited to supermodels as in previous years.
Kylie Jenner walks the Victoria's Secret runway in the Fantasy Bra
Some comments say that Kylie is beautiful, her catwalk is surprisingly good, which feels very fresh.
Others are certainly surprised, "How can an internet celebrity be qualified to wear the Fantasy Bra?" They lament that Victoria's Secret's aesthetic standard has degraded, bad money drives out good money. Worse still, some say that the old Victoria's Secret represented absolute sexiness in the era of gods, but now it is just the style of a "love hotel".
But on the other hand, Victoria's Secret's business performance has reached its best level in recent years. Is this the best of times for Victoria's Secret, or the worst of times?
01
The Only Mission of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
In fact, no matter in the past or now, the most important mission of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is to attract as much attention as possible, so that the brand can firmly occupy the vision of consumers.
The Victoria's Secret of the last era actually followed the model of luxury brands. The show was designed to create dreams and visual spectacles, making consumers yearn for it, and then go to the stores to buy products. Therefore, Victoria's Secret used a large number of international supermodels who could only be seen at the four major fashion weeks at that time, such as Bündchen mentioned at the beginning, Adriana Lima known as "Wolf Queen", Alessandra Ambrosio known as "AA" and so on, which was praised as the "Era of Gods".
This is a hint to consumers: "We are as high-end as top luxury brands." Therefore, the level of Victoria's Secret's runway shows back then was also aligned with the top fashion weeks.
Many audiences still remember Rihanna singing "Diamonds" on the T-stage: she stood on the T-stage in a black high-slit long dress, retro sunglasses and pearl choker, as the smoke drifted and the water curtain opened, she walked straight into the "rain", letting models in stockings and Rococo-style lingerie walk through, which together perfectly interpreted the show's theme "Dangerous Liaisons".
The contemporary Victoria's Secret, thanks to the mature chain of interconnected social media and e-commerce, has become a super-large live streaming room. Now when audiences see a piece they like during the show, they can directly find the same style on the shelf and place an order.
It used to be about creating dreams, but now it is about selling goods directly.
Victoria's Secret's new CEO, Hilary Super, said proudly in an interview with Fortune last year that during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, they could be said to have "dominated the algorithm", which had a direct and strong boosting effect on sales. Moreover, this effect can last for several months.
For the 2024 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, the first year of its return, with the support of the legendary singer Cher, Blackpink's Lisa and the young female singer Tyla (the latter two have more than 10 million fans each), Victoria's Secret's official TikTok account directly gained 4 million new followers.
Many audiences may wonder if the live streaming room is low-level? In fact, the difficulty has not decreased, it just changed a set of operation modes.
Take the simplest example, to make audiences place orders impulsively, don't you need to make consumers feel that the products are fashionable and practical? Or for contemporary young people, if their favorite idol wears it, won't they be more willing to buy it?
Considering the logic of product sales, it is very reasonable that Bella Hadid was selected as the opening model of this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and Kylie Jenner (rather than other Kardashian sisters such as Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner) was selected to wear the Fantasy Bra, because they are the current It Girls, the dressing objects that young women imitate.
Besides, who can say this runway has no drama? As soon as Kylie appeared, the whole internet from TikTok, Instagram to Xiaohongshu and Weibo exploded: no one expected it to be her, no one thought it could be her. Going against the conventional logic can also be regarded as innovation, and Victoria's Secret is actually launching a new generation of sexiness icons.
Today, the sexiness symbols on the Internet are indeed bound to KOLs who are more "internet-savvy" and more approachable, and less connected to supermodels who are far beyond the daily life of ordinary people and can only be seen far away on the T-stage.
In addition, Victoria's Secret is actively close to the preferences of young people. Compared with international superstars, it cares more about who the "people of their own" that young people really want to see.
American girl group Katseye
Therefore, they have invited girl groups to perform for two consecutive years. Last year it was Twice, a Korean girl group that focuses on a relatively mature and sexy style, and this year it is Katseye, a girl group launched by Korean entertainment company Hybe in the United States that has gained a large number of fans in Europe and America, as well as the young female singer "Tyla" who is very popular among Gen Z. The two styles of "sexiness" and "youth" are firmly locked on the show, directly attracting young people in the target group.
If the previous positioning of Victoria's Secret was a luxury brand, now Victoria's Secret clearly knows that it is a fast-moving consumer goods brand, but it sells "practical sexiness".
02
Retrieve the Coordinate System
On the road of resolutely returning to the "old path" of sexiness, Victoria's Secret has finally returned to the growth track in the past two years.
In the second quarter of fiscal 2026 ending August 1, Victoria's Secret's net sales were 1.611 billion US dollars, up 10% year-on-year, and comparable sales recorded positive growth for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company once again raised its full-year net sales and operating profit guidance.
In fiscal 2025, the company's net sales reached 6.553 billion US dollars, up 5% year-on-year, and the core bra category resumed growth for the first time in four years.
The rise of Victoria's Secret is because it finally figured out who it is and who its consumers are.
Under the #MeToo movement, Victoria's Secret became the representative of "male gaze" and a symbol of backwardness. In addition, Leslie Wexner, the then CEO and chairman of L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret, was involved in the Epstein case. While the company was widely criticized, its sales plummeted all the way.
Victoria's Secret cut off the related negative influences and made a sharp turn at the same time, for example, it stopped the fashion show, catered to the then mainstream narratives of inclusiveness and comfort, let plus-size models wear white T-shirts, blocking the previous sense of hormones. But the result of this wave of self-denial was that it lost old customers and did not gain new customers.
In 2024, Victoria's Secret welcomed its first female CEO in history. Super, who previously served as CEO of Rihanna's lingerie brand Savage x Fenty, turned the tide.
Victoria's Secret still firmly holds the positioning of "sexiness". It reinterprets sexiness as "a feeling of confidence and authenticity, defined by women themselves".
Sexiness is no longer monopolized by supermodels, the threshold is lower, the price is lower, and everyone can be sexy.
In October of this year, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show returned. Although there was no Fantasy Bra, the wings and sexy marketing all came back, and plus-size models and transgender models also took the stage for the first time.
From left to right are the plus-size model, transgender model and 50+ years old model at the 2024 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
You can say it is "wholesaling sexiness", but the previous Victoria's Secret that talked about diversity and body confidence deviated too far from the sexy elements emphasized by the brand, making its image blurred.
On June 2 this year, Victoria's Secret changed its stock code from the company abbreviation VSCO to VSXY, which means "not avoiding Sexy". On that day, its stock price rose by about 47%, hitting the best single-day performance since its listing.
The lingerie market has seen an aesthetic cycle in the past two years. Sexiness is no longer an absolute derogatory term. Underwire-free and size-free bras have gradually shown problems in actual wearing. "Jelly strip" bras are very popular, and the popularity of brands like SKIMS has inspired the "curvy aesthetics".
In other words, comfort is no longer a separate selling point. Some consumers hope to have both exquisiteness and sexiness. Victoria's Secret has caught this demand.
Looking closely at the revenue, Victoria's Secret did not win back consumers only by lingerie.
Its beauty business maintains double-digit growth, reaching a scale of about 1 billion US dollars in the United States. This is the business with the highest gross profit margin in the whole company, and the least dependent on size and fitting. The pajamas and loungewear category is also growing rapidly. This is particularly obvious in the Chinese market.
However, "defined by women themselves" is only a compromise of brand attitude. Victoria's Secret's current selling point is still the sexy assets accumulated over many years. The risk of betting on a sense of ritual is that it needs continuous investment to maintain popularity. After the restart of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, the comments have always been polarized. The trend of fashion is changing faster and faster in the past two years.
Victoria's Secret's current performance is indeed good, but according to the financial report data, it largely depends on the improvement of efficiency, and there are also some special factors. For example, in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, it received more than 140 million US dollars in IEEPA tariff refunds, which led to a surge in profits and an increase in gross profit margin.
There is no doubt that Victoria's Secret is back. According to its latest stock price, it has risen by about 220% in the past year. But the market has not reached a consensus on how far it can go after retrieving its coordinate system.
When inclusiveness, comfort and self-expression have all become the common language of the industry, can Victoria's Secret make products that others cannot make? How can its "sexiness" become a repurchasable product system, rather than an annual show?
So far, the answers to the above questions are still incomplete.
03
Sexiness Never Goes Out of Style
Just like the previous two years, at this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, among the dozens of top models who are Victoria's Secret Angels, the non-traditional models have received more attention. Professional athletes, reality show stars, internet celebrities and second-generation stars have brought more diversified traffic to this show.
Since the show was suspended in 2019, this round of transformation of Victoria's Secret will be clearer from the perspective of changes in the China region.
Victoria's Secret's newly opened flagship store in China
In fiscal 2020, Victoria's Secret China lost 669 million Hong Kong dollars, and was once considered to have to abandon this market.
Victoria's Secret's predicament back then was global, that is, the "sexiness" controversy mentioned earlier, as well as "marketing for men, selling men's fantasies to women".
From the product level, underwire-free bras have become the choice of the new generation of consumers. A survey by iiMedia Research once showed that 78.4% of consumers choose underwire-free styles when buying bras.
This means that most women take "comfort" as the first consideration when buying bras.
In the Chinese market, a number of local brands such as Ubras, NEIWAI, and Bananain have grown rapidly with this trend and occupied the market.
Victoria's Secret made the same choice as those multinational brands that fell into trouble in the Chinese market, handing over the operation right of the Chinese market.
In January 2022, Victoria's Secret sold 49% of the equity of its China business to Hong Kong lingerie manufacturer Regina Miracle for 45 million US dollars. Regina Miracle is one of the world's largest high-end lingerie manufacturers, which has long been an OEM for Nike and lululemon, and is an expert in this field.
Regina Miracle quickly carried out a major overhaul of Victoria's Secret's brand marketing, product concepts and channel strategies in China.
Victoria's Secret has a long list of brand ambassadors in China, from Yang Mi to Gu Ailing, Tian Xiwei, and Shan Yichun. The diversified ambassadors have also expanded the "sexiness" in the brand narrative from the model figure to a variety of body shapes.
As the preacher of "underwire bras" in China, Victoria's Secret has completely moved away from underwire bras among all multinational brands. After Regina Miracle took over, it remade the cup shapes for Asian women's figures, and the representative underwire-free "anti-gravity bra" has become a hit in the past two years.
Another important change in product strategy is the price. In the early days, the main products of Victoria's Secret were priced at hundreds of yuan, and now the best-selling models are priced at just over 1