Everyone is calling the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2024 a flop – here’s why

What exactly did they spend six years working on?


After a six year hiatus, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show returned on 15th October 2024. The show was supposed to be a more up-to-date, less male-gazey version, with better diversity and all-female music performers. Victoria’s Secret announced in May, “We’ve read the comments and heard you. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is BACK and will reflect who we are today. Plus everything you know and love – the glamour, runway, wings, musical entertainment and more! Stay tuned… it only gets more iconic from here.”
Did it succeed at being iconic? Not really.
People are pretty unimpressed that the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2024 feels like it’s stuck in 2018.

Pretty much everyone is still white and skinny

The fashion show did include more diverse models than previous shows. But the revamped Victoria’s Secret show wasn’t really a celebration of all body types, which people were hoping for.

We love that the show included Ashley Graham and Paloma Elsesser, who has more curves than the average Victoria’s Secret angel, the transgender models Valentina Sampaio and Alex Consani, and older models such as Tyra Banks and Kate Moss.

@ellemagazine

Legends only. Supermodel #TyraBanks closed the #VSFashionShow with a walk to remember. #tiktokfashion

♬ original sound – ELLE (US)

But the overwhelming majority of the models were still white and stick thin. There’s nothing wrong with the stunning models who do look like this – it’s just that viewers were hoping the fashion show would celebrate a wider variety of body types as well.

Including so few models who don’t fit the old Victoria’s Secret body type sort of gives the vibe that the show was only including them out of obligation, and not because they actually cared about celebrating diversity.

@topmodeluganda

#AshelyGraham officially has her wings! 🪽#VSFashionShow

♬ original sound – Top model Uganda

It’s sort of obvious that it’s not great feminism for women to only see one type of female beauty be celebrated on screen. Particularly as that one type is only really obtainable for us mere mortals if we spent all our life savings on ozempic and personal trainers and kale smoothies.

The actual outfits aren’t making me rush to the Victoria’s Secret sale

The models and performers all looked gorgeous, but the outfits were a bit underwhelming compared to the show’s heyday.

@voguefrance

Kate et Lila Moss, mère et fille, foulent toutes deux le podium du show Victoria’s Secret 2024 ! #katemoss #lilamoss #voguefrance #vsfashionshow #victoriassecret #vsangels #tiktokfashion

♬ son original – Vogue France

Reddit users were dragging some of the looks.

“I love the fact that so many Angels are back but the clothes look straight out of Shein!! Did they use all the money to book the angels and forget to spend some on decent looking fabric???” one wrote.

Someone added, “Wow some of these outfits were really really bad. Like if someone did a knockoff VS during its prime. Like how are you going to make Gigi Hadid look bad?”

@_dudareb

#GigiHadid for #VictoriasSecret Fashion Show 2024! 🩷

♬ Righteous x Yummy – Sped Up – Tazzy

Another commented, “Is this the Temu Secret Fashion Show??”

It was just a bit… dull?

The old Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows used to get slated for the silly outfits and over-the-top staging. But that was kind of the fun of it? The revamped version took itself way too seriously. The runway was entirely plain, and there weren’t any fun shots of the girls rushing about backstage.

Hot take, but without all the glitter and fluffy wings and Taylor Swift appearances, looking at loads and loads of near-identical pants and bras for an hour is just a bit boring.

One X user wrote: “BOOOOOOO the show is ass and here I was waiting to be dazzled and left questioning my beauty routine. Where is the fun set design, where are the big bombshell blowouts, the fun makeup?”

Another added: “The Victoria’s Secret fashion show was painfully boring where was the drama, the big hair, the theme, the big gigantic wings? I hate what y’all did to that brand.”

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Feature image credit: Pictures of Bella Hadid and Gigi Hadid via Shutterstock. Picture of Kate Moss via YouTube.