On Oct. 18, Victoria’s Secret held its runway show in Culver City, Los Angeles — the third show since the brand’s 2024 return. When I watched the show that night, I noticed the diversity of models they had walking with wings. It was different from what I had expected based on clips of past shows.Â
Victoria’s Secret had Ashley Graham and Paloma Elsesser walking, representing a variety of body types. Alex Consani, a transgender model, brought more diversity to the runway.Â
South Sudanese-American model Anok Yai, Egyptian-Moroccan-Dutch model Imaan Hammam, and Ravleen Varghese, a Dubai model with Kerala roots, walked the show and made this an international cast. Trinity Rodman — a soccer star making her Victoria’s Secret debut in PINK — gave athletes a spot in the show.Â
Then, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, returning after 16 years away, and Adriana Lima walked. They showed that age does not define beauty and does not stop models from owning their walks down the runway.Â
I truly appreciated seeing Barbara Palvin walk weeks after giving birth to her first child. The negativity surrounding women’s bodies after birth was shut down by Palvin as she walked that runway, showing that a mothers’ body is just as powerful and beautiful as the others. The brand with influence across generations is finally using its power to represent different body types, races, professions, and the LGBTQ+ community.Â
None of this was inevitable; the brand was pushed by the 2019 cancellation, the 2018 remarks from a then-executive dismissing trans and plus-size models, and years of backlash. That pressure is what produced a cast like this one. Watching a runway where different body types, races, professions, and LGBTQ+ identities were represented gave me real hope that this would become the norm rather than a moment. My hope is that young girls watching see that they don’t have to meet a certain standard to be beautiful.