In this op-ed, Teen Vogue style director Alyssa Hardy explores the complex legacy of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and how the brand has learned important lessons other fashion brands seemingly haven’t.

Wednesday night’s 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show marked a significant milestone for the brand. It wasn’t a special anniversary or an evening of historic firsts — it was much more subtle. We saw a runway filled with wings and beautiful models who have big hair and bigger smiles. Headlines about the looks and preparation to get them dominated the internet and social media (even ours). It all seems… familiar. The brand appears to have done something a lot of people didn’t see coming, pushing beyond the bad publicity that rocked the last seven years and landing softly back into the zeitgeist. It’s once again a lingerie brand whose biggest marketing tentpole is a fantastical display of aspirational beauty.

In the broader context of the fashion industry, this show ranks higher than most in terms of size diversity. According to Vogue Business, only .9% of runways in the Spring/Summer 2026 season featured plus-size models. It has also included trans women in the last two shows, notably Alex Consani and Valentina Sampaio, a marked change from the problematic standards set by former Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razek. (Still, the vast majority of the models were straight size and cisgender.) But in 2025, it shouldn’t be commendable to have a diverse cast of people representing your brand; it should be the standard. When we see a cast of athletes, models, and celebrities not only showing joy in their bodies but also being celebrated for them, the difference is clear — and somehow, it’s a brand that was formerly in active opposition of change that is part of the few that even included plus and mid-size people.

From a show perspective, it was, as designer Adam Selman told Vogue this week, “fun.” In many ways there was a deep nostalgia that the brand was clearly playing into with Angels like Adriana Lima and Candice Swanepoel strutting on a raised runway with ridiculously large wings attached to their backs. Pink confetti filled the air and the performances had a production quality reminiscent of shows from 2016 and before.

But do these necessary changes and this move to normalize the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show back into a lauded spot in our culture mean that the brand can truly move on from the legacy it created? Should it?