The Victoria’s Secret fashion show is back and there’s some changes. After taking a break in 2018 from its blockbuster televised runway presentation, the massive lingerie brand has returned with its first-ever all-female performance lineup as well as an inclusive casting.
Models Alex Consani and Valentina Sampaio made history Tuesday night as the first trans models to ever stomp the runway for the brand’s signature event. Out of the 52 models in total, they were a maturation of longtime calls for inclusion on social media and represent a stark reversal of statements from former Chief Marketing Officer Ed Razek. In a 2018 interview for Vogue, Razek said that the brand had considered casting trans models but decided not to.
"Shouldn't you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don't think we should," he said. "Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy, It's a 42-minute entertainment special.” Within days of the interview going live, a statement was released by the brand attributed to Razek responding to the massive backlash.
"To be clear, we absolutely would cast a transgender model for the show. We've had transgender models come to castings,” it read. “And like many others, they didn't make it… But it was never about gender."
In 2019, the brand cast the first trans model in a project: Valentino Sampaio. Sampaio, who is the first known trans woman to cover an edition of Vogue with Vogue Paris in 2017, appeared in imagery for the company’s VS Pink line. Within days, Razek’s retirement from the company was announced. Sampaio, on the other hand, went on to shoot multiple projects with Victoria’s Secret, to later be followed by others.
"I always dreamed to be [in Victoria's Secret] because I'm a woman and I deserve to be there," she told me in 2020 for a cover story for Out. "I think I represent a change. I think the brand is showing the importance of diversity." In her wake came Emira D’Spain: the social media content creator inked a sponsored content deal with Victoria’s Secret in 2022, becoming the first black trans woman to work with the company.
In 2023, in lieu of a fashion show, the company offered fans Victoria’s Secret: The Tour ‘23, a special documentary slash show spotlighting various designers and artists across the world. In that project, they showed the most trans inclusion yet with talent like artist Edun Sodipo, DJ and producer Honey Dijon, as well as models Ceval Omar and Alex Consani, among others — Ceval had previously appeared in an Instagram post for the brand. But it all was a precursor to last night’s show.
Streamed on Amazon Live as well as the YouTube page of Victoria Secret, the show featured an opening performance by Lisa of the girl group Blackpink. After she and her backup dancers did a bit of runway choreography by Sean Bankhead and the youngest ballroom icon Diva Davanna, the models took the runway with Gigi Hadid starting it off. While Emira D’Spain was invited and sat in the show’s audience, Alex Consani appeared during Tyla’s performance in a pair of floor-grazing wings made of satin. The full look included a pale blue sequined bralette top as well as a high-waisted boy short of the same color.
Valentina Sampaio appeared on the runway in a section opened by Kate Moss to the sounds of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll.” The history-making model wore a shimmering, black string bikini featuring a bow made of black sheer fabric behind her. She also wore a sheer crystallized skirt. Like many of the other models, she wore embellished stiletto heels from Rene Caovilla that climbed up her legs.
“Working with Victoria’s Secret is any doll’s dream,” Consani wrote on Instagram last year, “and to be able to work alongside those who have inspired me past and present is something I am forever grateful for!”
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