By Carol Khorramchahi
Boston University News Service
Victoria’s Secret’s second live runway since its 2024 reboot doubled as both a spectacle and stress test. The question hanging over the lights at Steiner Studios: could a legacy lingerie giant turn a glitz-heavy broadcast into proof that a more inclusive, culturally self-aware brand is finally taking hold?
After years of backlash that led to a collapse in cultural relevance over Victoria’s Secret’s ultra-thin, mostly white “Angels” aesthetic, the company scrapped its famous fashion show in 2019. Since then, the brand has tried to rebuild around inclusivity: expanding sizing, bringing in athletes and creators as brand ambassadors, and shifting its language from perfection to confidence. The 2024 reboot was marketed as proof that the company meant it, positioning the effort as both a cultural correction and a business strategy.
That shift wasn’t just cosmetic. Executives told investors that the turnaround depends on re-earning trust from shoppers who had long tuned out of the brand’s old image. On recent earnings calls, management has pointed to growth in “new customer acquisition” and “brand relevance” as key performance indicators.
Analysts who follow the stock market say the message to Wall Street is simple: if more people see themselves reflected in Victoria’s Secret, more of them will spend again. According to reporting from CNBC and Retail Dive, VSCO leadership tied inclusivity efforts directly to its sales strategy in 2024 investor updates.
This year’s show made its case with casting. Models across a wider range of sizes and backgrounds shared the catwalk with creators and athletes, signaling a firm break from the brand’s narrow, pre-hiatus definition of “sexy.”
Pop singer Madison Beer opened the show, a play for her mostly Gen-Z audience and their wallets, and a sign that Victoria’s Secret is treating influence itself as a growth lever, not just a branding move.
The broadcast was shot for virality: backstage mic’d-up moments, slow closeups built for screenshots, and walk clips framed in vertical-friendly angles – all meant to travel fast across TikTok and Instagram Reels to drive hype into shopping carts.
The result felt engineered for fandom and virality as much as fashion. If 2024 was the comeback pitch, 2025 was the stress test: could the “new VS” actually feel like it belongs to more people, not just in branding language, but on the runway and in the cart?
Popularity and the distribution bet
The company’s strategy is clear, and executives and retail analysts have been pushing for versions of it for a year: widen the pool of potential customers and remove any friction between watching and buying.
During the show, viewers weren’t just watching lingerie; they were being nudged to buy it in real time. Runway looks were pushed out across livestream segments, backstage clips, and creator posts formatted for TikTok and Reels, each paired with product links.
The approach mirrors what retail analysts call “live-commerce integration,” a tactic Victoria’s Secret executives highlighted in their 2024 investor presentation as a way to convert audience engagement into immediate sales, according to reporting from Retail Dive and CNBC.
The idea is to turn a viral moment into a checkout screen in a couple of taps. That’s the appeal of a modern Victoria’s Secret fashion show in 2025: it’s not just a media event, it’s a storefront.
Whether that strategy works will be evident in how much traffic the show drives to Victoria’s Secret stores and websites, and whether those new shoppers come back and buy again.
Executives have recently pointed to store traffic, digital engagement, and “new customer growth” as proof that the brand refresh is resonating. Retail analysts from firms like Morningstar and Bloomberg Intelligence say that the second metric, repeat purchases within 60 to 90 days, is critical, since repeat buyers are significantly more profitable than one-and-done shoppers.
Executives have recently pointed to store traffic, digital engagement, and “new customer growth” as proof that the brand refresh is working. Retail analysts say that the second part, getting a first-time shopper to make a second purchase within the first 60 to 90 days, is critical, because repeat buyers are dramatically more profitable than one-and-done buyers in apparel.
Did the “new VS” land?
Judged strictly on what the audience could see: casting, body diversity, and how those bodies were styled, yes.
Bringing athletes and creators onto the runway pushed the franchise back into the mainstream conversation it once dominated. Clips of Gymnast Suni Lee walking the show in a hot-pink Victoria’s Secret Pink look, one of the first high-profile athletes to do so, spread quickly across TikTok and Instagram.
Supporters called it overdue, praising the brand for “putting a 5-foot Olympic champion on the runway while the haters are at HOME,” as one viral comment said. At the same time, Lee was hit with body- and height-shaming, with critics questioning whether an athlete “belongs” in lingerie.
Lee answered with a TikTok of her own, captioned “Can u guys stop bullying me,” making the stakes obvious: representation can invite new audiences in; sustained trust keeps them there.
For investors, this was never just a fashion story; it was a turnaround story. Victoria’s Secret & Co., which is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “VSCO,” now uses the show as both brand billboard and earnings catalyst. Analysts will be watching three things into the holiday quarter:
First, conversion over conversation: did the live shopping and post-show product drops actually move units?
Second, customer mix: are first-time buyers younger and more diverse than before, and do they come back and buy again within 60 to 90 days? That window matters. According to research from Bluecore, repeat customers can drive up to 60% of future sales for apparel brands.
Third, margins: expanding size ranges and pushing out faster capsule collections can strain production costs and inventory. If Victoria’s Secret can hold its gross margin while doing both, that’s the signal the reboot is working as a business, not just as a PR reset.
If management can point to higher traffic, better new-customer cohorts, and controlled promotions, the market tends to reward that discipline. Investors can track the stock and filings here: VSCO quote and Victoria’s Secret & Co. Investor Relations.
Bottom line
On aesthetics and access, the 2025 Fashion Show delivered: a mainstream-ready spectacle with a wider cast and a tighter pipe from screen to checkout. On values, the brand has clearly shifted, it put different body types, athletes, and creators in the same spotlight it once reserved for its “Angels,” and it framed confidence, not perfection, as the product.
But that shift is still being argued in real time. Some viewers praised seeing an Olympic gymnast and fuller-bodied models on a Victoria’s Secret runway and called it overdue; others responded with body-shaming and gatekeeping about who “belongs” in lingerie, backlash that Suni Lee had to answer directly.
The reaction shows the line the company is walking: representation can win new attention, but whether shoppers believe it’s sincere, not just a marketing play, will decide if they stay. If the audience that cheered the broadcast becomes a cohort that buys (and returns), this won’t read as a one-night comeback. It’ll look like the pilot episode of a profitable new season.
