Victoria’s Secret announced The Tour ‘23, a comeback from its fashion show hiatus, on July 27. Its reimagination brought with it significant strides and stumbles to the fashion world. In the 2010s, the iconic shows featured very small models walking a classic runway in sparkling million dollar bras and five-foot-high angel wings. In November 2019, the annual fashion show was canceled and did not return, according to Vogue, until now. For its latest show, the brand is redefining their narrow definition of what it means to be a beautiful woman, and what it means to be an angel.
One kind of beauty on the runway does not cut it for me when I see one hundred kinds of beauty every day when I walk to class. In the old shows, I saw one kind of beauty. Iconic angels like Gigi Hadid and Winnie Harlow are back, but with them are diverse new angels like Paloma Elsesser and Tess McMillan, whose bodies represent a kind of beauty that does not fit with the mold that shaped the old angels. Also appearing are icons of past shows Adriana Lima and Taylor Hill, who, by their age, are breaking a mold of their own.
While the angels dazzled, the fashion underwhelmed. Past shows debuted fabulous looks that enchanted their audience every time. The Tour ‘23 lacks the glamor of feathered wings and Fantasy Bras adorned with jewels, and replaced it with ill fitting garments and a campaign remnant of a Calvin Klein ad. One designer created purposefully tattered pieces that all seem slightly too big for their model. Another showed pants made of material that looks like tangled hair. Hailey Bieber modeled a corset bra that was either so big for her or so poor quality or both that the bones of the corset kept bending.
Pieces that are fabulous are still lacking a serious Victoria’s Secret fashion show prerequisite, which is actually being lingerie. I saw a lot of dresses and two-piece sets but very few bras and panties. Some bras and panties I did see from this collection are cotton and available in “colors” gray, black and white. The show itself is filmed in a documentary style, which was a good decision because the clothes alone don’t give the audience enough, the way stronger designs would.
According to the comment sections of Victoria’s Secret’s recent Instagram posts, people aren’t taking the change well. Some people are disappointed in the collection, some in the new models. I read comments such as “So anyone can wear wings now” and “I want the old victorias secret beauty standards back.” I understand resisting. The culture is addicted to skinny airbrushed models and resists when models refuse to conform to that. How freeing would it be for women to be encouraged to feel comfortable with real women on runways instead of afraid of it? I hope that Victoria’s Secret’s new campaigns and other, hopefully stronger, fashion shows will allow us to welcome true and diverse beauty.