Why the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show should have been in the past

The wings were there: with fake feathers, padded, tulle, glitter or stars. As well as crystal bustiers and bras, lace thongs and boudoir silks. And the superstars too: Blackpink’s Lisa getting off a motorcycle and twerking on little pieces of leather; Tyla, rocking short shorts; Cher, in shiny cargo pants and a corset.

And the supermodels were there, almost all of them: Gigi and Bella Hadid, Paloma Elsesser, Joan Smalls, Ashley Graham, Valentina Sampaio, Kate Moss and her daughter, Lila. Even Eva Herzigova and Carla Bruni, the 56-year-old former first lady of France, parading in a lace bodysuit. And especially Tyra Banks, in leggings, a silver belt and a cape.

All the ingredients were there for the rebranding of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, six years after the entire spectacle was canceled under a cloud of shame and in the wake of #MeToo.

That’s when the world suddenly realized that what had been billed as a kitschy madonna/whore show was actually contributing to creating a culture that prioritized a certain body type over all others and that treated women simply. as vehicles of male fantasy.

And that’s when the lingerie giant that had managed to brand women in lingerie as “angels” embarked on a long period of market share loss, introspection, corporate reorganization and public promises to dedicate itself to female empowerment. It was such an extreme and difficult change to swallow that the world actually began to call for the return of the wings.

Then VS answered. But in a parade where, as announced in the pre-show narration, “the women hold the reins.” Where “on the catwalk, it’s all about the women.”

And was it? Only if you still believe in the idea that every woman shares a similar fantasy, which involves a not-so-secret desire to interpret a gift in a giant bow, waiting to be, literally, unwrapped.

Yes, there were more body types on the runway, including trans bodies, than there had been in the past, and more women of various ages. Everything was shoppable during the live stream, meaning the real lingerie was more affordable than absurd (there was no fantasy diamond bra). There were even some pajama bottoms and one or two sheer, bias-cut dresses by designer Joseph Altuzarra.

Almost every model got wings, or at least a robe with a train, instead of some of the more offensive accessories from previous shows. Many of these wings seemed, like the underwear themselves, easier to wear than the old 30-pound versions. But many of them also looked like they had been purchased at the corner Halloween store. And there’s a difference between celebrating true physical diversity and celebrating people whose fame is greater than any size.

Maybe it was the smoke machine, maybe it was the pink confetti that fell from the ceiling at the end, maybe it was model Doutzen Kroes getting her crystal heels stuck on the catwalk, but in the end it all felt less like a step forward than a meeting of tacky school. A gathering of the formerly most popular, dressed in the regalia of yesteryear, reliving a moment that had taken on, in the haze of nostalgia or the real complications of the outside world (or just the disco lighting), a deceptively optimistic pink glow.

But it also provoked the same reaction that seeing a room full of people in their old prom dresses does: What were we thinking?

At this point, no matter how it’s framed or who’s behind the curtain, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is simply a reliquary from another time. This doesn’t mean that women can’t have fun in lingerie — or, indeed, VS products — but that this particular way of showing them off should be retired. There is a twisted history that hides beneath the lace that cannot truly be erased.

If there’s one thing that really isn’t a secret, it’s that parading half-naked bodies, no matter their size or age, on a catwalk isn’t about empowerment. It’s about objectification — even if it’s equal-opportunity objectification. And that there are as many fantasies and definitions of sexy as there are people in the world and that many of them (perhaps most of them) don’t involve wings.