The 2026 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was not one show. It was two, staged on the same runway: a nostalgic revival of diamond-encrusted fantasy for longtime fans, and a carefully documented push for cultural representation aimed at critics who helped cancel the spectacle in the first place. Read together, the two halves reveal a brand performing what its own chief creative officer calls a "tricky dance" — and the tension inside that dance is the real story of the night.
The Return of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show: A Dual Strategy
I'll say this plainly: the 2026 show was a deliberate hybrid, and neither half of it was accidental. On one side, the brand revived the Fantasy Bra for the first time since 2018 — a $50 million piece designed with luxury jeweler Jacob & Co., worn by Kylie Jenner and set with 4,410 natural diamonds plus a 75.54-carat yellow diamond, as fan coverage of the show detailed. On the other, the runway carried Nanabah Grace, the first Navajo woman to walk the show, and Ravleen Varghese, an Indian model raised in Dubai making her debut.
That pairing is the strategic core. The show's return follows a bruising decade: the annual spectacle was canceled in 2019 after intense public backlash over its lack of racial diversity and body inclusivity, alongside scandals including a former CEO's ties to Jeffrey Epstein, as reported in coverage of this year's event. The 2026 production was, by design, an attempt to reclaim the old magic without repeating the old mistakes — or, depending on your read, to repeat them with new faces beside them.
Nostalgic Glamour: The 'Return to Form' Elements
The nostalgia pillar was unmistakable. Original Angels — Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio and Candice Swanepoel — returned to the runway, and the aesthetic coverage described as dominant was pure vintage: lacy pink lingerie, long tousled locks and the brand's signature aspirational silhouette. Viewers praised the production as a "return to form" following the 2021 rebrand that one expert, quoted in Daily Mail reporting, dismissed as an "identity crisis."
The Fantasy Bra was the emotional centerpiece, and I understand why. As one fan account of the show put it, the piece "was never meant to be ordinary lingerie" — its appeal lies in extraordinary craftsmanship and the anticipation of the reveal. The last one, in 2018, was a $1 million design worn by Elsa Hosk. Escalating to $50 million on Jenner signals something unambiguous: Victoria's Secret wants its old reputation for spectacle back, at full price.
