also among the “top-paid” faces in the modelling industry. But as prominent as the brand became, it rapidly fell from grace following a series of scandals, ranging from slights on the transgender community to associations with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and it suspended its televised catwalk show in 2019.  This month, however, the brand announced a new iteration of its once-famous fashion show – the Victoria’s Secret World Tour – that reportedly reflect its “commitment to championing women’s voices, perspectives, and experiences”. The rise and fall of Victoria’s Secret Victoria’s Secret, founded in 1977 by Roy Raymond, became part of the L Brands family in 1982 when it was purchased for roughly $1 million by Leslie Wexner. During the early 1990s, it was one of the most successful lingerie brands in the US, with boutiques from coast to coast. The first Victoria’s Secret fashion show was held in New York in 1995, and the following year, the business released its first Fantasy Bra, which became the “vedette” of subsequent shows and a release eagerly anticipated by Angels and fans alike each year. Among the most famous creations was a diamond-studded Black Diamond Fantasy Miracle Bra in 2008, worn by Adriana Lima.   In 2004, in place of the regular broadcast show, Victoria’s Secret decided to take the event on tour across America. The show starred famous models including Alessandra Ambrosio, Tyra Banks, Gisele Bündchen, Heidi Klum, and Adriana Lima, and had stop-offs in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. In 2017, the show in Shanghai, China, was considered one of the brand’s most popular and marked its expansion into the Asia region.  Then, scandals began to plague the famous empire – child exploitation, racism, cultural appropriation, sexual harassment, and most notably, the “slander” of former CMO Ed Razek, and the close ties between “retail king” Les Wexner and US billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Some of these were exposed in the Hulu documentary series Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons. Another contributing factor to the termination of the fashion tour was its depiction of female sexuality, which – in the wake of the #MeToo movement – seemed outdated to a growing number of consumers. In 2019, the company declared that it would no longer produce the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Tour citing its ineffectiveness after the show reached its lowest ratings in 2018. At the same time, the brand experienced a significant reduction in revenues, leading to the closure of many company-owned retail stores around the world, including its giant multistory flagship in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay. Efforts to innovate  Since being spun off from L Brands in 2021, Victoria’s Secret has worked to restore the brand’s reputation. It revealed a new campaign promising “to become the world’s leading advocate for women”, and moved to actively support humanitarian campaigns that benefit women, including launching the Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers and The VS Collective, a group of successful women united by a desire to create positive change.  “This is a dramatic shift for our brand, and it’s a shift that we embrace from our core,” the brand’s current CEO Martins Waters said at the time of the rebrand. “These new initiatives are just the beginning. We are energised and humbled by the work ahead of us.” And so now, after a five-year hiatus, Victoria’s Secret has announced the return of its Fashion Tour, billing the performance as “the ultimate expression of the Victoria’s Secret brand transformation”. There will be no more sexy Angels and no physical runway. Instead, the show will be broadcast as a feature-length film, focusing mainly on a group of 20 creatives from Bogota, Lagos, London, and Tokyo, dubbed the VS20. The designers will produce four fashion collections, including outfits and jackets alongside lingerie.  The announcement has drawn mixed responses from within the fashion industry, with some questioning whether the program will remain as explosive and exciting as previous editions.  Some commentators believe the absence of Angels will substantially decrease the show’s appeal. “I don’t know why companies like VS don’t understand they don’t need to reinvent their wheel,” a Reddit user wrote. “Their iconic fashion shows and Angels were why everyone wanted their products, in my opinion. I’m not expecting much from this being brought back.”  Spectacular transformation, or a misstep? Victoria’s Secret’s new strategy, which clearly aims to empower women and encourage diversity, may well be too little too late,  especially compared to steps taken by other brands to embrace inclusivity in recent years. “Victoria’s Secret celebrated unrealistic curves and was way behind the curve in embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Jon Bird, executive director of global agency, Vmly&r, told Inside Retail. “For example, Dove’s famous ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ set out to feature and honour real women – not models – as far back as 2004. So, Victoria’s Secret was 15 years out of date when it decided to axe the fashion show, reposition and launch campaigns like ‘Undefinable’, which focuses on the individual, no matter their shape, size, colour, or gender diversity.” Meanwhile, companies like Aerie have seized the spotlight and are regarded by Gen Z as being genuinely inclusive and current, while Victoria’s Secret is still struggling to shed its former reputation. As the Wall Street Journal noted last year, “some shoppers say that they can’t ever see Victoria’s Secret as anything other than what it has represented for decades.” Whether Victoria’s Secret is genuinely accepting of social diversity, or whether it has simply – finally – realised that it’s a necessary evolution of the business is an open question. If the World Tour is a success, it could indicate that consumers are willing to accept that the brand has truly changed.  “The jury is out because we don’t 100 per cent know what form the content will take for the VS World Tour,” Bird said.  “If it is seen as the ‘return of the fashion show’, it will bomb – that concept belongs to last century. If it is viewed as a reimagining of women and fashion today, driven by the audience and creators, and not Victoria’s Secret executives, then it has a shot at being successful.”