Victoria’s Secret’s Runway show came back after years. But beyond South Africa’s Candice Swanepoel and Tyla taking to the stage; the show left a lot to be desired:
New York, South Africa (17 October 2024) — Earlier this week, Victoria’s Secret made a ‘splashy’ return to the runway after several years away from its once iconic pink carpet.
Premised to be a new era for the brand that has had a massive influence on the relationship women across the world have with their bodies; hopes were high for the comeback show and all the freshness it might bring. But, VS is nothing if not a tease. And for many critics, if the show was supposed to be a tease for diversity, it unfortunately missed the mark.
As a woman and writer who has long been championing topics of inclusivity and empowerment, I have to admit that the 2024 reveal left much to be desired.
Many of the models were part of the same class who have long worked with VS (the Hadid sisters, Taylor Hill and, of course, the seasoned Angels like Behati Prinsloo and Adriana Lima).
There were new faces part of the show and iconic ones too (Cher, Kate Moss and Tyra Banks to name a few). And all of it was as glossy as it was when I watched it as a teen.
But in the spirit of inclusivity—which is where many suspected the show was heading—it felt a lot like waiting for the drop of a song that never comes. In fact, it was a lot like listening to an old song you haven’t heard for a while again, except with a few barely noticeable remixed notes.
While it’s damn-near impossible to represent every person of every body type, it also feels like tokenism to see only a handful of models who weren’t size 0 (many of whom did multiple walks). There could have been a spectrum of body-positive representation that gave us all a more organic idea of beauty across the board…but there wasn’t.
I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting. A little (a lot) more of a celebration of the idea that healthy bodies can and do look different? Female empowerment of some kind? Wings that actually attempted to uplift women? At the very least, they did break the ageism barrier the beauty industry is known for by featuring models who would’ve been considered well into retirement if this were the early 2000s.
Two moments made the show almost worth the watch, and they were purely because South African women took to the stage like powerhouses. Candice Swanepoel was as gorgeous as ever, while Tyla got to headline the event with the energy she’s won the world over with. I’ll also give a special shout-out to Cher’s performance because that legend is nearly 80 years old and still killing the game.
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But beyond their time on stage, the show hardly brought anything new to the table. Perhaps that was exactly the point.
If anything, the show made me thankful that I’m older and wiser than I was when I first gazed up at the angels like superheroes and thought beauty needed to look that way. Thankful that in 2024, we can recognise it’s just a show and not what women need to look like to fit into the world.
And thankful that the younger generation of women do have access to more information on health and well-being to create informed perspectives on what was once deemed ‘the standard’ of beauty.
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