The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2026. Story by Ana Topi, Fashion Editor of RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo / Video Courtesy: Victoria’s Secret / GettyImages.
Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City traded its cinematic illusions for silk, steel armature, and iridescent lacquer as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show landed in Los Angeles on October 18, ending a 19-year West Coast hiatus. Pitching camp inside soundstages traditionally reserved for studio blockbusters, the house leaned into Hollywood staging: four cyclical seasons designed by Chief Creative Officer Adam Selman, complete with snowbanks under stage lights, vintage slip-dress interludes, and the signature high-wattage Pink spectacle.
The architecture of the Angel wings remains the show’s true couture-grade feat. Far from standard feather dusters, these wearable sculptures require months of structural engineering, crafted by bespoke master artisans and long-time atelier sculptors like Marian “Killer” Hose. The armatures combine lightweight aerospace alloys, corsetry rigging, and hand-molded resin to bear staggering visual loads without toppling the talent.
Selman’s seasonal runway narrative dictated the wings’ mechanical aesthetics. Spring opened with botanical surrealism: Bella Hadid emerged framed by bejeweled branches sprouting like an enchanted arboretum, followed by Ashley Graham bearing a full-scale romantic daisy bouquet. Summer flipped the script with reflective nostalgia, strapping Gigi Hadid into disco-ball paillettes that whipped light across the soundstage rafters. Autumn introduced dark-romance boned corsetry anchored by arched lace, while winter went full spectacle—Precious Lee walked suspended inside a cascading, cut-crystal chandelier, and Alex Consani carried sweeping gilded metal blades.
The casting blended nostalgia with deliberate celebrity bait. Kylie Jenner made her runway debut alongside returning veterans Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley—the latter stepping onto the Victoria’s Secret runway for the first time in sixteen years. Musical performances by Megan Thee Stallion, Tate McRae, Katseye, and Megan Moroney kept the pacing brisk, matching the rhythmic strut of an enterprise determined to convince the world its glamour has evolved from mall spectacle to high-gloss Hollywood stagecraft.
