It was only a week after Adam Selman took on the executive creative director role at Victoria’s Secret in April that the big topic came up: What did he want to do for the fashion show?
The Victoria’s Secret fashion show was a cultural juggernaut for many years, but amid the brand’s years-long identity crisis, its role in the overall business has remained uncertain. The brand took a hiatus from doing an annual show from 2019 until its return last year. In that time, Bloomberg reported that the company’s board considered canceling future fashion shows permanently. But ultimately, Victoria’s Secret’s leadership chose to evolve the show, rather than set it aside.
For his part, Selman wasted no time in conceptualizing a new version of the show.
“I wanted to take the best of an American heritage brand that’s been around for more than 50 years but show a broader range of emotions, not just one ideal of sexiness,” Selman said.
Selman is the former chief design officer at Savage x Fenty and the founder of his own brand, Adam Selman Sport. He said that when he first started planning for the show, he intentionally avoided looking at older Victoria’s Secret shows, wanting to start with fresh eyes. It was only in the last month that he referred to previous shows to ensure the new version is more forward-looking.
Among the innovations is featuring a professional athlete to walk the Victoria’s Secret runway for the first time. Angel Reese, one of the most popular players in the WNBA, announced her involvement in the show last week. Integrating the show into popular culture by bringing in people like Reese and musicians like Missy Elliott, who will perform at this year’s show, was one of Selman’s chief aims.
While Victoria’s Secret has lost market share in the undergarments category, it remains a dominant player. Recent quarters have seen sales consistently beat expectations even as they’re down compared to the brand’s peak years in the 2000s. Revenue for the last quarter was $1.5 billion, a 3% improvement from the quarter before. And the show last year did move the needle, according to Selman.
“Last year, 45 million people tuned into it,” he said. The 2024 edition of the show was bolstered by the return of model Tyra Banks and musical guests like Cher. “People are still commenting on last year’s show. There’s a huge halo effect around it,” Selman said.
Selman said his other main goal for his tenure at Victoria’s Secret is to get the brand more involved in fashion. For example, he wants to see Victoria’s Secret incorporated into looks on the red carpet.
“There’s a huge opportunity here,” he said. “We have over 1,400 stores. We sell a bra every three seconds. We’re such a big brand, and I want to get us out and into culture more than we are.”
