The Victoria’s Secret Comeback: Why Abandoning Your Brand Identity to Chase Trends Is the Fastest Way to Irrelevance
Victoria’s Secret spent three years learning what every huge megalith brand eventually discovers. Here's how you can avoid their biggest mistake.
In 2021, Victoria’s Secret killed the Angels, hired Megan Rapinoe as a brand ambassador, and championed ‘body inclusivity’ to chase cultural relevance. Sales tanked. In 2024, they brought back the supermodels, the wings, and the fantasy—and sales stabilized. This is a hard lesson that every brand needs to understand about the power and importance of saying authentic to your brand.
In 2021, The New York Times launched a bold headline: “Victoria’s Secret Swaps Angels for ‘What Women Want.’ Will They Buy It?”
The answer, as it turns out, was a resounding no.
Victoria’s Secret, once a cultural phenomenon with a primetime runway show that defined aspiration and fantasy, attempted one of the most extreme brand turnarounds in recent memory. They retired the Angels, those rhinestone-winged supermodels who made the brand iconic. They replaced them with “seven women famous for their achievements, not their proportions,” to sell lingerie…
The pivot was deliberate and unabashed: redefine sexy. Champion body inclusivity. Make lingerie about empowerment rather than aspiration. Distance from the “male gaze” that built the brand.
The problem? This wasn’t what Victoria’s Secret customers actually wanted. And more importantly, it wasn’t authentic to what Victoria’s Secret actually was as a brand.
By 2024, facing continued sales struggles and pressure to stabilize the business, CEO Hillary Super made a different call: bring back the Angels. Bring back the supermodels. Bring back the fantasy. Return to the brand’s authentic identity. This week’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show featured pregnant Jasmine Tookes opening the runway, Gigi Hadid strutting in angel wings, and the return of the theatrical fantasy that once made the show a must-watch event. The official livestream generated 15 million views. Sales began stabilizing.
The turnaround reveals a crucial truth about brand strategy: abandoning your authentic identity to chase cultural trends is the fastest path to irrelevance.
The Authenticity Crisis: When Brands Chase Relevance Over Identity
Victoria’s Secret’s 2021 rebrand wasn’t subtle. They didn’t just adjust messaging, they fundamentally rejected the brand identity that made them successful.
The changes were comprehensive:
Out: The Angels
The supermodels who defined aspirational beauty for decades, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Candice Swapneol, were retired. Their 30-pound rhinestone wings relegated to storage. The theatrical fantasy that made the brand iconic was deemed problematic.
In: The Collective
Seven women selected for achievements rather than proportions became brand ambassadors. Megan Rapinoe, the soccer star and activist, led the charge. Plus-size model Paloma Elsesser represented body inclusivity. These women would not only appear in campaigns but advise Victoria’s Secret on “what beauty means.”
The Message Shift
Victoria’s Secret announced they would “celebrate women’s bodies rather than objectify them.” The brand that built a multi-billion dollar empire on fantasy and aspiration suddenly positioned itself around empowerment and inclusivity.
The strategy seemed logical in 2021’s cultural climate. Body positivity movements were ascendant. Consumers supposedly wanted brands to reflect diverse beauty standards. Victoria’s Secret’s traditional approach felt outdated, problematic, exclusionary.
There was just one problem: Victoria’s Secret customers didn’t buy lingerie for empowerment, they bought it for fantasy and aspiration. The rebrand solved a cultural criticism that didn’t reflect actual customer desires.
Why the Rebrand Failed: Pandering Versus Authenticity
Victoria’s Secret’s rebrand failed because it confused cultural commentary with customer desire. The brand abandoned what made them authentically Victoria’s Secret to chase what they thought would make them culturally relevant.
The problem they ignored is that lingerie is inherently aspirational. Women don’t buy lingerie to feel empowered in their current bodies; they buy it to feel transformed. The product category is built on fantasy, desire, and aspiration. Trying to make lingerie about body positivity and empowerment contradicts the fundamental psychology of why people buy the product.
Ignored the True Buying Reason
Victoria’s Secret built their empire on a specific promise: buy our lingerie and feel like an Angel. The supermodels weren’t just models, they were the embodiment of the transformation customers sought. Replacing them with “women famous for achievements” destroyed the aspirational mechanism that made the brand work.
Customer Disconnect
The vocal critics calling for body inclusivity weren’t Victoria’s Secret’s core customers. The rebrand appeased people who never bought from Victoria’s Secret while alienating customers who did. They optimized for cultural approval from non-customers rather than serving actual buyers.
Inauthenticity Signal
Consumers sensed the pivot was strategic pandering rather than genuine evolution. Victoria’s Secret didn’t gradually expand its definition of beauty; they completely rejected their heritage overnight. The abruptness signalled desperation rather than conviction.
The business results validated the disconnect. While exact figures vary, Victoria’s Secret continued struggling financially through the rebrand period. The brand that once dominated lingerie retail found itself losing ground to competitors who understood the category better.
The Return to Authenticity: 2025’s Strategic Correction
By 2025, Victoria’s Secret faced a choice: double down on the rebrand or return to their roots. CEO Hillary Super, who joined just weeks before the 2024 show, chose authenticity.
She hired Adam Selman, former Savage x Fenty creative, as executive creative director and tasked him with reviving the fashion show. But this wasn’t a carbon copy of Ed Razek’s original vision, it was a more nuanced version that maintained the core fantasy while adding contemporary sensibility.
The 2025 show’s strategic elements:
Return of the Supermodels
Gigi Hadid, Adriana Lima, and other recognizable faces returned to the runway. The brand brought back the OG women that the core customer adored.
The Wings Came Back
Those 30-pound rhinestone-and-feather confections emerged from storage. The theatrical fantasy that defined Victoria’s Secret returned as the centerpiece.
Pregnant Jasmine Tookes Opening
The show opened with featuring pregnant model Jasmine Tookes, but she was still conventionally beautiful, still aspirational, still embodying fantasy. This move (although not new) was a great way to bridge empowerment with aspiration. A clear sign that both can coexist together.
Contemporary Casting with Aspiration Intact
The show included varying body types, ethnicities, and genders, but everyone on that runway was aspirational. The distinction mattered. Inclusion without abandoning the fundamental brand promise of fantasy and transformation.
Deadpan Humor and Self-Awareness
Selman brought lighter energy to the production. When asked about show prep, model Alex Consani quipped, “I did pilates once, and that was enough for me”—a far cry from the old days of listing dietary restrictions and grueling routines. The show could be fun without being performatively empowering. (Although I was here for the workout routines and meal plans, but I digress).
The results? The official livestream generated 15 million views. Sales began stabilizing. The show succeeded not because it was revolutionary, but because it returned to what Victoria’s Secret authentically was.
The Competitive Context: Why Savage x Fenty Thrived While Victoria’s Secret Struggled
The contrast with Savage x Fenty illuminates why authenticity matters more than positioning.
Savage x Fenty launched with body inclusivity, diverse casting, and empowerment messaging from day one. They featured plus-size models, pregnant models, and unconventional beauty in their runway shows. They positioned lingerie as celebration rather than aspiration.
And it worked, because it was authentic to Rihanna’s brand. She’d built her career on inclusivity and accessibility. Savage x Fenty’s positioning felt genuine because it reflected the founder’s actual values and approach.
Victoria’s Secret trying to copy this approach felt like desperate pandering because it contradicted everything the brand had been for decades. They weren’t evolving—they were abandoning their identity to become a worse version of Savage x Fenty.
The lesson here is that there’s room for both approaches in the market. Savage x Fenty can own inclusive empowerment. Victoria’s Secret can own aspirational fantasy. Trying to be everything to everyone means being nothing to anyone.
The Broader Pattern: Why Trend-Chasing Kills Authentic Brands
Victoria’s Secret’s misstep reveals a pattern that destroys brands across categories: abandoning authentic identity to chase cultural trends. This is how this rolls out in big companies:
Step 1: Cultural Criticism Emerges
A brand’s positioning becomes culturally criticized. Victoria’s Secret’s aspirational beauty standards face body positivity backlash. The criticism is loud, visible, and creates reputational pressure.
Step 2: Brand Panics and Pivots
Leadership mistakes cultural commentary for customer demand. They assume the vocal critics represent their market. The brand abandons its authentic positioning to appease the criticism.
Step 3: Core Customers Feel Alienated
The customers who loved the brand for what it was feel abandoned. They didn’t see the brand as problematic, they saw it as aspirational. The pivot signals the brand no longer values what attracted them initially.
Step 4: New Audience Doesn’t Materialize
The critics who demanded change don’t become customers. They either never intended to buy the product, or they choose authentic alternatives (like Savage x Fenty) that actually believe in the positioning rather than adopting it strategically.
Step 5: Brand Identity Collapses
The brand now satisfies neither group. Core customers left. New customers never arrived. The brand occupies no clear position in consumers’ minds. Sales decline. The business struggles.
This pattern repeats across industries. Brands mistake Twitter discourse for market research. They optimize for cultural approval rather than customer satisfaction. They destroy what made them distinctive to chase generic relevance.
What Brands Can Learn: The Authenticity Imperative
Victoria’s Secret’s comeback validates several crucial principles about brand strategy in polarized cultural climates:
Know What You Actually Sell
Victoria’s Secret sells fantasy and aspiration, not empowerment. Lingerie is an inherently aspirational category. Understanding category truth matters more than chasing cultural trends. Your product has psychological jobs to do—stay true to those jobs.
Cultural Critics Aren’t Your Customers
The people demanding you change often have no intention of buying from you. They want to reshape culture, not purchase your products. Optimizing for their approval means abandoning actual customers who valued what you were. In fact, lean into criticism; it means you are doing something that people are looking at. Controversy is how to get eyeballs in the social age.
Authenticity Beats Pandering
Consumers can sense when positioning shifts are genuine versus strategic. Victoria’s Secret’s overnight transformation from Angels to activists felt inauthentic because it was. Gradual evolution works. Desperate pivots don’t.
Multiple Positions Can Coexist
The market is large enough for both Savage x Fenty and Victoria’s Secret. One brand can own inclusive empowerment. Another can own aspirational fantasy. You don’t need to be everything—you need to be distinctively something.
Return to Roots Is Always an Option
If a rebrand fails, you can course-correct. Victoria’s Secret proved that returning to authentic identity, even after abandoning it, can stabilize business and reconnect with customers who never wanted you to change.
Evolution Doesn’t Mean Abandonment
The 2024 show evolved Victoria’s Secret without rejecting its identity. Pregnant Jasmine Tookes, diverse casting, contemporary humour, these additions enhanced rather than replaced the core fantasy. Evolution happens within your authentic positioning, not by abandoning it.
The Takeaway
Victoria’s Secret spent three years learning what every huge megalith brand eventually discovers: abandoning your authentic identity to chase cultural trends is the fastest path to irrelevance.
The lesson isn’t that brands should never evolve. It’s that evolution must stay rooted in authentic identity. Victoria’s Secret can update casting, modernize humor, and add nuance—but they sell fantasy, not empowerment. For founders navigating cultural pressure to change: know what you actually sell. Understand your category’s psychological truth. Distinguish between vocal critics and actual customers. And remember that the market is large enough for authentic competitors with different positioning.
Don’t be everything to everyone. Be distinctively something to someone. That focus, that authentic identity, is your only sustainable competitive advantage.
Thanks for reading,
Xx Camille
As always, I love helping small businesses win, whether that’s through my self-paced Social Media Masterclass here or through a 1:1, Direct discovery or working with my agency.