On October 15, 2024, Victoria’s Secret put two transgender women on its runway for the first time, with Valentina Sampaio and Alex Consani walking in the relaunch of the brand’s fashion show after a six-year break. The moment gave the company a headline that was both symbolic and deliberate: a visible sign that it wanted to reintroduce itself to a public that had long questioned whether its old image still fit the market.

The return of the show had already been framed as a reset. Victoria’s Secret said it wanted to deliver the glamour, runway spectacle, wings and entertainment associated with the brand, but through a modern lens that reflected who it is today. The inclusion of Sampaio and Consani gave that promise a concrete form, and it also addressed one of the biggest criticisms aimed at the company over the years: that its stage had become too narrow in the women it celebrated.

The lineup on the night still leaned into the familiar Victoria’s Secret style. Sampaio and Consani walked alongside names that have long been tied to the brand, including Bella Hadid, Gigi Hadid, Tyra Banks, Candice Swanepoel, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo and Barbara Palvin. The effect was to keep the show recognizable while quietly changing who belonged in the frame.

The broader cast reinforced that message. Emira D’Spain, a transgender model for Victoria’s Secret, sat in the front row, adding another visible marker of the brand’s attempt to widen its image. Fashion shows are rarely judged only by the clothing; they are also read as statements about culture and identity. In this case, the casting was the statement. It suggested that the company knows it cannot simply restart an old formula and expect the same audience to accept it unchanged.

That does not mean the debate is closed. One runway appearance does not erase years of criticism, and the fashion industry is full of examples where symbolic gestures outran structural change. But the debut of Sampaio and Consani mattered because Victoria’s Secret chose to make inclusion part of the relaunch itself rather than an afterthought. For a brand that once defined a very narrow fantasy, the new show was an attempt to argue that glamour and representation do not have to be opposites.

The return of the show after six years made the gesture more visible. A relaunch can be read as a promise, and Victoria’s Secret used the runway to argue that it still understands spectacle while also trying to update who that spectacle is for. The company’s challenge is obvious: inclusion has to be sustained, not simply announced. That is why the appearance of Sampaio and Consani mattered so much. It showed that the brand was willing to put its new language on the stage rather than only in a statement, while still surrounding it with the familiar names that defined its earlier era.