The Most Famous Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Models Of All Time

The return of Victoria's Secret iconic Fashion Show in October 2024 saw the appearance of several of the brand's most famous Angels. If you're unfamiliar, the lingerie company has seen countless models on its runways, but Victoria's Secret Angels are an exclusive group of models that contractually sign and work closely with the brand. While VS was once a pop culture staple, with its Angels and models sharing a similar popularity, thought-provoking criticisms of Victoria's Secret fed the brand's decline throughout the late 2010s. Though it shelved the annual fantasy-themed fashion show in 2019, a part documentary-style program debuted in 2023, with the company then bringing back a revamped form of its original fashion show in 2024.

The New York City-based show streamed on Amazon Prime and social media platforms, featuring a line-up of all-women performers like Blackpink's Lisa, Tyla, and Cher. While showcasing models like Ashley Graham and Gigi Hadid, the runway also welcomed back iconic faces like Tyra Banks and Adriana Lima, reminding us how far some of the Angels have come since their Victoria's Secret debuts. While sporting wings and fantasy bras was a formative period in the career of countless models, many of the most famous VS Angels have since become pop culture figures in their own right.

Tyra Banks has built a legendary career for herself as a supermodel, TV personality, actor, and producer, with her status as one of the original Victoria's Secret Angels ranking as just one of many great accomplishments in her long-running career. The California native made her Paris runway debut shortly after graduating high school, going on to pose for publications like Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue Spain while becoming the face of the cosmetics brand CoverGirl in 1993. Banks has discussed her experience of being one of the first Black supermodels, with the young talent making history on the covers of GQ, Sports Illustrated, and Victoria's Secret in the late '90s.

The concept of the Victoria's Secret Angel came to life in 1997 when the brand released an "Angel" collection of underwear, with Banks appearing alongside Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Peštová, and Stephanie Seymour in a TV ad that styled them in lingerie and wings. The concept was soon integrated into the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which had debuted in 1995, with Banks sporting the first pair of wings on the VS runway in 1997 after officially signing on as the first Black Angel. She maintained this title until 2005, when she retired from modeling to pursue other ventures, including hosting her own talk show, "The Tyra Banks Show," and modeling competition series, "America's Next Top Model."

While Banks told Harper's Bazaar that she felt initially she needed to retire from modeling to be respected, the celebrity was excited for her return to the runway for the Victoria's Secret 2024 Fashion Show. "I feel very excited and fortunate to come back and celebrate all of myself and not feel like I have to cut off a piece to be taken seriously," she said.

German entrepreneur, TV personality, and model Heidi Klum is another household name who previously held the title of Victoria's Secret Angel. Klum kicked off her modeling career in 1992 when she was named the victor of a German beauty contest, winning a $300,000 contract with the New York City-based agency Metropolitan Models. She gained momentum in the early '90s modeling for various publications, with her 1998 swimsuit appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated marking a major career milestone.

Klum became the first German Angel when she signed with Victoria's Secret in 1999, making several iconic appearances in the brand's fashion show throughout the 2000s. In 2003, she walked the runway in the $11 million "Very Sexy Fantasy Bra," one of three fantasy bras that she sported, later revealing that she was four-months pregnant with her oldest daughter Leni Olumi Klum at the time. As an Angel, Klum collaborated with VS to design a bra line and makeup collection, but she also pursued ventures outside of the brand. The German model was the host and executive producer of "Project Runway," a fashion design competition show that ran from 2004 to 2017, and has hosted twenty seasons of "Germany's Next Top Model." She also lends her judging abilities to "America's Got Talent" and has made various TV and movie appearances over the years.

Klum ultimately hung up her Victoria's Secret wings in 2010 after working with the brand for 13 years. "All good things have to come to an end," she told Page Six. "I will always love Victoria's Secret. It has been an absolutely amazing time." She didn't appear at Victoria's Secret 2024 Fashion Show alongside other veteran Angels, likely because she has since partnered with the underwear and lingerie brand Intimissimi.

Gisele Bündchen is another globally-recognized former Victoria's Secret Angel, famously signing a 25 million dollar contract with the company in 2000. The Brazilian native made her debut at New York Fashion Week in 1996 after placing fourth in the Elite Look of the Year competition shortly before. She walked in Alexander McQueen's "Rain" show at just 17 years old, describing how lost she felt in her 2018 memoir "Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life."

"Mostly, I thought about how disappointed and embarrassed my parents would be," Bündchen wrote. "I tried to hold back my tears, but they just kept coming down, and the black feathers glued to my lashes began coming unstuck" (per WWD). Despite her uncertainty, the model was on the fast track to success, gracing the cover of British Vogue in 1998 and American Vogue in 1999, the latter of which declared her rise the "Return of the Sexy Model" and the end of the heroin chic aesthetic.

Bündchen was one of the world's most in-demand models when she signed with VS in 2000, the same year that she began dating actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and sported the 15 million dollar "Red Hot Fantasy Bra" shortly after. She continued a relationship with the brand until 2006, when she decided to close that chapter of her life. Still, the Brazilian model expanded her career in other ways, having a distinct interest in environmental activism.

She was named the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme in 2009, the same year that Bündchen married football star Tom Brady, and launched an environmentally-friendly skin care line among other products. Bündchen and Brady divorced in 2022, with the following year being considered the "Taxi Driver" actor's comeback. While she didn't take the runway at Victoria's Secret 2024 Fashion show, she did appear in a 2023 campaign for the brand, showing she still has much love for her roots.

Ranking as another famous Brazilian model, Adriana Lima carries the title of longest-running Victoria's Secret Angel, being contracted with the lingerie company from 2000 to 2018. In an interview with Fashion Week Daily, Lima mentions photographers like Ellen von Unwerth and Steven Meisel as being notable figures in her early career, which really gained momentum when she moved to New York City at 16. "[von Unwerth] gave me plenty of work in editorials and campaigns at the beginning," the model said. "After that exposure, I started working with Steven Meisel. We shot Italian Vogue, and that brought me to high fashion." 

Lima made her runway debut in 1997 and first appeared in the Victoria's Secret Fashion show in 1999. She signed on to be a VS Angel the following year, with her modeling presence being further internationalized as she appeared on the covers of Italian Vogue and Vogue Brazil. Besides Heidi Klum, Lima is the only other Angel to wear a fantasy bra three times, sporting the custom made pieces in 2008, 2010, and 2014. Throughout her time with VS, Lima continued to collaborate with other high profile brands, being named a GUESS? Girl in 2000, becoming a Maybelline spokesperson in 2003, and landing on the cover of GQ Magazine in 2006. 

She's also appeared in several Super Bowl commercials, including a 2008 Victoria's Secret ad and placements for Kia and Teleflora in 2012. Though Lima said goodbye to Victoria's Secret in 2018, the model has since collaborated with the brand for a Heavenly Eau de Parfum campaign and was able to reprise her wings for the 2024 Fashion Show. "It's so exciting because this is where everything started for me back in 1999," she told E! News about the event. "I don't know. It's insane—it's crazy."

Miranda Kerr is another former Victoria's Secret Angel that is globally recognized, becoming the first Australian to join the exclusive group of models when she signed with the brand in 2007. The Aussie first cultivated a name for herself in her home country, where she won a modeling competition in 1997, signed with Chic Management, and collaborated with brands like Billabong and Tigerlily. It wasn't until 2004 that she signed with the New York City-based agency Next Management, with her U.S. modeling career really taking off in 2006.

That year, Kerr signed a contract with cosmetic company Maybelline New York, appearing in several of their ad campaigns, and became the first Australian model to walk in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Having already become a spokesperson for Pink, the company's junior line, she signed on to become an Angel in 2007. Throughout her career, the Australian model has walked runways for luxury brands and appeared on high-profile magazine covers, but her true passion came to life when she founded the beauty and skincare brand KORA Organics in 2009.

Kerr had long-standing interest in wellness and healthy living, noting that her mother suffered from cancer of the spleen when Kerr was 16, and noticed that the beauty market lacked organic options. "So, I decided to take it upon myself," she told CEO Magazine. "I invested my own money, and we started creating samples." KORA Organics has grown since then, with the Australian-based company expanding to the U.S. in 2017. Kerr credits her husband Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, with encouraging her to put her full energy into her growing company.

The Aussie retired her wings back in 2013 and has since stepped away from modeling as a whole, choosing instead to prioritize her family and beauty company. Like her fellow Victoria's Secret Angels, Kerr made a name for herself as a model, but she's since expanded her fame and fortune beyond what we imagined.