Exclusive: Valentina Sampaio on the history of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Many viewers will be watching the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show tonight looking for a change. When the annual spectacle began in 1995, it made supermodels of Tyra Banks, Gisele Bündchen and Candice Swanepoel – but the extravaganza further enforced a narrow standard of beauty. When the show was canceled in 2019, the brand faced criticism from multiple quarters that its lingerie-filled runways projected a narrow vision of femininity: one that was too white, too thin and unwelcoming to LGBTQ+ models. (Insulting comments from former executives only reinforced this perception.)

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2024 now promises new faces and a mission: “to reflect who we are today”. Fashion that considers all sizes is a priority; The same goes for the identity, represented by an avant-garde from 2024, including the Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio. She began modeling for spin-off brand Pink in 2019 – making her the first transgender woman to appear in a Victoria's Secret campaign. Five years later, she's preparing to make history again as one of the first transgender women to model alongside Alex Cosani in the label's official fashion show.

Sampaio beamed with excitement when I contacted her via FaceTime a few days before the show. Her first Victoria's Secret casting was a “huge victory for trans people,” she says. “Being a trans woman often means facing a closed door to people’s hearts and minds. That’s why working with Victoria’s Secret meant everything to me.”

Growing up, Sampaio, like many other models in training, dreamed of donning her angel wings and hitting the glittering runway. She faced discrimination early in her career in 2014 but persevered; In 2016, she walked the runway for the first time at São Paolo Fashion Week, became a L'Oréal ambassador and ultimately made history as the first transgender woman to appear on the covers of major magazines Vogue Paris (in 2017) until Sports Illustrated (in 2020). Victoria's Secret was exclusionary early in her career and closed the runway just as she was getting started. Still, Sampaio always dreamed of walking for the brand one day: “Even when people told me it would be impossible, I knew in my heart that I would be a part of it,” she says.

This trip gave her the great fortune of standing on the brand's newly designed runway. For Sampaio, his signature bras, underwear, bathrobes and pajamas are not just clothing, but symbols. “Lingerie has a deeply personal meaning for me – as a child it represented an inspiring symbol of femininity and still is,” says Sampaio. “Sometimes when I put it on, it reminds me of my journey, of everything I had to overcome to be who and where I am today.”

Sampaio didn't want to reveal too much about her debut runway look, but noted that it included a bra, panties and “a lot of glitter.” On the runway, it became a black matching set with a glittery mesh overlay and a giant bow at the back.