The annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, one of the most highly anticipated shows of the year, took place in Shanghai for the first time on November 20. The fashion giant seeks to tap into the country’s rapidly growing market for high-end lingerie as sales volumes have doubled in the past five years. Despite a rocky lead-up, with visa issues causing many celebrities and guests including Gigi Hadid and Katy Perry to cancel their attendance last minute, the show was their most extravagant yet. Four musical guests, including Harry Styles, serenaded the Mercedes-Benz Arena as fifty-five angels strutted the catwalk. Always trying to out-do themselves, the brand also debuted a high-profile Balmain collaboration on the night, which will launch in-store from December 6.

A host of new faces, including Estelle Chen and Xin Xie, took to the winged runway among staple favourites such as Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Karlie Kloss. Candice Swanepoel opened the show with the ‘Punk Angels’ category in a red tartan and black fishnet combination designed by Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing. The look was completed ba studded leather belt and a matching pair of red and black wings. The show was divided into six themed sections as the ‘Punk Angels’ were followed by ‘Goddesses’, the all-pink ‘Millennial Nation’, ‘Winter’s Tale’, ‘Porcelain Angels’ who echoed the blue-and-white schemes of Ming dynasty vases, and a celebration of multiculturalism with the ‘Nomadic Angels’. Lais Ribeiro was honoured with wearing this year’s Fantasy Bra. A Mouawad design costing two million dollars, the Champagne Nights Fantasy Bra is handset with blue topaz, yellow sapphires, and diamonds in 18-karat gold.

However, as well as highly anticipated, the show is also one of the most controversial. With arguably their most culturally diverse line-up yet, Victoria’s Secret attempts to speak for female empowerment but still misses the mark by a large margin. Despite their bigger-and-better attitude across the show’s twenty-two year timeline, the same mentality doesn’t apply to the casting of their models. Each year the brand conforms to a single slim and slender body type, categorizing girls into an extremely narrow beauty ideal. Advertising to the average women with a completely un-average body type sets a degradingly difficult standard for women to attain. The modern market is calling for the catwalk to be more body positive and inclusive but, instead of celebrating the diverse beauty of women, Victoria’s Secret is rooted in an outdated vision of the past.