Like anything, it helps to have context.
It was the year we learned what a Macarena was.Friendswas sweeping the nation (the first time).
Perfectly respectable people stopped washing their hair and started wearing plaid flannel shirts.
Getty Images
A cup of coffee cost roughly a dollar and didnt take a paragraph to order.Amazonsold its first book.
Thats what 1995 looked like in case you werent there.
Looking back now, that first show was, in a word, quaint.
Getty Images
The models wore cardigans over their demure bustiers and push-up bras.
Sexy, but wholesome.
Maybe even a touch…boring.
Getty Images
Over the next few years, the Victorias Secret runway show became the Met Ball of the disrobed.
It moved all over the world.
It turned models into phenoms.
Getty Images
They wore wingssometimes 12 feet tall and 40 pounds heavy.
By some accounts, there were over 800,000 real feathers used to build those wings.
In case the metaphor was lost on the audience, the models were no longer even models.
Getty Images
They were called Angels.
Just patronizingly floating above the rest of us in their size 00 glory.
Alas, they couldnt actually fly so they also got their own (pink) plane.
Getty Images
And very much pageantry.
The actual clothes were the least of it.
The first Victorias Secret Fashion Show ever streamed online actually crashed servers.
Getty Images
And I was tasked with covering it all (at least the hair and makeup).
But I have to admit that I was seduced by the breathlessness of it all.
It was a cultural moment.
Getty Images
Maybe not Swiftie level but still a big deal.
Who cares that it ticked every box of cheesy and exclusive at the same time.
But there must be a myth about the dangers of mortals engaging with angels.
It wouldnt end well for the mortal.
And in my case, covering those shows usually ended in:Huh.
Now I feel bad about myself.
I hopeSex and the Cityis on.
I guess I wasnt the only one.
Twenty-three years after it started, the show was canceledin every way.
People understood disordered eating.
Pussy hats had marched on Washington.
And time was up for a whole generation of abusers.
Suddenly, exploiting womens bodies for entertainment didnt feel so good.
The moment was over.
If Victoria actually had a secret we didnt care what it was anymore.
There really was no danger of thatuntil last night.
My daughter Frankie was nine when they went off the air.
The minute she came home from school, I grabbed her.
I have so much homework.
This is more important than homework.
This is a cultural moment.
I ignored her side eye slash eye roll and turned up the volume.
I wonder if theyre only going to do skinny models, she said.
I was proud that she was disappointed at the thought of it.
So heres the spoiler: They didntonlydo skinny models.
But the models werent exactly a cross-section of America, either.
The only things that caught my daughters attention were the musical performances.
… (Me again.)
Remember when I loved Blackpink in seventh grade?
She was in that band.
(Frankie said in a way that was much less condescending than youd think.)
(She didnt.)
Im impressed they got Tyla and Lisa.
Okay, but is this good for women?
The whole show, I mean.
(She said this with love, Im sure.)
Obviously, this isnt good for women.
They would never put on a show like this of basically naked men.
But its good to have women of all sizes, isnt it?
Mom, you know thats bullshit, right?
Usually she doesnt swear.
Theyre not celebrating womens bodies.
They have a few models who arent stick-thin and theyre pretending theyre body-positive.
The runway looked like it was in an abandoned airplane hangar or maybe a really big high school gym.
Despite the towering wings (there were still wings), the models seemed dwarfed.
I might be projecting but they looked really uncomfortable.
Or how this woman is the same age as Grandma?
Or what an incredible filmMoonstruckwas?
I never even got the chance.
I cant watch anymore.
I have a chem test tomorrow.
More on beauty on the runway:
Now watch Jennifer Aniston react to TikTok trends:
