Big Butts Are Having Their Victoria’s Secret Moment. But Is Fashion Really Embracing Every Body?

Victoria’s Secret is making room for fuller hips, rounder derrières and curvier silhouettes. The celebration of curves raises a harder question: Is the fashion industry embracing body diversity, or simply redefining the ideal figure?

There was a time when the Victoria’s Secret runway operated under one very specific idea of the ideal female body. Long legs, narrow hips, flat stomachs and remarkably similar proportions dominated a spectacle that helped define beauty for a generation. The wings, the expensive lingerie and the theatrical productions were memorable, but the women chosen to wear them represented an exclusive standard. On Sunday evening in Los Angeles, that familiar image shared the runway with something different: fuller hips, rounder derrières and bodies that challenged the brand’s traditional expectations.

The 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show featured Ashley Graham, Paloma Elsesser, Precious Lee and Devyn Garcia alongside longtime runway favorites such as Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel and Gigi Hadid. Their presence continued the brand’s public effort to broaden its picture of beauty after years of criticism over restrictive casting and unrealistic body standards. It was still a production built on fantasy, glamour and sex appeal, but it was a noticeably different fantasy from the one the company spent decades selling. And I welcome that change. Women with fuller figures have always been beautiful, have always worn lingerie and have always embraced their sexuality and their style. What has changed is an influential brand’s willingness to give those bodies the same glamorous treatment it once reserved for much thinner women.