The feathers were fake, and the lingerie as skimpy as ever. But both were on grand display on Tuesday night in New York, as the Victoria’s Secret fashion show returned with much pomp after a six-year hiatus.

The casting of 52 models – among them were stellar names including Kate Moss, Gigi and Bella Hadid, Tyra Banks and Carla Bruni – was an exercise in race, age, gender and body diversity.

Plus-size models Ashley Graham and Paloma Elsesser and transgender stars Valentina Sampaio and Alex Consani ensured that the event was far more inclusive than in previous years. So how old is too old to model in the fabled lingerie show that famously ‘broke’ the internet when it was first streamed live in 1999?

In 2024, the correct answer is: ‘You’re never too old.’

Making her Victoria’s Secret debut was Kate, 50, dressed in a corseted black bustier worn with a sheer lace dress and feathered black angel wings.

Kate Moss, 50, made her Victoria’s Secret debut in a corseted black bustier worn with a sheer lace dress and feathered black angel wings

Plus-size models like Ashley Graham (seen) ensured that the fashion show was far more inclusive than in previous years

Transgender star Alex Cosani also appeared in Brooklyn, New York, yesterday

She was joined by Carla, another newbie ‘angel’ at 56. Wearing a rose lace balconette body stocking, a black corset and beaded wings, the Italian supermodel admitted backstage that it was her ‘first and probably her last’ appearance in the show.

Then there was Tyra, 50, making a comeback 19 years after her last VS appearance, in black crystal-studded leggings, a black and silver bustier and metallic cape.

How things change. Throughout the 2000s, a model would have been lucky to be cast if she was pushing 35.

And back then, tales of the gruelling physical exercise and strict dieting regimes required to become an ‘angel’ were legendary – often documented by the ‘angels’ themselves.

But if six years is a long time in fashion, it’s a lifetime in the lingerie world.

Once the go-to destination for push-up bras and lacy Brazilian knickers, in recent years Victoria’s Secret has found itself competing with newcomers such as Savage x Fenty, launched by Rihanna in 2018, and SKIMS, the shapewear brand co-owned by Kim Kardashian.

While Victoria’s Secret still has in excess of 1,370 stores, its market share has declined sharply. Critics say the lingerie giant has failed to move with the times, and that its values are woefully outdated. Women, they claim, want different things from their underwear these days, such as comfort and utility.

These women, it’s fair to say, still won’t be hot-footing it to Victoria’s Secret any time soon.

There wasn’t much utility to be found in the mesh body stockings, rhinestone-encrusted thongs and star-shaped nipple covers, known as pasties, that appeared in the ‘rock’ section of the show. But lingerie means different things to different women.

Lila Moss, 22-year-old daughter of Kate, walks the runway during the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2024 at Duggal Greenhouse

Bella and Gigi Hadid were among the other famous faces on the New York runway

Tyra Banks, 50, made a comeback 19 years after her last VS appearance, in black crystal-studded leggings, a black and silver bustier and metallic cape

And for those for whom it means shopping for a little red something for the festive season, the show’s crimson-themed section would leave them spoilt for choice, provided they didn’t have to run for the No 56 bus.

Supermodel sisters Gigi and Bella both wore red, Gigi in a high-cut lace bodysuit and Bella in a red push-up bra and bikini knickers teamed with a feathered cape. 

Italian model Vittoria Ceretti, whose boyfriend is the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, wore a red ruched bustier and matching red pants. They were serenaded by a live performance from Cher, one of three female artists to perform at the multi-million-dollar show.

While the show will inevitably have its critics, if this stringently executed melange of diversity, inclusion, feather and frill fails to turn around the brand’s fortunes, then nothing will.