It’s been a protracted catwalk for Victoria’s Secret, however it hasn’t been easy.

The lingerie brand got big by pushing a supercharged vision of sexiness that eventually left it out of touch with the times — roiling its message, its connection to shoppers and ultimately its business. 

Victoria’s Secret’s direction back has been a more inclusive approach championing women’s voices and variety and leaving the male gaze behind. 

But while the brand might need modified, the type of billboard-sized sex appeal it was known for lingers. 

“The truth is, for many individuals, they only haven’t noticed [the transformation]; they haven’t had the occasion to either come to our site and see what the change looks like, or come to our stores and see what the change looks like,” Martin Waters, chief executive officer of Victoria’s Secret & Co., told WWD in an interview in October. 

Now the corporate is trying to alter that by reimagining its va-va-va-voom fashion show with The Victoria’s Secret World Tour — a feature-length film that may give 4 groups of 5 artistic women around the globe a likelihood to define their very own beauty. 

The film will likely be streamed online and culminate in a live fashion event this fall. It’s a package that guarantees to each offer a megaphone for girls to make use of their very own voices to have fun the female form while also serving up some supermodels, lingerie and A-list musical talent.  

What this all looks like and the precise combination of those ingredients stays to be seen, however the brand may be very definitely attempting to follow through on its reinvention.  

“This film is the last word expression of the Victoria’s Secret brand transformation,” said Raúl Martinez, executive vp and head creative director at Victoria’s Secret. “It’s going to be driven by fashion, glamour and entertainment with a nod to beloved iconography from the past but in a daring, redefined way. We’re so honored to supply our platform and have it explored through the lens and artistry of world creatives who have fun the individuality of girls’s stories and perspectives.”

The brand is trying to return back right into a game that it ceded to Rihanna in 2019, when Victoria’s Secret axed its long running extravaganza and the Savage X Fenty show made the leap to Amazon Prime and continued to iterate with a various lineup and celebrity buzz. 

Victoria’s Secret is walking a superb line now — attempting to each deliver a message and make the sale. 

And the message is, type of form of, that it doesn’t have a message any more, that it’s not pushing a vision of how women ought to be, but is as a substitute a conduit that ladies can use to precise themselves. 

It’s the type of letting go that marketing experts have long advised for legacy brands, which got here up in a world where they controlled every part and now find themselves within the midst of a give-and-take with consumers. 

For Victoria’s Secret, it has been a marketing U-turn in only a number of very turbulent years. 

Now the brand also has to show its non-message message right into a marketing pitch that works and make the sale.

It’s not so simple as the “sex sells” approach the brand honed for therefore long, however it is one other indicator that Victoria’s Secret really has modified.  

The query is whether or not shoppers will tune in and go to the stores or online and, as Waters said, “see what the change looks like.”