With His Victoria’s Secret Debut, Adam Selman Proves He’s Bringing Sexy Back
The designer, who became creative director of VS this spring, got as close as anyone to recapturing the fashion show’s glory days.
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was once considered the world’s biggest fashion show, with millions of viewers tuning in every year to see Tyra Banks, Adriana Lima, and Gisele Bündchen stalk the runway in tiny bras, gigantic wings, and bouncy blowouts to the (at times) live vocals of Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, and more of the day’s biggest stars. With the 2025 iteration, which aired live on Wednesday night and took place in New York City, designer and newly appointed VS creative director Adam Selman had the Herculean task of recapturing that former glory, while still making the event feel modern. “My biggest goal was to show the multitudes of women and be less prescriptive and more joyful,” the Texas native tells W over Zoom before his big debut.
The first designer to take on the role of creative director of Victoria’s Secret, Selman surely has the experience to reach his goal. He has helmed his own ready-to-wear and sports labels; designed pieces for Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna; and spent the last two years as chief design officer of the latter’s Savage x Fenty. “I speak bra,” he says with a laugh. Now, he’s the creative force behind the biggest lingerie retailer in the world.
Adam Selman on the red carpet for the 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
Selman stepped into the role in April of this year and immediately began planning the 2025 Fashion Show. “It really came on hot and fast,” he recalls. “My first week, the team asked, ‘So, what do you want to do with the show?’ I’ve been putting on shows for most of my career, so that helped me feel sure-footed about it.”
Victoria’s Secret currently has 787 stores in North America. Ask anyone who grew up in the ’90s and early 2000s, and they likely have a story involving those pink striped bags, including Selman. “I have the best memories of the panty table,” he says. “Buying a pair felt like a rite of passage for my girlfriends.” In 1995, the brand extended its reach with the creation of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, an event that turned into must-watch TV, with superstar models and performers taking the stage in over-the-top lingerie. The show peaked in 2001 with 12 million viewers, sustaining its popularity over the next decade.
Most know the story of VS’s downfall by now. The entrance of competitors in the lingerie space and an internal #MeToo revolution closed the prosperous era. The brand canceled the 2019 show and took a five-year break while trying to recoup losses. In 2024, it returned in its original form, with some tweaks. Now, with Selman at the helm, Victoria’s Secret’s comeback seems more certain than ever.
“I’m looking forward,” Selman says when asked about the brand’s past controversies. But he isn’t rejecting Victoria’s Secret’s history of sex appeal in an attempt to gain good favor with the public. To Selman (and VS in the year 2025), that doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing it did under the brand’s former, controversial leadership. “It’s less about ‘This is the ideal,’ and more about showing all women what is possible.”
Yes, Selman speaks bra, but he also knows sexy. His namesake label was characterized by tailoring and texture, plus a playfulness that comes from a creator who doesn’t take himself too seriously. In addition to his own brand, he designed for basically every major pop star of the 2010s and worked closely with stylist Mel Ottenberg on an array of Rihanna’s tour looks. In 2014, he created a completely sheer, Swarovski crystal-covered dress for the Bajan star to wear to the CFDA Fashion Award, a look that is still considered one of Rihanna’s best to this day.
The dress was on the mood board for the VS Show. “You’ve got to keep those things close and familiar,” Selman says of the look that has defined his career. “I’m never letting that one get too far away from me.” It acted as inspiration for the evening’s “Bombshell” section; the influence could be seen on the runway in the handful of netted crystal gowns that makes one wonder if Selman started his application process for this job over a decade ago.
While that specific chapter was inspired by the life of a showgirl, Selman insists Taylor Swift’s recent 12th album had nothing to do with his theme choice, though he understands why the aesthetic is having a moment. “We are in a time of excess and sexiness,” he says. “You look at what’s happening in culture, and we’ve never been sexier. People want to show things off and own it.”
Selman might not reach full Swiftie status, but he seems intrigued by easter eggs like the singer. The designer peppered hints throughout the VS show, referencing past looks from the brand’s archives, like a floral robe Tyra Banks wore 25 years ago, recreated in pink for Gigi Hadid. Selman says alluding to the brand’s history helps elevate how people think of Victoria’s Secret. “I keep telling people, ‘We’re a house,’” he says. “We’re a great American brand with a rich legacy that I can draw from creatively. So, I’m referencing past looks, just like how any other designer would when adopting a house.”
Many, however, have not forgotten the brand’s past indiscretions, including former CMO Ed Razek’s anti-trans comments and executive ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Still, there are those who idolized the Angels of the 2010s, who waited all year to watch Lima, Banks, and Bündchen flaunt their wings and toned legs to the beat of Adam Levine’s new hit song. Was the Victoria’s Secret show a moment in time that won’t ever be the same?
Whatever the answer to that question, online conversation around Selman’s outing is wholly positive as of press time (quite the feat in 2025, when designer debuts are a dime a dozen). As the models walked their finale under a cloud of confetti, it was clear the designer aims to embrace sexy without excluding anyone in the process. There were unapologetically sexy moments during the show, like when Amelia Gray turned around in her long-sleeve minidress to reveal a completely open back and g-string. But the inclusion of bedazzled jeans on the runway and street style outside the confines of the Pink loungewear section helped paint a picture of what Selman’s VS will look like in the real world.
“I want people to feel like a new era, a push forward for the brand,” he says.
