The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Casting Drama, Explained

This is the October 14, 2026 edition of Fit Check, your front row seat to the power players, peacocks, and deep pockets of fashion—and how they influence the rest of the world.

It is suddenly 2012 again: Kelly Clarkson is in the headlines, Lena Dunham is working on a show for HBO called Girls, and tweens online are going nuts talking about which models made it into the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

Except that this week Clarkson is beefing online with a store in Brooklyn, Girls is returning for a five-episode limited-run, and many younglings online seem to have many big feelings about some of the most emblematic Victoria’s Secret models of the 2010s being left out of this weekend’s extravaganza in Los Angeles. Inside the Romee Strijd casting drama below.

If you follow the news, you know that President Donald Trump briefly had a new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, whose first press briefing earlier this week was described by both CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, quoting a source, and people in my group chats as “brutal.” As for her style, well…notes on that are below.

For this week’s headline, a treat from VF’s New Establishment issue: In the lead-up to New York Fashion Week, I sat down with Rachel Scott, the designer behind Proenza Schouler, to talk about her label Diotima and her ascent into one of the leading voices in American fashion. She told me that she wanted Diotima, both in name and spirit, to be her Trojan horse into the fashion industry. Scroll down to learn exactly what she meant, and how it actually worked.

Mentioned in this week's issue of Fit Check: Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, Melania Trump, the nepo babies of fashion month, Karen Elson and Jack White, John Travolta, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kristen McMenamy, Alber Elbaz’s Lanvin, Tate McRae, Vogue World: Milano (but not the robots), Matthew McConaughey, and many more.

In Other News…

Victoria’s Not-So-Secret Fallen Angels

Back in my day, chatter around which Victoria’s Secret model would wear that year’s fantasy bra at their annual televised fashion show, and which new face would get cast, were fodder for speculation on Tumblr and Twitter. But then came Instagram, which revolutionized where and how we consumed content. We still cared about VS casting news then, but things had changed. It became less about the OG models, many of whom had abandoned the runway by then, and more about a rising crop of digital native stars: Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid were the talk of the internet when they were cast in their first VS show in 2015. Jasmine Tookes and Candice Swanepoel were doing YouTube videos about their VS “Train Like an Angel” workouts, and then new models like Romee Strijd became emblematic to the 2010s VS look. Strijd became a star in her own right, in part because of her vlogs, which followed her adventures as a VS angel.

Shifts in culture affected the appetite for all of this, and Victoria’s Secret went from being on top of the world to falling behind conversations about inclusivity and body positivity. The show’s relevance waned, and some of us grew up, moved on, and stopped caring.

The annual VS show returned in 2024 following a six-year hiatus, bringing back Tyra Banks, one of its original superstars, as a closer. Since then, VS has been steadily working on a rebrand that both captures the nostalgia and panders to the new generation of fashion aficionados. There’s Swanepoel and Adriana Lima, but there’s also Alex Consani and Paloma Elsesser and Anok Yai. There’s a pretty popular YouTube docuseries about casting the next generation of VS models, Angels Among Us, featuring the brand’s creative director, Adam Selman, and Sunday’s show will welcome performances by Tate McRae, Megan Thee Stallion, Katseye, and Megan Moroney. But, surprisingly, what the internet seems more interested in discussing these days is which of those 2010s models did not make it to this year’s show.

Earlier this week, Strijd posted two TikToks in which she very elegantly explained that she was not cast in this year’s show. She spoke about how she had trained all summer, and how she had attended a casting in New York in early September, and had been waiting to hear back from her agency regarding her confirmation, which never came. After pushing for an update, she said, she was told she did not make the cut. Strijd said she could handle a no, but that she was disappointed and felt strung along. She said that she had heard that VS had “dropped” her from the beginning, meaning they did not intend to cast her, but that her agency did not share that feedback immediately. Strijd’s posts struck a chord online, and ignited interest in the show that did not appear nearly as fervent over the past few weeks. Fans have taken to TikTok and VS’s Instagram comment section to argue in favor of Strijd and other faces, including Taylor Hill and Lais Ribeiro, who they assume have also not been cast, and complain against influencers being cast in their stead, and, here’s a shocker, about inclusivity. “I love inclusivity, we need models that all look different, but there’s something ethereal about the early VS shows, every girl had that IT factor that’s what made it so iconic, we want the bouncy blowouts and the cute iconic outfits,” read a comment under a video by Bethenny Frankel, who shared her thoughts on TikTok.

I reached out to VS for comment regarding Strijd’s videos. “Romee holds an important place within Victoria’s Secret and we deeply value her longstanding relationship with the brand and the dedication she has demonstrated throughout her career with us,” a representative said via email. “We can confirm that Victoria’s Secret and [casting director] Piergiorgio Del Moro communicated directly to her representation and formally released her from the casting process on September 6. While we cannot speak to the communications between talent and representation, Victoria’s Secret values and respects all talent partners—past, present and future.”

Strijd may very well be a casualty of VS’s new direction, but it’s fascinating that her absence has sparked such a flurry of interest in the show. Maybe all press is good press, or maybe it is 2012 again after all. (Neither Strijd nor her agency, IMG, responded to a request for comment by press time)

The Nepo Baby Guide to the Spring 2027 Runways

On the last day of fashion month, an industry executive approached me after the Sacai show to tell me if I had been keeping track of all the nepo baby appearances on the runway. “Kinda,” I said, because at this point it’s the norm. She pointed out that this season had some breakouts, and asked if I would collate them all together in Fit Check. I seldom take requests, but why not? Dear reader, they were everywhere. Lily Brant, daughter of Peter Brant and Stephanie Seymour, debuted at Alaïa in Paris. Levi McConaughey, Matthew’s son, made his debut at Vogue World: Milano. Ella Bleu Travolta, John’s daughter, walked the Miu Miu show, and Apple Martin, offspring of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, debuted on the runway for Chloé after fronting one of its campaigns. Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece walked the Conner Ives show in New York and the Gucci show in Milan. Elsewhere but not debuting were Lily McMenamy, Kristen’s daughter, in London for H&M and Oscar Ouyang; Scarlett White, Jack White and Karen Elson’s daughter, in New York for Anna Sui and in London for H&M; and Sunday Rose, of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban parentship, who made her runway debut last year at Jonathan Anderson’s first Dior womenswear show and this season walked Max Mara and Marni in Milan, plus Dries Van Noten, Dior, Ann Demeulemeester, and Valentino in Paris.

Fit Check of the Week

The White House has a new press secretary* following Karoline Leavitt’s exit. Enter Katie Zacharia, a 42-year-old political commentator who was a mainstay on Fox News and who has repeatedly referred to herself as a lawyer, despite there reportedly being no evidence of her passing the bar in the United States. Netizens and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, quoting a source, have referred to her first press briefing yesterday as “brutal.” Prior to her role at the White House, Zacharia served as general counsel for Fix California, a nonprofit, and has a law degree from Pepperdine, a Christian university in Malibu, California.

As it pertains to Fit Check, Zacharia is a prominent example of the MAGA look. The aesthetic has become a signifier of the Trumpian era, and it is most noticeable on women, perhaps because, as a culture, we pay more attention to how women look, or likely because part of the Trump visual language is for women to look and behave in a certain anachronistic, hyperfeminine way, wearing über high heels, more makeup than anyone could ever need, and long, salon-wavy hair in a shade of blond that cannot be found anywhere in nature.

Going by Zacharia’s look at her press briefing yesterday, she fits the bill. Her long hair was parted to the side in cascading waves and was paired with a white pussy-bow blouse done up inexplicably sans bow—perhaps to deliberately avoid any inevitable “grab ’em by the pussy” jokes—under a navy double-breasted skirt suit with wide shoulders and golden buttons, naval-style. A study of Zacharia’s personal social media reveals that she is more often than not wearing head-to-toe black or white, or black and white, in various kinds of tailoring styles, be that a vest-cut dress or a variety of suits. There’s also the occasional short A-line dress—Christian sorority-girl style—in pastel shades or, of course, MAGA red.