The hype has been building for weeks about the 2010 Victoria’s Secret show, which took place at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan yesterday. Not only would Adriana Lima be walking the runway after just giving birth a few months ago, but Katy Perry and Akon were scheduled to perform. The “Angels” have been making the rounds for weeks on all the major channels to promote the show, and images of the extravaganza– which was filmed nearly three weeks before the spectacle aired on CBS– have been trickling in, showing off the over-the-top costumes worn by the supermodels.
model Alessandra Ambrosia earns her wings
As per usual, the fashions on display were leaps and bounds from anything you’d find at your local Victoria’s Secret store– think Halloween costume-ish bedazzled red skull shoulder protectors, the famed angel wings, and, of course, the fantasy bra, which this year cost $2 million, took 1,500 hours to craft, and was worn by Adriana Lima (below), who also opened the show walking out of a case filled with ballet dancers.
Adriana Lima walks the runway in the $2 million ‘Bombshell Fantasy Bra’
Katy Perry performs
I have to wonder whether the bulk of the demographic that watches the Victoria’s Secret annual show is actually the demographic that shops at the brand’s stores. The zooming in on the models’ chests and the overly excited “bubbly family” atmosphere portrayed in the backstage footage– when most of us are keenly aware of how cut-throat the modeling industry is– seemed aimed at men and overly-idealistic women. That said (and not to sound too cynical), perhaps idealistic women and men are the only ones who might just believe that one could come close to looking like Adriana Lima, who admitted to working out two hours a day while subsisting on a virtually carbohydrate-free diet before the show, just by slipping on a Victoria’s Secret bra. How else can one explain the massive disparity between what we see on the catwalk and what we see in the mass retail chain? To boot, I saw a number of interviews with the show’s models where they were discussing the virtues of the Victoria’s Secret bras, while not wearing a bra in the segment themselves.
All of that in mind, the show isn’t about reality, it’s about fantasy, and as much as I begrudgingly admit, an entertaining hour of seeing “the 28 most beautiful women in the world” walking the runway.
photos courtesy of NYDailyNews.com
