Age 32 seems to be too early for retirement in most professions. But in 2005, that was the age at which Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show model Tyra Banks finally took off her angel wings. She shifted her focus to her budding television career, she said. If she hadn’t been one of the oldest models in the catwalk cast at the time, new priorities could have been the only reason for her departure.

But we now know what was going on behind the scenes at the lingerie giant in the early 2000s and what reasons could be behind 32 somehow becoming too “old” for the catwalk. Before Victoria’s Secret canceled its annual fashion show in 2019 — a spectacle known for over-the-top clothing and outfits so skimpy they barely qualified as lingerie — “sexy” had a narrow definition and an expiration date. (At least in terms of who might model; the brand makes no distinction regarding the age of its buyers.) Catwalk casting glorified youth and thinness, sometimes at the expense of models’ physical and mental health; Many of the breakout models were only 18 years old when they first showed. Every leg was toned and every stomach was flat – this was no place for curves. So a woman in her 40s or 50s with visible stretch marks and wrinkles who goes wrong? At the height of the brand’s power, no one could have imagined this.

But that was back then. On October 15, the 2024 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show returned with the promise that the brand had changed, and with it its faces. The breakout stars? The first curve models (like Ashley Graham, Devyn Garcia and Paloma Elsesser), trans models (like Valentina Sampaio) and models in their 40s and 50s to walk the catwalk. Also a reunion with stars from the brand’s previous class, who looked more confident than ever in middle age.

Designers across the fashion world have been casting middle-aged models for their shows for years, albeit occasionally: just look at Batsheva Hay, whose fall 2024 runway was populated by women over 40, or the entire program at Copenhagen Fashion Week, where Women with graying hair and non-Botoxed skin are the norm. Still, for a brand with the history of Victoria’s Secret, having 15 percent of the models on the runway over 40 looks like progress.

On the silver, pink-lit stands of the Brooklyn Navy Yard stage, the biggest cheers came from the stands as returnees like Alessandra Ambrosio, 41, Adriana Lima, 43, Isabeli Fontana, 41, and Eva Herzigová, 51, walked down the runway strutted. They were also still given the freedom to express their sensuality in lace push-up bras and completely see-through lace dresses.

These women are obviously not representative of the average woman in her 40s or 50s; Because of all the model checks they’ve accumulated over the years, they have access to treatments, products, and trainers that mere mortals don’t have. Overall they were all straight or medium height. Imperfect as it was, her portrayal still made a long-overdue point: that the desire to feel desired or sexy doesn’t end at 25 or 30.