Bella Hadid's Victoria's Secret Return Follows Her Earlier Concerns and Later Praise for Reforms

Bella Hadid walked in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Los Angeles on Sunday, 18 October 2026. She had appeared in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2024 and 2025, making this another outing rather than her first return since 2018.

The show was staged at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, Reuters reported. Victoria's Secret paused the annual event after 2018 and brought it back in 2024.

Hadid's place in the 2026 line-up therefore sits within the show's revival, not a solo comeback after a six-year absence.

Bella Hadid's Victoria's Secret Show History

Hadid made her runway debut for the lingerie brand in 2016, walking again in 2017 and 2018. The show then went on hiatus before returning in 2024, when Hadid appeared alongside her sister Gigi. She walked again in 2025 and joined this year's line-up.

That sequence is worth getting right. The latest appearance was another step in Hadid's relationship with the brand, which she has described as complicated.

It also took place against the backdrop of past allegations concerning a senior company executive, claims that require careful attribution.

In 2020, The New York Times reported allegations of misconduct involving Ed Razek, then a senior executive at L Brands, Victoria's Secret's parent company at the time.

The report included an allegation that Razek made lewd comments about Hadid during a fitting for the 2018 show. Hadid had not publicly commented on that reported incident at the time, according to Teen Vogue's account of the reporting.

Razek denied the allegations in a statement to The New York Times, calling them 'categorically untrue, misconstrued or taken out of context'. The claims were allegations, not findings by a court. The distinction matters in a story involving a named person and serious claims.

What Bella Hadid Said About Victoria's Secret Changes

Hadid's comments about modelling lingerie also need context. In 2019, she said she had not felt powerful modelling in underwear on a runway. The remark was not framed as a criticism of Victoria's Secret alone, as her later interview with Marie Claire made clear.

By 2021, Hadid had agreed to work with the brand as part of its VS Collective. The group was presented as ambassadors rather than Angels, intended to champion the brand and its diversity mission.

She told Marie Claire the decision had been difficult. Hadid said it took almost a year and a half to agree to meet company representatives.

Their presentation, she said, covered body diversity, broader representation and new photoshoot protocols. Hadid said what drew her back was the company showing her that 'behind the scenes, Victoria's Secret has changed so drastically.'

She also said six of the brand's seven board members were women at the time. Those comments recorded her impression of what executives presented to her, not an independent audit of company policy.

Hadid said model contracts gave workers more control over what they were comfortable doing. 'I feel empowered in lingerie, instead of feeling like my body is some sort of money maker,' she told the magazine.

That was her assessment in 2021. It does not establish that every past concern was resolved or that the same practices remain in place today.

Victoria's Secret also outlined its stated aim in a comment to Marie Claire. Raul Martinez, then the company's executive vice-president and head creative director, said it wanted women working with the brand to feel 'safe, supported, and comfortable'. He added that their voices should be heard.

Reuters described the 2026 runway as a seasonal procession of flower-petal, snowflake and metallic wings. The show's creative director said the presentation moved through the seasons, with a second winter segment.