Photo Credit: @VictoriaSecrets
I watched the 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show expecting the usual formula, famous models, giant wings, lingerie that looks more like a costume than something anyone is putting in a dresser and enough celebrity cameos to keep the clips moving across social media.
The show delivered all of that. But the two appearances I kept thinking about afterward belonged to soccer star Trinity Rodman and newly crowned Angel Solange Omon.
They did not wear the most complicated looks of the night, and they did not need to. What made their moments work was the way each woman changed the energy of the runway. Rodman arrived as an athlete with a style identity that already existed outside of Victoria’s Secret. Omon arrived as a newcomer whose first major runway was also the public beginning of her modeling career.
One woman was invited because people already knew her. The other earned her place through an open casting process. Together, they made a stronger case for the future of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show than another parade of familiar wings ever could.
Trinity Rodman Looked Like Herself
Rodman appeared during the PINK section, which was soundtracked by KATSEYE. She wore a cropped black tank with black boyshorts, metallic slingbacks and a silver PINK dog tucked under one arm.
On paper, this was one of the simplest outfits in the show. There was no elaborate corsetry, no towering wing structure and no attempt to disguise her as a traditional Angel. That simplicity was exactly why the look worked.
Rodman is known first as a forward for the Washington Spirit, and she walked the show one day after her team defeated Gotham FC. Her physicality was already part of what viewers brought to the moment. Putting her in a pared-back PINK look allowed her walk, confidence and personality to carry the clothes.
The silver dog could have tipped the outfit into gimmick territory, but it gave the otherwise plain black set the playful energy the PINK segment needed. The slingbacks added polish without making the styling feel disconnected from her. She looked like an athlete participating in fashion on her own terms rather than someone being forced into a version of glamour that belonged to somebody else.
I have said before that the best celebrity fashion still has to feel connected to the person wearing it. Rodman’s outfit was not the most inventive look on the runway, but it passed that test. You could see her inside it.
That matters because athletes are no longer fashion’s occasional guests. They are campaign stars, front-row fixtures and style references. Rodman’s appearance followed Angel Reese and Suni Lee walking in the 2025 show, but it did not feel like a repeat. Her personal style is louder, more experimental and less polished around the edges. Even in a relatively restrained outfit, that individuality came through.
Solange Omon Got the Fashion Moment
If Rodman brought familiarity to the runway, Omon brought possibility.
The 21-year-old Cameroon-born model won Victoria’s Secret’s nationwide Angels Among Us casting search after entering alongside thousands of applicants. Before this, she was studying in Maine and working with nonprofit programs that helped Black and immigrant teenagers find jobs, mentors and educational support. Her win also came with an exclusive modeling contract with IMG Models.
For her solo walk in the Autumn Changes segment, Omon wore black lingerie with sculptural gold wings and long metallic drapes connected to her fingers. The base consisted of the Envy Low-Cut Push-Up Bra with two lace-trim panties layered together, but the wings transformed it from retail product into runway image.
The best part was the movement. Every time Omon extended her arms, the gold fabric widened around her body and turned her silhouette into the focal point of the runway. The look had the familiar Victoria’s Secret drama, but it did not overwhelm her. The wings framed her entrance instead of swallowing it.
Giving Omon the runway to herself was also a smart production choice. A crowded finale would have reduced the announcement to another casting reveal. The solo walk gave viewers time to understand that they were watching a beginning.
Her selection does not suddenly make fashion’s gatekeeping disappear. An open casting call produced a docuseries, audience participation and months of content for the company. Victoria’s Secret benefited from packaging access as entertainment. Still, the result was meaningful: a young Black woman without an established modeling résumé received a major runway, an IMG contract and a level of visibility that can materially change a career.
Representation Means More When the Clothes Leave Room for the Person
Victoria’s Secret has spent years trying to prove that its definition of beauty has expanded. A broader cast is part of that work, but numbers alone cannot carry the argument. Casting feels meaningful when viewers can see different kinds of women occupying the runway without being flattened into the same fantasy.
That is why Rodman and Omon stood out.
Rodman’s styling made room for the body of an elite athlete and the personality of someone who already knows how she wants to be seen. Omon’s gold wings gave a newcomer the full visual language of an Angel without asking her to disappear beneath the spectacle.
Black women have always shaped the way fashion understands beauty, glamour and cultural relevance, even when the industry has been slow to acknowledge that influence. The important question is no longer whether a major runway can include Black women. It is whether those women receive memorable clothes, clear storytelling and opportunities that extend beyond one highly publicized night.
Omon’s IMG contract makes her win more substantial than a ceremonial sash. Rodman’s appearance builds on a larger shift in which women athletes are being recognized as fashion figures with influence beyond their sport. Those are different outcomes, but both have weight.
What the Show Still Needs to Prove
I do not think two strong casting moments should be mistaken for a completed transformation. Victoria’s Secret still relies heavily on nostalgia, celebrity visibility and the old mythology of becoming an Angel. The company has updated who gets invited into that mythology without completely questioning why the mythology remains so powerful.
The PINK section also leaned more toward a celebrity activation than a fully developed fashion statement. Rodman’s black set worked because of Rodman, not because the clothes introduced a particularly new idea. If the brand wants these crossover appearances to matter as fashion, the garments have to become as specific as the women wearing them.
Omon received the more complete fashion image. The gold wings, black foundation and solo staging created an entrance with shape, motion and narrative. Her look understood that introducing a new face requires more than putting her into the lineup. It requires giving the audience a reason to remember her.
That is the lesson I would keep from the 2026 show.
The most exciting moments were not about returning to the old Victoria’s Secret fantasy. They came from watching two women enter the spectacle without losing what made them interesting before they got there.
Rodman showed that a woman does not have to become an Angel to command that runway. Omon showed what can happen when the runway opens the door for someone we have not already seen everywhere.
For one night, the future of the show looked less like another pair of wings and more like who was finally being given room to wear them.
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