Romee Strijd was left out of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show cast for the Los Angeles show scheduled for this weekend, a move that adds fresh casting drama to a show still trying to define what it is now. The decision lands at a moment when the event is again a live talking point, not just a memory from the brand’s peak years.
For readers looking up Strijd now, the reason is simple: this is the show’s latest round of scrutiny, and her name sits right at the center of it. She became a star in part through vlogs about her adventures as a VS angel, and she came to symbolize the 2010s version of the Victoria’s Secret look, so her absence is hard to miss.
That matters because Victoria’s Secret once generated the kind of casting conversation that could dominate fashion chatter, with attention fixed on which model would wear the fantasy bra and which new face would get cast. The annual show returned in 2024 after a six-year hiatus, with Tyra Banks back as a closer, but the brand is still trying to recover the cultural force it once had.
The contrast is what makes this casting news land so sharply. Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid were cast in their first VS show in 2015, a period when the brand was still on top of the fashion conversation. Since then, the label’s relevance waned as discussions shifted toward inclusivity and body positivity, and that change now frames every decision about who makes the cut.
That is also why Strijd’s absence feels more pointed than routine. She represents the kind of model the brand used to make famous, yet she was not selected for this weekend’s show in Los Angeles. The unanswered question is not whether the casting mattered, but what kind of Victoria’s Secret the company wants to present now that one of its most recognizable faces has been left out.
