Valentina Sampaio on Making Victoria's Secret Fashion Show History

[Jessica_Rose]

Valentina Sampaio on Making Victoria's Secret Fashion Show History

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/valentina-sampaio-on-making-victoria-s-secret-fashion-show-history/ar-AA1skJrf?ocid=windirect&cvid=1291c5d34980438da21a775ec5be2df8&ei=17

Story by Halie LeSavage (16 Oct 2024)

The 2024 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show now promises new faces and a mission: to "reflect who we are today." Size-inclusive fashion is a reported priority; so is identity, represented in a 2024 vanguard, including Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio. She began modeling for the off-shoot brand Pink in 2019—and, in the process, became the first transgender woman to appear in a Victoria's Secret campaign. Five years later, she's getting ready to make history again as one of the first transgender women to model in the label's official fashion show alongside Alex Cosani.

Growing up, like many other models-in-training, Sampaio fantasized about pulling on her Angel wings and hitting the glittery catwalk. She faced discrimination at the start of her career in 2014 but persevered; she walked her first runway at São Paolo Fashion Week in 2016, went on to become a L'Oréal ambassador, and eventually wrote history as the first transgender woman on the covers of major magazines from Vogue Paris (in 2017) to Sports Illustrated (in 2020). Victoria's Secret was still exclusionary when her career started and shut down its runway by the time she really got going. Still, Sampaio kept dreaming of walking for the brand one day: "Even if the people told me that it would be impossible, I knew inside my heart that I was going to be a part of it," she says.