The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2025 came back with everything a modern spectacle needs: supermodels, athletes, pop stars, famous front-row guests, a pink carpet bright enough to be seen from space, and enough sheer fabric to make a curtain store file for bankruptcy. Held live from New York City on October 15, 2025, the show leaned hard into the brand’s renewed fantasy: glamorous, playful, inclusive, sparkly, and proudly over-the-top.
But when the dress code basically whispers, “lingerie, but make it public,” things can go gloriously rightor hilariously sideways. The most successful looks understood the assignment: sensual, confident, polished, and styled with intention. The worst dressed looks at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2025, however, often confused “risqué” with “unfinished,” “bold” with “busy,” or “minimal” with “I got dressed during a fire drill.”
To be clear, this is fashion criticism, not body criticism. Everyone on that carpet looked confident, famous, and better lit than most of us will ever be in a lifetime. The issue is styling: fit, proportion, fabric, theme, construction, and whether the outfit made sense for one of the most photographed fashion events of the year.
Why the 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Was Built for Risk
The 2025 show arrived during a major rebrand moment for Victoria’s Secret. Adam Selman, named the brand’s executive creative director earlier in 2025, brought a more playful and modern point of view to the runway. The event also featured an all-female performance lineup including Missy Elliott, Karol G, Madison Beer, and TWICE, which helped position the evening as a pop-culture event rather than just a lingerie runway.
That context matters. A Victoria’s Secret pink carpet is not the Oscars, where a tasteful black gown can quietly collect applause and go home. It is a high-glamour, high-flash, high-risk environment. Sheer fabrics, lace, corsetry, cutouts, fringe, micro hems, visible lingerie, thigh-high slits, and “naked dress” styling are not automatically fashion crimes here. In fact, they are practically the house language.
The problem comes when the clothes do not have enough design intelligence to support the drama. A sheer dress needs structure. A cutout needs placement. A lingerie-inspired look needs polish. And a simple outfit needs one unforgettable detail, otherwise it vanishes into the carpet faster than a lip gloss in a tiny clutch.
The Worst Dressed Looks: When Risqué Became Risky
Sarah Jessica Parker: Chic, But Too Covered for the Chaos
Sarah Jessica Parker’s appearance was one of the night’s most talked-about moments because, well, she is Sarah Jessica Parker. The fashion icon wore a black Alexander Wang dress with a long Dolce & Gabbana coat and shoes from her own SJP Collection. On another carpet, this could have read as elegant, nostalgic, and quietly cool.
At the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, however, the look felt almost too restrained. The one-shoulder silhouette and black coat were polished, but the styling lacked the playful wink that the occasion demanded. It was not ugly. It was not disastrous. It was simply the fashion equivalent of bringing a hardcover novel to a foam party: respectable, but possibly confused about the venue.
Dascha Polanco: Sheer Drama With a Styling Problem
Dascha Polanco embraced the sheer trend in a black bodysuit-style outfit with a micro skirt and a trench coat. The idea had potential: lingerie-inspired, dark, dramatic, and very much in conversation with the evening’s mood. But the execution looked awkward in photos, especially because the top appeared uneven while she posed.
The trench coat also complicated the outfit. Instead of adding mystery, it made the look feel like two different concepts had been introduced at the same party and immediately started arguing by the snack table. With stronger tailoring or a more deliberate coat shape, the outfit could have felt editorial. As it appeared, it landed in the danger zone between daring and disorganized.
Jodie Turner-Smith: A Lot of Sparkle, Not Enough Harmony
Jodie Turner-Smith is one of those stars who can make almost anything look intentional. That is why her Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2025 look was so frustrating. She wore a glittery silver swimsuit-style piece under a dramatic jacket with a plunging neckline, flared cuffs, tassels, and embellishments.
The ingredients sounded right for the event: shimmer, skin, movement, glamour. But together, they created visual traffic. The silver one-piece competed with the jacket, the tassels competed with the shine, and the transparent heels did not add enough weight to balance the top half. It was bold, yes, but boldness needs editing. Otherwise, it becomes a group project where everyone used a different font.
Ayan Broomfield: Cutouts Without Enough Balance
Ayan Broomfield’s black cutout minidress was one of the more daring pink-carpet choices. The dress featured sheer fabric, an asymmetrical skirt, and beaded details placed across the upper body. It clearly aimed for sultry, sculptural, and fearless.
The issue was balance. When a look uses multiple high-impact elementssheer panels, cutouts, asymmetry, sparkle, a short front hem, long back panelsit needs one strong visual anchor. Without that anchor, the eye does not know where to land. The result felt more like a daring sketch than a finished look. A sleeker hairstyle, cleaner accessories, or a stronger underlayer might have pulled the concept together.
Amy Sedaris: Pink on Pink on Pink, Then Leopard
Amy Sedaris has always had a wonderfully eccentric style personality, so a quirky outfit from her is not exactly shocking. Still, her Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show look became one of the night’s most divisive because it mixed a bubblegum pink tiered top, a pastel tulle skirt, leopard-print shoes, and a rhinestone bag.
The problem was not the playfulness. In fact, playfulness belongs at this event. The problem was coordination. The pink top blended into the pink backdrop, the skirt created volume without much shape, and the leopard shoes felt like they wandered in from another outfit. It was campy, but not quite controlled camp. There is a difference between “delightfully chaotic” and “my closet sneezed.”
Patrick Schwarzenegger: Too Casual for the Pink Carpet
Patrick Schwarzenegger attended in an all-black look built around an oversized leather jacket, a black tank, loose trousers, and dress shoes. It was clean. It was safe. It was also a little too casual for a carpet where other guests were wearing sheer gowns, jeweled corsets, featherless wings, and enough sparkle to distract pilots.
The outfit was not bad in a real-world sense. Most people would look perfectly fine wearing it to dinner. But on the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show pink carpet, “perfectly fine” can become a problem. The event demanded fantasy, polish, or at least a sharper silhouette. This look gave “handsome man waiting outside a restaurant,” not “fashion show guest making headlines.”
Emira D’Spain: Costume Energy in Search of Couture
Emira D’Spain’s black-and-pink corset-inspired look leaned into a playful, lingerie-forward theme. That made sense for the venue. But the styling veered close to costume territory, especially with the contrast between the corset details, stockings, and ultra-themed color palette.
There is nothing wrong with a theatrical look at Victoria’s Secret. The brand practically invented the modern runway costume fantasy. The challenge is refinement. When lingerie-inspired styling looks too literal, it can lose its fashion edge. A more elevated fabric, unexpected jacket, or cleaner styling could have moved this from party costume to polished pink-carpet statement.
Christina Kirkman: Fishnet, Gems, and a Difficult Proportion
Christina Kirkman attended in a beige fishnet dress styled over black underwear. The look used gemstone-like details across the netting, which gave it a decorative texture. On paper, this fits the naked-dress trend that dominated many 2025 red carpets.
In practice, the contrast between the beige netting and black underlayer felt too stark. Naked dressing works best when the underpinnings are as carefully considered as the outer garment. Here, the styling made the dress feel more exposed than elegant. It needed either a more tonal foundation or a bolder full concept to make the sheerness feel luxurious rather than accidental.
Law Roach: Surprisingly Quiet From a Fashion Mastermind
Law Roach is one of the most influential stylists in celebrity fashion, so expectations were naturally high. His pale gray double-breasted suit was refined, but also surprisingly muted. The loose fit, soft color, sleek hair, and minimal makeup created a composed look, yet it lacked the memorable twist people associate with his fashion presence.
At a different event, this might have read as elegant restraint. At Victoria’s Secret, it felt underpowered. When the man known for creating fashion moments chooses quiet tailoring, the silence is louder than expected.
Karen Gillan: Sheer Black, But Not Quite Sharp Enough
Karen Gillan wore a semi-sheer black dress with a deep neckline, ruffled sleeves, a waist-tie detail, and a slit. The gothic-romantic idea was there, and the color worked beautifully with her red hair. Still, the dress had a loose, cover-up quality that made it feel less like a finished evening look and more like something thrown over a swimsuit at a dramatic beach club.
The top and bottom halves also seemed to belong to different fabric stories. The transparent upper section was airy, while the skirt looked heavier. The result was not terrible, but it lacked crispness. With sharper tailoring or a stronger shoe, the look could have gone from “moody nightgown” to “dark angel.”
Why Some Risqué Looks Worked While Others Missed
The best Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2025 looks understood that risqué fashion is not just about showing skin. It is about control. Jasmine Tookes opened the runway in a pearl-embellished slip that created a delicate illusion effect while still looking intentional. Candice Swanepoel’s bronze-winged look worked because the accessories elevated the lingerie rather than fighting it. Angel Reese’s floral set felt memorable because the appliqués gave the look a story. Karol G’s red catsuit and dramatic slit delivered performer-level glamour with clarity.
That is the secret formula: one strong idea, executed cleanly. The worst dressed looks often had either too many ideas or not enough. A sheer dress with weak underpinnings looks unfinished. A corset look without refinement looks like a costume. A simple black outfit without a signature detail feels too safe. A pile of embellishments without proportion looks messy, even if every individual piece is expensive.
The Biggest 2025 Pink-Carpet Trend: Naked Dressing
The 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show pink carpet confirmed that naked dressing is not going anywhere. Sheer dresses, visible lingerie, mesh, lace, fishnet, cutouts, and body-skimming silhouettes were everywhere. This trend has become a red-carpet staple because it photographs dramatically and fits the current fashion appetite for confidence, sensuality, and personal expression.
But the naked dress is deceptively difficult. It looks simple because there is less fabric, but it actually requires more precision. The lining, underwear, seams, shoes, posture, accessories, and lighting all matter. One wrong underlayer can turn an expensive dress into a laundry-day emergency. One awkward cutout can make a beautiful garment look like it lost a fight with scissors.
At Victoria’s Secret, the trend felt especially appropriate, but that also raised the bar. If the whole event is built around lingerie and fantasy, a sheer look has to do more than merely be sheer. It needs shape, attitude, and a reason to exist beyond “people will look.”
What the Worst Dressed List Teaches About Event Dressing
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2025 was a useful reminder that dressing for a theme does not mean wearing the most obvious version of that theme. Lingerie-inspired fashion can be elegant. Sheer can be sophisticated. Cutouts can be architectural. Pink can be powerful. But every bold choice needs styling discipline.
The guests who missed the mark usually fell into one of three traps. First, some went too literal, wearing lingerie-inspired outfits that looked more like costumes than fashion. Second, some went too casual, forgetting that a major fashion show carpet requires a little spectacle. Third, some went too cluttered, combining sparkle, fringe, lace, sheer panels, tassels, oversized layers, and dramatic shoes until the outfit started begging for a manager.
The strongest looks had confidence, but they also had editing. That is the part people forget. Fashion is not only about putting things on. Sometimes it is about taking one thing off before leaving the house.
Experience Notes: What It Feels Like to Judge a Victoria’s Secret Pink Carpet
Looking through the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2025 outfits is a strange experience because the normal rules of red-carpet dressing do not fully apply. At most celebrity events, a sheer dress is the shocking moment. At Victoria’s Secret, a sheer dress is basically business casual. That means the eye adjusts quickly. After the first few lace gowns, corsets, visible briefs, and crystal-covered bodysuits, the question changes from “Is this revealing?” to “Is this revealing in an interesting way?”
That is why some of the most risqué looks were not necessarily the worst. A bold outfit can work beautifully when it has a clear mood. The camera understands confidence, but it understands construction even better. When a garment fits properly, the wearer relaxes. When a sheer panel is placed with intention, the look feels expensive. When accessories support the outfit instead of screaming over it, the whole image becomes stronger.
The hardest looks to defend are the ones that seem unsure of themselves. You can feel it in the photos. A coat that does not belong with the dress. A shoe that disappears. A skirt that pulls focus for the wrong reason. A color that melts into the backdrop. A necklace trying to do the job of an entire bodice. These details may sound small, but on a pink carpet filled with professional photographers, they become enormous.
There is also a big difference between personal style and event strategy. Sarah Jessica Parker’s understated black look, for example, had personal charm and real wardrobe history. But event strategy asks another question: will this outfit communicate through a crowded gallery of images? In a lineup of glitter, mesh, fringe, and feathers, subtlety has to be razor-sharp. Otherwise, it reads as low energy.
The same applies to highly revealing looks. Skin is not styling. A cutout is not automatically a concept. A naked dress still needs a silhouette. The most successful risqué outfits make the viewer notice design before exposure. The least successful ones make the viewer notice the logistics: tape, fit, shifting fabric, awkward lining, or a hemline that looks nervous.
What makes this topic so fun is that “worst dressed” does not always mean boring. In fact, many of the questionable outfits were fascinating. Some were one adjustment away from great. Others were so committed to chaos that they became memorable anyway. And honestly, a fashion show carpet needs a little mess. If everyone looked perfectly tasteful, we would all be asleep by the second gallery slide.
The lesson from the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2025 is not “avoid risk.” It is the opposite. Take the risk, but give it structure. Wear the sheer dress, but choose the right underlayer. Try the corset, but elevate the fabric. Wear the oversized coat, but make sure it completes the story. Fashion should have a pulse. It should also have a mirror, a tailor, and one brutally honest friend standing by the door saying, “Maybe not those shoes.”
Conclusion: A Night of Wings, Wins, and Wardrobe Whiplash
The worst dressed at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2025 were not failures because they were risqué. They missed because the risk was not always supported by fit, styling, proportion, or concept. In a setting where lingerie-inspired fashion is expected, simply being sheer or revealing is not enough. The look has to feel finished.
Still, the night was exactly what a fashion spectacle should be: glamorous, debatable, funny, photogenic, and full of outfits people wanted to discuss immediately. Some stars delivered polished fantasy. Others delivered pink-carpet confusion. Either way, Victoria’s Secret got what every revived fashion show wants most: attention.
