A team of designers, makeup artists, and engineers work for a whole year for 50 minutes of magic

As if it were the Super Bowl, the last week of november millions of people around the world stay together in front of the TV watching a group of girls that embodies the men’s idea of a real angel. Women with long legs, tiny waists, big boobs and doll faces, walking onthe biggest runway ever, wearing couture lingerie with happiness and charisma. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is a controversial show that have revolutionized the fashion industry for its impact in America’s economy, and also because it inspires to designers and maisons to put their creativity in another level. Behind all those feathers, wings, and sequins, there are a battalion of people who work thousands of hours the entire year to make this fashion show possible.

Behind all those feathers, wings, and sequins, there are a battalion of people who work thousands of hours the entire year to make this fashion show possible.

Like minions, costume designers and dressmakers have to translate the sketches sent by Victoria’s Secret IGNORE INTO fantasy outfits, doing a hard work of manufacture which they have to fitting several times with models and mannequins before the show begin.

“The process usually goes something like this. They will ask us over, early in this year, typically April even as early as March to show us the sketches, and  let us know what they want us  to built. Then we will have out first fitting in April, until it gets showtime, and through that time somethings will change; some things, maybe they might add something but, every month we have a fitting”, said Barak Stribling, costume designer who has work with VS for the past eight years.

Stribling does not hide his emotions about the final results of the design process and share with us his two thrill moments. “There are two moments that are especially gratifying when working the show. When you see the garment that you have made on the girl that it was meant to be on, there have been times when eight girls have tried on the same garment and it was like: she is not the one. That’s not it. And then the ninth one will try it on, and then you will go: that’s what it’s suppose to look like! And so that’s a real thrill.

“And the other thrill is actually watching them work the runway in the garment. That’s one thing that I love about the Victorias’s Secret Fashion Show. You get to see the girl; it is not just about the product, beacuse they don’t walk with a serious face down the runway. They have personalities, strengths and power. And you get to see every bit of it on the show”.

Once the outfits are ready, engineers have to challenge their imagination building a funtional stage that everybody loves at first sight. It should have as many lights as possible, good sound, comfortable seats and images moving to the music rhythm. All this work art have to be make in the country and the place where the organization wants. 

Behind the stage, a retinue of makeup artists should be prepared to highlight the supermodels’ beauty with the latest makeup trends, just in a few hours before the filming, dealing with the interruptions of journalists whom will be trying to get to interview supermodels like Alessandra Ambrosio or Adriana Lima.

All of these efforts for fifty minutes of magic.

Latin American Post | Carlo Mario Torres

Copy edited by Laura Rocha Rueda