Jasmine Tookes opened the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on 15/10/2025 in a moment that fused spectacle with quiet defiance, walking the runway at nine months' gestation while cradling her baby bump.
The appearance was both a personal milestone for Tookes, who announced her second pregnancy in July, and an emblematic moment for an event trying to recast itself in a more inclusive, contemporary light.
Photographs, the brand's livestream and Tookes' own social media captured a single, repeatable image, a long-time Angel moving through an arena of flashbulbs with maternal calm and runway poise.
Opening Act: The Runway Moment and the Visuals
Tookes, 34, stepped out at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn in a gold, netted one-piece layered over classic lingerie, paired with a sculptural seashell cape that read as a reworking of the brand's traditional wings. She paused mid-walk to cradle her bump, producing one of the night's most viral frames and prompting a swell of social-media praise.
Victoria's Secret streamed the show across its Instagram and YouTube channels, as well as on Prime Video, making Tookes' opening visible to millions in real-time; the brand's official coverage amplified the choreography and staging around her entrance.
The live feed and short clips subsequently populated Instagram reels and TikTok, establishing the image as both an editorial and popular culture moment.
Tookes' Pregnancy, Career and Public Voice
Tookes revealed her second pregnancy in a Vogue profile earlier this year, describing the news as planned yet emotionally complex and discussing how she had balanced severe first-trimester sickness with launching a new skincare line.
In that interview, she reflected on body changes and the need for self-compassion during pregnancy, remarks that now resonate with the optics of her runway return.
The model and former Angel, who first walked for Victoria's Secret in 2012 and was officially named an Angel in 2015, has cultivated a private publicness around family life; she and husband Juan David Borrero are already parents to daughter Mia Victoria, born in February 2023. Tookes confirmed via social posts during the week of the show that she is expecting a boy.
Industry, Representation and Backlash
Victoria's Secret has spent the past two years attempting to remake its image after criticism about exclusion and dated ideals. Casting Tookes as the show opener while she carried a visible pregnancy read as a deliberate signalling: that the brand intends to blend its legacy theatrically with broader representations of womanhood.
Commentators across fashion pages hailed the move as progressive, while others noted the ongoing tension between spectacle and substantive institutional reform.
Nonetheless, the moment also sparked debate online about whether symbolic gestures suffice without deeper structural change in an industry that still faces scrutiny over pay, maternity protections, and how pregnancy and motherhood are treated in modelling contracts.
Observers asked whether this was a genuine shift in practice or a high-profile image designed for virality — a question that will shape how the industry reads Tookes' walk in months to come.
Historically, pregnant models have rarely been centre stage at major commercial fashion spectacles; Tookes' opening, therefore, marks an important visual precedent. If the industry embraces this moment as more than a one-off, it could encourage brands to normalise pregnancy in advertising, runway casting, and corporate policy.
For Tookes, the walk is also likely to reshape her public narrative from Angel to emblem: a figure balancing family, entrepreneurship, and visibility on a global stage.
