Victoria’s Secret Just Brought Back the Fantasy Bra After 8 Years, and the $22 Million Center Diamond Is Stopping Everyone in Their Tracks

It is the biggest night in fashion television, and tonight it belongs to Los Angeles. The 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show takes over Sony Pictures Studios on Sunday, October 18, streaming live around the world for free, and the brand has saved its loudest surprise for last: the Fantasy Bra is officially back after eight years away, this time carrying a center diamond reportedly worth $22 million.

Yes, you read that number right. According to Cosmopolitan’s reporting on the piece, Jacob & Co.’s founder set out to build “the most expensive bra ever made,” and the center stone alone would already shatter every Fantasy Bra record in the brand’s history.

Here is everything we know about the show before the runway lights come up.

The $22 Million Fantasy Bra Returns After Eight Years

The last time a Fantasy Bra appeared on the Victoria’s Secret runway, the year was 2018 and Swedish model Elsa Hosk wore a $1 million design built from more than 2,100 Swarovski diamonds. Since then the tradition has sat quietly on the shelf while the brand reinvented itself. That ends tonight.

Victoria’s Secret confirmed the comeback on October 15, announcing a partnership with luxury jeweler Jacob & Co. to design the 2026 piece. Founder Jacob Arabo, the man behind some of the most outrageous celebrity jewelry on the planet, told the brand he wanted to create the most expensive Fantasy Bra ever made, but that value alone was never enough. For him, he said, it had to be about the diamonds, the light, and the movement.

The design uses the jeweler’s signature Angel-Cut diamonds, with stones hanging all the way around the piece, and it was built to catch the light with every step the model takes. The official price of the full bra has not been disclosed, and the identity of the model who gets to wear it is being kept secret until the live show. But the center diamond alone has been reported at $22 million, which would comfortably beat the previous record: the $15 million Red Hot Fantasy Bra worn by Gisele Bundchen in 2000, a piece that only ever appeared in the brand’s catalog since the runway tradition began in 2001.

“It had to be about the diamonds, the light, and the movement,” Arabo said in a statement, “and what matters most is the emotion it creates when you see it come to life on the runway.”

Victoria’s Secret chief creative officer Adam Selman said the choice of designer was deliberate. He has been a fan of Arabo’s work for a long time, he said, and Jacob understands that a Fantasy Bra has to be spectacular while still designing for the actual person wearing it.

The Fantasy Bra dates all the way back to 1996, when Claudia Schiffer modeled the very first version. Over the decades it became the show’s crown jewel, worn by icons like Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum and Adriana Lima. In 2014, Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio even shared the honor with separate Fantasy Bras. Tonight, one model joins that very short list, and nobody outside the brand knows who it is yet.

Who Is Walking the Runway Tonight

The 2026 cast reads like a love letter to every era of the brand. The returning Angels include Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Candice Swanepoel, Barbara Palvin, Jasmine Tookes, Elsa Hosk, Grace Elizabeth and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. That is the kind of lineup that would have broken the internet in any single decade, and they are all walking the same runway tonight.

They are joined by veteran Victoria’s Secret models Gigi Hadid, who is making her sixth pink carpet appearance according to E! News, plus Joan Smalls, Imaan Hammam, Liu Wen and Cindy Bruna. The new generation gets its moment too, with Paloma Elsesser, Alex Consani, Abby Champion, Ashley Graham, Anok Yai, Precious Lee and Amelia Gray all confirmed.

The show has been building toward this night for months. When the 2026 edition was announced back in July, the big reveal was the venue: after two straight years in New York, the show is returning to Los Angeles for the first time in 19 years. Selman told People he wanted this year to be bigger and bolder than last year, and they simply could not find a space in New York that could hold everything they had planned. He has dubbed the 2026 production “Fandemonium,” a concept meant to explore a different side of Americana and the idea of the American dream.

The All-Women Music Lineup

For the third year in a row, the musical guests are an all-women lineup, and this year’s bill crosses genres in a way the show has never tried before. Megan Thee Stallion brings the hip-hop firepower, Tate McRae brings pop star precision and dance, country breakout Megan Moroney brings Nashville, and global pop group KATSEYE rounds out the international flavor.

It continues a tradition of major musical moments on this runway. Taylor Swift performed at the show in 2013 and 2014, Rihanna owned it in 2012 and 2015, and last year’s edition featured Karol G, TWICE, Missy Elliott and Madison Beer.

How to Watch the 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Live

Victoria’s Secret has made this the most accessible edition of the show yet. The Pink Carpet pre-show, hosted by Scott Evans and Zanna Roberts Rassi, streams at 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET), followed by the main runway presentation at 4:30 p.m. PT (7:30 p.m. ET). Both stream live and free on the brand’s official YouTube channel, as well as Instagram and TikTok.

And for the first time ever, fans can also watch the big show on the big screen: the event plays live in 10 select AMC theaters across the United States, with photo ops and exclusive backstage merch for ticket holders.

A New Angel Gets Crowned Tonight

There is one more reason to watch every minute. The winner of “Angels Among Us,” the docuseries that followed an open casting search with more than 100,000 entrants, will be revealed during the show and will debut on the runway as Victoria’s Secret’s newest Angel, complete with an IMG Models contract.

Fashion watchers have called the show’s comeback one of the smartest reinventions in recent memory. After the brand canceled the runway show in 2019 amid criticism that it was stuck in another era, it returned in 2024 with new leadership, new models and a more inclusive point of view. Tonight’s edition, with its record-breaking Fantasy Bra, its cross-generational cast and its all-women music lineup, is the clearest signal yet that the wings are fully back.

The lights go up at 4:30 p.m. PT tonight, and all eyes will be on the pink carpet, the wings, and above all that $22 million sparkle.

For more red carpet moments, see our coverage of the 2026 Academy Museum Gala and the InStyle Imagemaker Awards 2026, plus Kendall Jenner’s Kardashians confessions.