Few costumes in fashion carry as much built-in recognition as the Victoria's Secret wings, which makes redesigning them for a new era a job with very little room for error. Designer Adam Selman, known for maximalist, texture-heavy work that treats clothing as spectacle as much as garment, took on that job for the brand's 2026 show, and his approach leaned less toward reinvention than toward amplification.
The wings themselves remain the throughline, oversized and feathered in the way audiences expect, but the pieces built around them this season push further into embellishment than in past years. Crystal-covered bras with fringe detailing, delicate chain and stone accents at the wrist, and sheer layered skirts all work together to make the wings feel like the centerpiece of a full look rather than an accessory bolted onto a more basic outfit.
Updating an icon without erasing it
That balance, familiar but elevated, is the trickiest needle to thread when a costume has this much cultural weight attached to it. Change too much and it stops being the thing people recognize; change too little and the show reads as nostalgia rather than a current fashion moment. Selman's version of the wings leans toward craftsmanship as the update, keeping the silhouette intact while raising the level of detail and material quality noticeably higher than earlier iterations of the costume.