With the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show just days away from its Los Angeles runway, a casting controversy is threatening to overshadow the event itself. Former Angel Romee Strijd took to TikTok in tears, revealing that she trained all summer for a comeback, flew to New York for her casting in September, and then heard nothing for five weeks only to be told she “wasn’t right for this year’s show.”
What stung most, she said, was not the rejection itself. “Rejection is part of modeling, and that’s completely fine,” Strijd said in the video. “What I don’t feel is that I was supported by my agency. I couldn’t get a straight answer. Just be honest with me and I can move on.” The 31-year-old Dutch model walked the show five consecutive years from 2014 to 2018 and was officially contracted as an Angel in 2015. After welcoming two daughters, she had viewed this return as a new chapter in her career. She has now declared the relationship a “closed chapter” and said she will not participate in future Victoria’s Secret castings.
The fallout has spread beyond one model. Norwegian model Frida Aasen commented under Strijd’s video confirming she also auditioned and was rejected, calling the situation “awful.” Multiple outlets report that veterans including Lais Ribeiro are also absent from this year’s final lineup. Meanwhile, fans have directed their anger at what they see as a shift in the brand’s casting logic: this year’s roster mixes returning veterans like Adriana Lima and Candice Swanepoel with names such as Gigi Hadid, Ashley Graham, and Alex Consani but critics are openly asking whether social media reach is now replacing runway professionalism. “They’d rather have influencers than actual Angels,” one widely shared comment read, with some fans calling for a boycott of the October 18 broadcast.
Victoria’s Secret responded by emphasizing that “Romee holds an important place in the brand” and attributing the confusion to matters it “cannot comment on regarding conversations between talent and their agencies.” But for a brand that built its identity on the promise of the Angel, the contrast is stark: a five-year veteran’s farewell delivered through a tearful TikTok, met by an official statement insisting all protocols were followed. The episode raises a question Victoria’s Secret has yet to answer on its comeback trail when nostalgia anFad viral fame are both on the casting table, who earns a place on that runway, and does the brand owe the women who once carried its wings at least an honest answer?
