Even when stripping down to our lingerie, we used to be obsessed with unrealistic, bombshell beauty standards. Now, the Internet is deciding what sexy means.

Our favorite fashion brands often determine what clothes we wear. But they also determine what we wear underneath our clothes.
When we think about lingerie trends over the past couple decades, Victoria's Secret may come to mind. But Victoria&rsquo;s Secret wasn&rsquo;t just a lingerie brand. With its annual shows featuring musical performances by the year&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/artists-who-wrote-hit-songs-for-other-musicians" target="_blank" rel="noopener">chart-topping artists</a> and headline-worthy celebrity appearances both on and off the catwalk, the brand cultivated more than just a following for its bombshell <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/how-to-style-bra-tops-valentines-day-outfit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bras</a> and lingerie&mdash;it created a culture in shopping malls, celebrity wardrobes, and teen bedrooms all over America.
With its explosion in the 1990s and 2000s, Victoria's Secret came to define what sexy was in the modern age. The brand started and solidified some of the most famous models' careers, from <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/teen-fashion-trends-decades-90s-y2k-tiktok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&lsquo;90s</a> icons like <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/tyra-banks-top-model-sports-illustrated-age" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tyra Banks</a> and Heidi Klum to current household names like <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/elsa-hosk-street-style-instagram" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elsa Hosk</a> and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/adriana-lima-is-not-undressing-for-empty-causes-anymore" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adriana Lima</a> and more recently featuring superstars like <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/9-supermodels-who-almost-had-completely-different-careers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bella Hadid</a> and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/kendall-jenner-best-bikini-pictures" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kendall Jenner</a>, Victoria&rsquo;s Secret <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/victorias-secret-models-without-makeup-barbara-palvin-taylor-hill-elsa-hosk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Angels</a>&nbsp;became not only the face of the brand but the top paid supermodels of the year.&nbsp;

But Victoria&rsquo;s Secret and its spinoffs became notorious for the one-sided beauty it promoted. Leading up to the annual shows, VS models showed off their &ldquo;Train Like an Angel&rdquo; <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/things-we-learned-from-taylor-hill-instagram-model" target="_blank" rel="noopener">workout routines</a>. When asked about how he trains his Angel clients such as Nadine Leopold and Devon Windsor in 2017, celebrity trainer <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-body/news/train-like-an-angel-victorias-secret-model-workouts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephen Pasterino shared his method</a> &ldquo;to get rid of any unwanted jiggle while keeping everything lifted up and tight&rdquo; to &ldquo;create a proportionate feminine shape.&rdquo;

In 2018, as trends turned away from the conventional &ldquo;feminine shape,&rdquo; as Paterino called it, and towards increased diversity and inclusivity, Victoria&rsquo;s Secret was pushed to lift its limitations on beauty standards. But the lingerie giant came under fire when its chief marketing officer <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/victorias-secret-ed-razek-monica-mitro-interview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ed Razek was asked about casting different sizes and trans women</a>. &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t think we should,&rdquo; Razek replied, &ldquo;Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy.&rdquo;
The interview went viral, with Victoria&rsquo;s Secret releasing an apology. But the apology did little to save face, and the infamous annual VS Show was cancelled. Since, the brand has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/victorias-secret-rise-and-fall-history-2019-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on the decline</a>, attempting to expand its models but receiving more and more backlash as the world turns towards more accepting solutions.
So if we're leaving Victoria's Secret and the bombshell beauty standards behind in the 2010s, what's next for underwear and lingerie styles in the new decade? We can look to the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/15-beauty-brands-from-around-the-world-skincare-makeup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Internet</a>, which has been a big decider in the upcoming fashion and beauty trends. As new cultures are created online, lingerie brands that pride themselves on inclusivity and diversity have taken off, pushing aside Victoria&rsquo;s Secret conventional standards. Brands like body-positive <a href="https://yourparade.com/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=7405798490&amp;utm_content=parade&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwmIuDBhDXARIsAFITC_5BMeH-2kY7hg4bWg2qvKXdTgZe-KG3oqIMKxfMyFG26J-u-1FL5OsaAh2SEALw_wcB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Parade</a> established different norms from the get-go, including using recycled fabric, compostable packaging, and donating a percentage of its profits to Planned Parenthood. Its models don't showcase their strict training regimens like the Victoria's Secret Angels&mdash;instead, they are real people of different shapes and sizes, many of who are <a href="https://www.instagram.com/parade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media</a> stars rather than directly from the fashion industry. The brand also operates on drop system, where new colors and styles are released every two weeks, making it engaging for its digitally-native customer base. It's most recent launch is the <a href="https://yourparade.com/pages/cafe-parade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cafe Parade&nbsp;</a>collection that brings some sweetness to springtime.&nbsp;

But it's not only emerging names spearheading this lingerie revolution. Established brands like American Eagle subverted the conventional standards with their #AerieReal campaign, rejecting photoshop and using "real" people instead of models to showcase their intimate designs. <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/social-media-account-rihanna-runway-street-style-looks-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rihanna</a> has also made inclusivity a cornerstone of her lingerie line, which has given the VS Fashion Show a run for its money with the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/savage-x-fenty-show-rihanna-lizzo-normani" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Savage X Fenty fashion show</a> featuring an inclusive and star-studded cast. Like Parade, the brand carries sizes XS-3X and frequently drops new, exclusive collections.&nbsp;

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">The style of underwear itself has also changed. Whereas Victoria's Secret was known for its lacey, plunging designs, recent popular lingerie trends have favored more minimalist and comfortable styles. From <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/kim-kardashian-kanye-west-are-getting-divorced" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kim Kardashian</a>'s shapewear brand <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/kim-kardashian-assistant-paris-hilton-2000s-skims-instagram" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Skims</a> to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/megan-thee-stallion-jacob-elordi-calvin-klein-spring-summer-2021-campaign-instagram" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Calvin Klein</a>'s now iconic bralette and boyshorts, bras have gone wireless and underwear looks more like loungewear.&nbsp;

With more and more trends moving away from the conventional lingerie standards and towards more natural and minimalist solutions, maybe we need to redefine what we as a culture conceive as "sexy." Sexy lingerie doesn't have to be defined by unrealistic standards of beauty on glamorous runways or glitzy campaigns on our television screens or in photos we admired at the mall. It can be simple, comfortable, fun&mdash;and, most importantly, real.

Real is the New Sexy: How Victoria's Secret Got Replaced by Body-Positive Lingerie

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