The pro-cellulite brigade thundered down the runway and ruined Victoria's Secret... here's what ordinary women really think of the brand's reboot: CAROLINE BULLOCK

Making her 'angel' debut at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at Sony Studios in Culver City, California, Kylie Jenner had the honor of wearing the coveted fantasy bra, which in lingerie terms is the military equivalent of the Medal of Honor.

For some it seemed undeserved.

'Alessandra Ambrosio waited 15 years to get her first bra, THE ADRIANA LIMA 9 years,' boomed one indignant user on Threads, 'the Candice [Swanepoel] 7 years. It's like wearing the ultimate crown that made you AN ICON … so yeah, I'm mad.'

Calm down dear.

Yes, Jenner is no supermodel. And yes, the enhanced, pneumatic reality show alumni can still make a $50 million bra featuring 4,409 diamonds look cheap but that's not the issue here.

Cheered on by squeeze Timothee Chalamet and Momager Kris Jenner, the woman with the fifth most followed Instagram account on the planet is still a smart pick for a brand needing to bring sexy back. Fast.

Even the Angels can do that math, even though they may not have liked it.

The veteran models backstage, like Swanepoel and Elsa Hosk, 'are too smart to say anything, they know how the fame game works and they knew Kylie would get buzz [for the brand]. But look at their faces, they didn't seem happy at all,' a source told the Daily Mail.

You see it's no secret that the undies hawker had lost its way and is still on the comeback trail after a misfiring woke makeover in 2021 that resulted in public ennui and tanking sales.

Perhaps it was all inevitable. Peddling sex and fantasy with its peerless parade of glamazons for nearly two decades, the brand was always ripe for pushback from the body positivity brigade at some point.

Things really imploded in the wake of #MeToo and a rising tide of progressivism. Hypersexuality was labelled regressive and thin models were cast as dangerous role models.

In a 2018 interview with Vogue, chief marketing officer of Victoria's Secret, Ed Razek, really stepped in it when asked about featuring ordinary models in flagship runway show.

'Does the brand think about diversity? Yes. Do we offer larger sizes? Yes... Shouldn't you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don't think we should,' he said. 'The show is a fantasy. It's a 42-minute entertainment special. That's what it is. It is the only one of its kind in the world.'

Razek later apologized for 'insensitivity.' He retired less than a year later, after Victoria's Secret hired its first transgender model, 22-year-old Valentina Sampaio.

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was officially cancelled in November 2019.

In short, the stage was set for change, and the brand appeared to go full throttle, more bandwagon than bombshell. The original 'Angels' were 'rested' and replaced with the VS Collective – a group of activists, athletes and diverse spokesmodels or rather tokenistic box ticks.

There was a Puerto Rican model with Down syndrome named Sofía Jirau who was loftily billed 'as a major moment in the brand's evolution' and pleased-with-herself-soccer bore Megan Rapinoe, who modelled in a wife beater grey tank and matching set of boring grey undies like a bad rip off of a Calvin Klein advert.

Oh, and they couldn't forget the harassed, busy mom – because guess what? They deserve decent underwear too. Cue a particularly uninspired Mother's Day advert featuring plus-size Ashley Graham and her kids.

Ok, so it wasn't all bad. Product evolution such as a mastectomy range as well as innovations to better cater for those with disabilities can only be applauded. But it was the sanctimonious side show of mum tums and initiatives from rent-an-activist Priyanka Chopra Jonas that grated.

It was all so worthy until the tills stopped ringing and revenue dropped from $7.5 billion in 2020 down to $6.2 billion by 2023 and much of it was swiftly parked anyway.

All of which exposes an interesting paradox. Those who carped most about Victoria Secret's reliance on slim models wrongly assumed that everyone wants and needs to see something different – the great 'relatability myth.' Yet it isn't always the case.

As with the 'fantasy bra'… the clue is in the name. It's not a reality bra that has gone grey from too many washes and covers up the stretch marks and sag.

In truth, the VS Collective pushed a patronizing fallacy levelled at some imagined female consumer, who is so insecure, jealous and wrecked with low self-esteem that she can only buy into brands modelled on women with cellulite thundering down the runway.

The rise of Victoria's Secret was rooted in the unashamed celebration of otherworldly physical perfection. It made big stars of the likes of Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum and Adriana Lima and arguably filled the void left by the original 90s supermodels – who, incidentally, were a cultural phenomenon because of their perfection, pure and simple.

This week's show proved the brand is unapologetically back to its bombshell best.

The original glamazons strutted by in their stilettos, their wings no longer clipped by the excess wokery. Hallelujah.

And yes, there were some curvier shapes in the mix courtesy of Ashley Graham and Megan Thee Stallion. And, yes, transgender model Alex Consani walked the runway.

But in truth, they weren't the stars.

It's a reminder that not everything – least of all a push-up, padded bra – needed to come with platitudes and an agenda.

This time the stage was set simply for aspiration rather than advocacy and was all the better for it.

Somewhere Ed Razek is smiling.