8AM – The shoot timing for the Victoria’s Secret collection is in the late evening (after the sun goes down) so our days are long and we finish at 2am.
8:30AM – A quick (much needed) coffee and then our morning team touch-base to plot out the day. I am so grateful to Raul, Christoforos, and the rest of our stellar tailoring team.
9AM – Preparing Jill’s look for her fitting. Inspired by our signature Victoria’s Secret bling strap, the team developed an over-the-top encrusted shine collection utilizing a mix of eye-catching Swarovski Crystals.
11AM – Initial fitting with Jill for the under layer. The silhouette of her look was designed and embellished in New York, but with outer and inner layers so we could adjust when we saw it on her in person.
11:30am – Jill practices walking in her shoes. Our footwear was developed in partnership with the designers at luxury shoe brand Malone Souliers to mimic the boning of the traditional corsetry that weaves throughout the Victoria’s Secret couture collection.
12AM – The team pulls out Candice Swanepoel’s look in preparation for her fitting. This corseted strapless mini dress features a balconette cup shape, with a fitted bodice and a full, sheer tulle caged skirt. The complex boning structure to support the caged skirt took many trials to perfect, with over 40 hours going into draping, patterning, and sewing to archive this refined shape. In total, this piece took over 95 hours of work!
12:30AM – We had the luxury of doing a fitting on Candice in New York prior to arriving in Barcelona so her look fits like a glove. As always she brightens everyone’s mood with her enthusiasm and is excited to be back “on the runway” for VS.
1PM – Our Master Tailor Raul Zevallos has worked with Victoria’s Secret since 1998, and has known Candice since she was very first with the brand, so it was a lovely reunion – and he shared old Victoria’s Secret BTS photos and stories from back in the day.
2:15PM – First fitting for Candice Huffine. Her look is based on the shape of our new ICON bodysuit with the same custom-lift technology as the original style. This one got a couture fabric makeover by the VS design team who developed the iconic monogram embroidery on silk organza base in partnership with Swiss luxury embroidery house Forster Rohner & Jakob Schlaepfer.
3PM – Jill is back for her re-fitting—we are getting closer on this dress.
3:30PM – Our designer Caitlin prepares Valentina’s look for her first fitting. This expertly constructed inner corsetry ensures the perfect fit for this look.
4PM – Another Forster Rohner & Jakob Schlaepfer fabric collaboration was to reimagine the iconic Ziggy floral motif as a one-of-a-kind, gold lamé embroidery. The scale was increased to add a dramatic flair to the intricate floral pattern, which is an artisanal, couture version of the gilded Ziggy featured in our upcoming Holiday ‘23 collection.
5PM – Valentina’s first fitting is a success, the style is based on the classic corset from our VS Archives, with a beautiful scoop neckline. Various sizes of hand-cut 3D gold floral motifs were meticulously applied by hand along the neckline and outer edges of the center sheer panel, adorning and shaping the body.
6PM – The clock is ticking for us to make the final adjustments on the looks before the models head to set. The Atelier gets to work on attaching Jill’s Swarovski Crystal over-layer to the base of the dress.
7PM – All hands on deck for the final dress construction.
7:30PM – With the dress fully attached we spend the remaining hours adding more Swarovski Crystals in various shapes and sizes (over 6,000 of them!). The team continuously adds until the last possible minute to ensure maximum sparkle. The crystal application took over 23 hours, with the seam allowances finished by hand.
9PM – Finally finished, just in time for last looks!