If there’s anyone who knows what it takes to walk as an angel, it’s Gigi Hadid — and this week she used that authority to shut down the critics. Days after the 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show lit up Los Angeles on October 18, Hadid took to Threads with a fierce, full-throated defense of fellow model Elsa Hosk, whose runway walk had drawn snide comparisons to Gisele Bündchen’s. Hadid was not having it.
“This really [pissing me off],” the 31-year-old began. “Elsa slayed this.”
The criticism had started when a viewer posted a clip of Hosk’s finale walk down the show’s mirrored runway — sheathed in a sheer bodysuit, towering golden wings spreading nearly the full width of the catwalk, balancing in gold stilettos — with a caption imagining how Bündchen would have handled it. Hadid, who also walked in this year’s show, responded like a woman who has carried the wings herself. She called herself the “biggest fan” of the OG Angels, including Bündchen, who walked her last Victoria’s Secret show in 2006. But, she argued, the scale of the 2026 production is “not comparable to the OG shows.”
(GabboT / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0))The Weight of the Wings
Hadid then laid out the physics the critics were ignoring. “It’s a looong walk in the wings these days ++ they can be 75-plus lbs. 10-plus feet tall, sometimes animatronic,” she wrote. “The wings are getting bigger bc the viewers love it & they’re MAJOR but NOT aerodynamic, then add the gust of runway fans!! It takes 3 men to take these wings off of us. Elsa is stunning, strong, & carried these like a boss. Y’all have no clue.”
She’s not exaggerating about the hardware. According to the brand’s behind-the-scenes breakdown, Hosk’s wings were the biggest of the entire show: 70 inches high, built on a full metal structure that was welded together, then covered with individual feathers of fabric. Hosk herself underscored the effort on Instagram after the show, writing that it took “THREE men” to carry the wings and fasten them to her back — “Let that sink in.”
(YantsImages / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0))A Veteran Being Judged Like a Rookie
What stung Hadid — and many of Hosk’s defenders — is that the 37-year-old is no newcomer. Hosk made her Victoria’s Secret debut in 2011 and was the last model to wear the iconic Fantasy Bra, in 2018, before its return this year. She walked this show as a mother of two, having welcomed her second child, daughter Flora Blue, just months earlier in July. The casting of returning mothers was one of the show’s quiet triumphs; the online pile-on was its ugliest footnote.
The backstage reality, as any model will tell you, is that a fitting for couture wings is closer to an engineering test than a dress rehearsal. The corsetry of the bodysuit, the embellished detailing, the headpiece — every element has to be balanced against wings that can catch a gust from the runway fans and throw a walk off entirely. Judging that from a phone screen, Hadid’s post argued, is its own kind of cluelessness.
(GabboT / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0))Hosk wasn’t the only model facing scrutiny — Jasmine Tookes, who wore some of the heaviest wings of the night, also pushed back after a clip of her walk went viral, noting viewers had caught her near the end of a grueling pass. And the wing-weight conversation is now a show tradition: last year, Bella Hadid revealed her own wings had weighed 50 pounds.
Hadid’s defense landed because it came from inside the experience. She didn’t just praise her friend; she translated the job for everyone watching at home — the weight, the wind, the sheer athleticism of carrying 70 inches of welded metal down a mirrored runway in heels. “Elsa slayed this” wasn’t hype. It was a technical assessment. And on that, the woman who wore the wings should know.
The Runway Responds
Hadid’s defense didn’t land in a vacuum — it landed in a week where the models themselves were already speaking up. Hosk had posted her own account first: an Instagram Story noting it took three men to carry her wings and fasten them to her back, adding “Let that sink in.” Jasmine Tookes, who wore some of the heaviest wings of the 2026 show, pushed back separately after a clip of her walk went viral, pointing out that viewers had caught her near the exhausted end of a grueling pass. The message from inside the show was consistent: judge the walk, but understand the job.
What made Hadid’s intervention cut through was its specificity. She didn’t deal in vague empowerment; she dealt in numbers — 75-plus pounds, 10-plus feet, three men to remove the wings — and in craft, explaining that the wings are “MAJOR but NOT aerodynamic” before the runway fans even enter the equation. It was a masterclass in advocacy from someone with nothing to gain: Hadid had already walked, already been photographed, already secured her moment. She spent her capital on a colleague. In an industry built on competition, that kind of solidarity is rarer than any Fantasy Bra.