Adriana Lima returned to the Victoria's Secret catwalk in 2024 after hanging up her Angel wings in 2018. The move put her back inside a runway history that began in 1999, when she first debuted at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at 18 years old.
That comeback landed after 20 walks down the Victoria's Secret runway and five separate openings of the show. She opened it in 2012, two months after giving birth to her second child, a detail that still separates her from most legacy runway names: the career arc is not just long, it is durable under pressure.
1999 to 2000
Lima's first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show appearance came in 1999, and she became an official Victoria's Secret Angel in 2000. The timing matters because it places her rise inside the brand's most visible era, when a model could become as closely identified with the label as with the runway itself.
By the time she reached her third Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2001, her place in the lineup was already established. A baby pink silk corset with ruched edging and matching panties was part of that early run, along with sleek, straightened hair and an exaggerated side part.
Five openings, one return
Lima opened the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show five different times, more than most of the brand's models ever did. She wore that responsibility again in 2012, then returned to the catwalk in 2024 after the 2018 exit that ended her Angel run.
Her career also stretched beyond the runway. At the peak of her modeling career, she was the second-highest paid supermodel in the world, second only to Gisele Bündchen, and her net worth reportedly reached $9 million. Those numbers explain why her 2024 return reads as more than nostalgia: it reasserted one of Victoria's Secret's most bankable faces.
2012 to 2024
In April 2012, she appeared in New York City wearing a body-hugging LBD while pregnant with her second child, then gave birth to Sienna in September 2012. Two months later, she opened the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which turned the 2012 appearance into a marker of timing as much as visibility.
She also showed up beyond the main stage, including backstage at Angels Across America in 2004 and at GQ Magazine's 50th Year Celebration in September 2007. The clean read on the 2024 return is simple: Lima left in 2018, came back in 2024, and extended a runway career that has lasted from her teen debut to a late-career reappearance with no visible loss of leverage.
