Victoria’s Secret adores Chinese Supermodels

The rise of Chinese supermodels in international fashion was one of the defining stories of the 2010s. Liu Wen, Ming Xi, Sui He, and a generation of Chinese models who walked Victoria’s Secret, worked with Armani, and appeared on the Forbes highest-paid model lists fundamentally changed how Western fashion houses thought about Chinese beauty. A decade on, the landscape has shifted — and what brands can learn from how Chinese supermodels built their influence still applies to how any fashion brand should think about its China marketing strategy.

Liu Wen: The Pioneer

Liu Wen’s trajectory was improbable. Standing nearly 6 feet tall with angular features and dimples that did not fit the classic Chinese beauty mould of the time, she placed second in a modelling contest in 2005 and moved to Beijing at 18. Her early years were difficult. The breakthrough came in 2008 with her first Paris Fashion Week invitation. By Fall 2009, she walked 74 shows in a single season — a record that season for any model globally. She became the first East Asian model in the Victoria’s Secret show, the first Asian spokeswoman for Estée Lauder, and cracked the Forbes top five highest-paid models with USD 7 million in annual earnings.

Liu Wen’s 20 million Weibo followers positioned her differently from traditional Chinese celebrities. Where stars like Angelababy (84M followers) and Yang Mi (77M) dominated entertainment, Liu Wen’s fashion credibility opened a specific lane: she was the authority on international luxury, not a pop icon who happened to endorse it. Her brand partnerships — La Perla, Giorgio Armani, Estée Lauder, Tiffany & Co. — were earned through her modelling career, not assigned through agency deals.

Sui He and Ming Xi: Different Paths to the Same Audience

Sui He walked Victoria’s Secret for seven consecutive years, building a profile in China partly because she embodied the pale-skin aesthetic that Chinese consumers historically associated with classical beauty. Her nickname “He Xingu” — a reference to a Chinese mythological immortal figure — reflected how her aesthetic was received domestically. Less edgy than Liu Wen, more approachable, she appealed to a different segment of the Chinese fashion consumer.

Ming Xi’s fall on the Victoria’s Secret runway in 2017 became one of the most-discussed fashion moments on Chinese social media that year. The reaction was instructive: Chinese audiences were simultaneously protective of her and critical of the pressure and preparation standards that could lead to such a moment. The incident was a window into how Chinese consumers observe and discuss international fashion, and how quickly an individual model’s moment can become a broader cultural conversation.

Victoria’s Secret and China: What Actually Happened

The 2017 Victoria’s Secret show in Shanghai was a turning point, though not in the direction VS hoped. Several international models were denied Chinese visas days before the show. The broadcast aired with some content edited. The event generated enormous press, but the narrative around it was complicated — both a breakthrough for an American brand staging its flagship event in China, and an early signal of the regulatory and political complexity that Western fashion brands would increasingly face in the Chinese market.

Victoria’s Secret subsequently struggled in China as its global brand image, built around a narrow definition of beauty, became increasingly out of step with a Chinese consumer market that was rethinking its own beauty standards. The brand closed several China stores and stepped back from its aggressive China expansion. Its attempts to reposition globally — adding diversity, rebranding the Angels concept — were not enough to recover the China market position it had held in 2017.

Chinese Beauty Standards and Fashion in 2026

The beauty conversation in China has moved considerably since 2017. The “白幼瘦” (pale, young, thin) standard that dominated for much of the 2010s has come under sustained public pressure, particularly on Xiaohongshu, where body-positive content and diverse beauty representation have grown into significant content categories. Platform algorithms have changed in response to user feedback — content promoting extreme thinness faces more moderation than it did five years ago.

For fashion brands entering China in 2026, the lesson from the Chinese supermodel decade is direct: representation is not just cultural goodwill — it is commercial strategy. Chinese consumers notice which brands cast Chinese faces, which use Chinese models authentically versus tokenistically, and which have genuinely localised their aesthetic versus simply translated their Western campaigns. Brands that got this right in the 2010s built the foundation for their China premium positioning. The same principle applies today, on Xiaohongshu and Douyin rather than the Victoria’s Secret runway.

Our content team manages Chinese model and KOL casting strategies for fashion brands. For community discussion on Chinese beauty standards and fashion, r/Marketing_China has active threads. Our partners at Ecommerce China Agency publish consumer attitude data on fashion and beauty annually. Follow our LinkedIn for model strategy case studies from our portfolio.

About Fashion China Agency

Fashion China Agency is a Shanghai-based digital marketing agency specialising in fashion, luxury, and lifestyle brand entry into the Chinese market. We help international brands build awareness, drive e-commerce revenue, and build communities on Xiaohongshu, Douyin, WeChat, and Tmall. Our team of 40+ China specialists covers content strategy, KOL management, paid media, e-commerce operations, and live commerce. Founded by Philip Chen and Olivier Verot, with offices in Shanghai and Paris.

Philip Chen is co-founder of GMA (Gentlemen Marketing Agency), one of China’s leading independent digital marketing agencies. Over 12 years working with fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands on China market entry. Connect on LinkedIn.