Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2026: thigh-high stockings and suspenders on the runway

Silver feathered wings, a black lace bra, sleeves of sparkly black mesh, and on the legs a pair of sheer black thigh-highs scattered with small glittering motifs, held up by white suspenders. That was Megan Thee Stallion on the runway of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2026, on 18 October in Los Angeles. A few minutes later a black section followed in which Ashley Graham, Caroline Trentini and Grace Elizabeth wore sheer black stockings with lace tops. Cindy Bruna wore a similar pair under silver wings, and KATSEYE took the stage in black heart-print and fuchsia thigh-highs.

In a show of wings, crystals and bare legs, these were the looks that put something on the legs. Here they are one by one, from the agency photos and from what the press wrote.

The show

The show was livestreamed from Los Angeles on Sunday 18 October, TODAY reported. Getty's captions place it at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. Bella Hadid opened in a floral bra with flower-covered wings, and the four musical acts were Megan Thee Stallion, Tate McRae, Megan Moroney and KATSEYE.

The press mostly wrote about the wings and the Fantasy Bra. Legwear came up in a single line in each review we read. TODAY describes Megan Thee Stallion in "a sparkly bra, black thong, thigh-high stockings and heels". The Zoe Report mentions "matching garters" for Tate McRae and "a floral bra and garter" for Bella Hadid. For the guests on the pink carpet, it says they brought "thigh-high stockings, exposed corsets, and sheer layers". Reuters writes of "fishnets" for Megan Thee Stallion and "black fishnet stockings" for KATSEYE, but in the Getty photos we looked at those stockings read as sheer, with no visible mesh. Nobody names the brand of the stockings. Nor does any other page we checked.

Megan Thee Stallion: sparkle on sheer black

Megan Thee Stallion both performed and walked. Her look, from the top: silver feathered wings, a black lace balconette bra, long sleeves of black lace with sparkle, a black thong. From the thong hang white suspenders, the only light line in the outfit. They clip onto black thigh-highs with a plain, opaque band at the top. Below that band the stocking turns sheer, and the leg shows through the black. Small sparkly silver motifs are scattered all the way down to the ankle: even in Getty's larger photos we cannot make out their shape. The shoes are high sandals with crystal straps.

Her dancers continued the theme, in black with black thigh-highs. Megan's motifs and KATSEYE's hearts are the only patterns we saw on a stocking in the whole show. Everywhere else on the runway, the stocking was plain.

The black section: Ashley Graham, Caroline Trentini, Grace Elizabeth

The clearest hosiery moment was a section in black, against blue light. Three looks in a row put sheer black thigh-highs with lace tops under black lingerie.

Ashley Graham wore a black satin and lace bra, a high-waisted black brief with suspenders built in, and black lace opera gloves, holding up a long cape of black chiffon. The stockings have a wide band of lace at the top. Below it they are clearly sheer: the skin shows through, and on our reading of the photos they are somewhere around 15–20 denier.

Caroline Trentini wore the leanest version of the look: a minimal black bra, a thin suspender belt, long black gloves and a black chiffon cape that she let fly behind her. Her stockings are sheer black with a lace top, and her shoes are black stiletto sandals. The suspender straps run straight down the thigh, so the whole look reads as black lines on skin.

Grace Elizabeth wore a headpiece of golden leaves, a black satin corset and a black brief trimmed with lace. Her thigh-highs also have a wide lace band, and they are sheer black down to black heels. In the photos we could not see any suspenders. They may be hold-ups, or the straps may be hidden: from the pictures it is impossible to tell.

Cindy Bruna and KATSEYE: hold-ups under wings, hearts and fuchsia

Cindy Bruna took sheer black outside the black section. Her look, from the top: big silver wings, a black bra with a Victoria's Secret label on the band, a high-waisted black brief with cut-outs and a silver chain belt with a large ring. Below, sheer black stockings with a wide lace top and black stiletto sandals with crystal straps. There are no suspenders in the photos: the stocking stays up on its own, like a hold-up.

KATSEYE performed "Pinky Up" and "Animal" in the PINK segment, ARY News reports. All four wore thigh-highs, in two versions. Yoonchae and Megan Skiendiel had sheer black ones with a plain band at the top and hearts outlined in sparkly pink thread, over black lace-up heeled boots. Lara Raj and Daniela Avanzini wore opaque fuchsia. The names, left to right, are from Getty's caption.

Garters without stockings: Tate McRae, Bella Hadid, Megan Moroney, Nicole Kidman

The reviews use the word "garter" for three more runway looks and one guest, and none of them is about stockings. Tate McRae performed in a red corset top and red briefs. Red suspenders hang from the corset and clip onto lace bands at the top of the thigh, and her shoes are red pumps with ankle straps. Her legs look bare and glossy in the photos. If she had a nude sheer stocking on, it does not show. We saw no stocking on Bella Hadid's opening look in Getty's photos, only bare legs and green sandals. For Megan Moroney, Entertainment Now writes of "a pink garter around her thigh and silver platform heels": a single band, no stocking. In the front row, Nicole Kidman wore Jean Paul Gaultier from fall 2026: a white shirt, a striped tie and a high-waisted pencil skirt with, as W Magazine puts it, "a strappy garter belt over top". Hola! calls it a "falso liguero", a faux suspender belt built into the skirt. On her feet, according to WWD Japan, pointed pumps; in the Getty front-row photos we saw, no stockings show.

In the finale, behind Megan Thee Stallion, Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio, two women wore fuchsia thigh-highs. This photo's caption does not name them, but the costumes are those of KATSEYE's Lara Raj and Daniela Avanzini: Daniela, with the pink plush-toy belt, is named in another Getty photo of the same finale.

Why black won

The count is small. Across the runway photos we looked at, five looks wore real stockings: Megan Thee Stallion, Ashley Graham, Caroline Trentini, Grace Elizabeth and Cindy Bruna. Add the four members of KATSEYE on stage. Four of the five runway looks share the same sheer black with the same lace top, and three are in the same section. In a show built on pink, white and silver, sheer black on the legs marked the change of mood, and the stockings were the props of that chapter. KATSEYE's fuchsia belongs to the PINK segment: there the stocking turns into colour, everywhere else it stays black.

The suspender is the detail that matters. On Graham and Trentini, the straps are part of the lingerie and stay in view. The stocking is not hidden under anything. It shows the legs and shows how it is held up.

Wearing stockings off the runway

• Hold-ups if you skip the belt. Grace Elizabeth's and Cindy Bruna's looks work without visible straps. A good pair of hold-ups with a wide silicone band does the same thing under a dress. Our guide to what thigh-high stockings are called explains the difference.
• 15–20 denier, matte black. That is the effect in the black section: skin visible, black at the edges. Our denier guide has the full scale.
• Hide the lace top, unless it is the point. On the runway the lace band is on show. Under a skirt, it should end at least a hand's width above the hem.
• Same black from leg to shoe. All three models in the black section wore black heels. A contrasting shoe would break the line.
• Pattern on sheer, not on fishnet. Megan Thee Stallion's motifs and KATSEYE's hearts sit on a fine sheer black. Fishnet is a different look, with different rules.

Off the runway, without wings, the same idea is closer to the sheer black tights seen on this month's red carpets: a veil of black that still lets the leg show.

The photos

The runway photos are embedded from Getty Images (Frazer Harrison and Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images for Victoria's Secret) and stay on Getty's servers with their credit. The looks are described from those photos. The quotes come from TODAY, The Zoe Report, Entertainment Now, Reuters, ARY News, W Magazine, Hola! and WWD Japan. The photo of Megan Thee Stallion in the cover circle is by Valerie Albert on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) and was not taken at this show.