Romee Strijd spent the summer preparing for a single night on a runway. On Monday, a phone call from her agency ended those plans.
The Dutch model, a former Victoria’s Secret Angel, learned that the company does not want her in this year’s fashion show.
The event takes place Sunday in Los Angeles, less than a week after her call.
Strijd, 31, shared the news in a TikTok video posted Monday. She spoke through tears as she walked viewers through the conversation.
“It’s a no, which is fine because rejection is part of modeling, and that’s totally fine,” she said.
She then recounted the call itself.
“So, my agency just called and I said, ‘Okay, what’s happening?’ And she said, ‘You look great…but they thought you wouldn’t fit in the show this year.’”
Strijd had worked for months to earn the opportunity.
She trained through the summer and traveled to New York in September for the casting, hoping to return to the stage she once walked as an Angel.
After the audition, she said, the company stopped communicating with her. The answer reached her only when her agency phoned on Monday.
Strijd holds the Angel distinction as a former member, a title that ranks among the highest in the fashion world. She has millions of followers on social media.
She is also a mother of two. Strijd said she will most likely not audition for the show again.
She said she plans to keep the “good memories” she made as an Angel. She also said she did “not like the way she was treated.”
Other models soon joined the conversation. Freida Aasen, a Norwegian runway model, replied to Strijd’s video and said the company rejected her as well.
Aasen walked the Victoria’s Secret runway regularly before the show went off the air. She never held the Angel title.
Reports followed naming a third woman. Lais Ribeiro, an Angel who wore the “fantasy bra” in 2017, was also reportedly turned away.
Fans reacted with outrage online. Fashion Times reports that Victoria’s Secret now faces a boycott.
One fan warned that favoring influencers over supermodels would “bite” them “in the a**.” Another said the company was “rejecting beloved veterans for influencers.”
Victoria’s Secret has not commented publicly on Strijd’s rejection.
The company has not released the full model list for this year’s show. Last year’s event offers a point of comparison.
It featured influencers, including social media creators Gabriela Moura and Quenlin Blackwell, who appeared alongside athletes Angel Reese and Sunisa Lee.
The brand’s runway has taken a winding path in recent years. Victoria’s Secret canceled the show in 2019.
The decision followed a 2018 interview in which Ed Razek, then the company’s chief marketing officer, told Vogue that Victoria’s Secret did not want plus-size or transgender models on the runway.
Razek described the show as a “fantasy” built around models with unattainable beauty standards. He has since retired.
The show returned in 2024 with a wider cast that included transgender models and “body diversity.” Some fans said the brand still fell short, and many asked the company to bring back the models who made it famous.
Last year, Victoria’s Secret began working some earlier models back into the show, including former Angels.
This year’s runway will open Sunday without Strijd or Aasen, and reportedly without Ribeiro.
