Victoria's Secret Gears Up for London Event

SHOW TIME: The Victoria's Secret models have crossed the pond, arriving in London ahead of the annual runway extravaganza, which will take place this year at London's Earl's Court.
To build buzz ahead of the main event on Tuesday night, all 47 models in the show posed outside the Victoria's Secret store on Bond Street Monday morning. Later in the day, three Victoria's Secret Angels — Lily Aldridge, Karlie Kloss and Behati Prinsloo — gathered for a photo op outside the London Edition Hotel, which is serving as the models' base camp ahead of the show.
Aldridge and Kloss are two of the 15 IMG-repped models walking in the show this year, with models from the agency making up almost a third of the lineup. Another of those 15 is Canadian model Grace Mahary, who is taking part in the show for the first time. Mahary credited the agency with helping her see the impact that such a major gig could potentially have on her future career.

“[IMG] are the reason I saw what it could be like to be a Victoria’s Secret model, and to have access to a different demographic,” said Mahary, adding that she’s been taking on acting classes and auditions in addition to her modeling work.

Before Victoria's Secret, she'd shot editorials for titles such as Vogue, Vogue Italia, i-D and Interview, along with walking for such names as Givenchy, Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

Aldridge — whose father is the British artist Alan Aldridge Says she was particularly excited about the event taking place in London for the first time.

“I kind of grew up in London so it feels like a home to me. I’m so excited to go there, my whole family’s coming,” said Aldridge, who's based between New York and Nashville, where she lives with her daughter and husband, Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon. “The audience is double the size of what it is in New York, so there’s going to be so much energy,” she said.

Aldridge also dished on the famously intensive workout schedule that she and the other models undertake to prepare for the event. “Before the show I do five to six days a week [of workouts] and this week leading up to the show, I’ll do two workouts a day,” said a resolute Aldridge, who opts for dancer Mary Helen Bowers’ Ballet Beautiful regime.

Aldridge is one of the ultra-select group of Victoria's Secret Angels, along with the likes of Kloss and Candice Swanepoel, and has walked in the show since 2009. Mahary, meanwhile, said that she’s expecting her first Victoria’s Secret experience to have a different vibe to that of a common-or-garden runway show.

“In [seasonal fashion shows] it is very much about the clothing, you don’t get to dance and play on stage the way Victoria’s Secret models do — and I’m very much looking forward to that because I sure work up a dance backstage,” she said.