Victoria's Secret Runway Brings Back the Millennial Side Part

By Grace Kim

More than a dozen models wore deep side parts on the Victoria's Secret runway at this year's live show in Los Angeles. The style, synonymous with millennials, the early aughts, and VS runways of years past, returned alongside the brand's signature bombshell blowouts.

Legendary hairdresser Guido Palau and his team created the looks. Backstage, models like Barbara Palvin and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley wore rollers for hours before the show. It is a tried-and-true technique for creating bouncy, voluminous waves.

OG Angels Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio returned for the show. The comeback framing sells nostalgia, but note what it rests on: a parting direction and a set of rollers.

Who wore the side part on stage?

The performers adopted the look too. Megan Thee Stallion performed in a bombshell blowout with a bang styled over one eye — a classic, sultry look, as the source describes it. Tate McRae wore her golden waves flipped over to one side, which lent movement as she performed her new single "Housewife."

The runway split on the question. Alex Consani and Adriana Lima preferred a center part. Ashley Graham, Caroline Trentini, and Paloma Elsesser wore the deep side part.

Does a side part really age you?

Gen Z has favored center parts for years and claims a side part makes you look older. The source pushes back: "They claim it makes you look more youthful—but the Angels prove this theory wrong."

That claim is aesthetic assertion, not evidence. No data supports either camp here. What the source does offer is a functional argument.

A side-parted blowout is built for motion. "A side-parted blowout is meant to be touched, tousled, and tossed," the source states. "You should be able to throw it to one side, then the other, without your hair looking out of place."

A center-parted blowout, by contrast, "tends to be more rigid and structured." The source argues that with such a meticulous part, "you can't fluff it, zhuzh it, or mess it up."

What is the takeaway?

The source closes with a hedge worth quoting: "There's no wrong or right way to part your hair." Both parts appeared on the same runway, on supermodels, in the same night.

The trend signal, if there is one, points backward. Ashley Graham, Caroline Trentini, and Paloma Elsesser demonstrated that the millennial side part — much like the glitz and glam of the Victoria's Secret show itself, per the source — "will never go out of style." Whether that forecast holds for hair parts or lingerie-runway spectacle remains unproven; a single Los Angeles show is a thin data set.