Elsa Hosk

In November 2018 Elsa Hosk walked the Victoria's Secret runway in New York wearing the Dream Angels Fantasy Bra, a $1 million piece made by Atelier Swarovski. Nobody in the room knew it would be the last Fantasy Bra of the television era. Hosk, a Swedish model born on November 7, 1988, in Stockholm, had been with the brand since 2011 and an Angel since 2015.

Two seasons in the Swedish league

Hosk's route into lingerie went through a basketball court. Her father sent her photographs to Swedish agencies when she was 13, and she began modeling at 14, but she chose to put school first. After graduating she played professional basketball for two years in the Swedish women's league, the Basketligan dam. She has said that the level of play there did not match the WNBA and that the sport drew far less interest in Sweden than in the United States. When modeling offers kept arriving, she moved to New York to work full time.

Guess and Ellen von Unwerth

Before Victoria's Secret, Hosk's most visible work was for Guess, in campaigns shot by the photographer Ellen von Unwerth. She has pointed to that partnership as the work that moved her career up, even though press accounts often credit Victoria's Secret instead.

Eight shows with Victoria's Secret

Hosk first walked the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2011 and appeared in every edition through 2018. In 2015 the company named her one of ten new Angels, a large intake that also included Taylor Hill, Lais Ribeiro and Jasmine Tookes.

Opening the 2016 show in Paris

The 2016 show was staged at the Grand Palais in Paris, and Hosk opened it. The next year, in Shanghai, she wore the Swarovski look, the crystal-covered outfit the brand made a fixture of its runway.

The Dream Angels bra

The 2018 show was held in New York on November 8, 2018. Hosk's Fantasy Bra was hand-set with 2,100 Swarovski created diamonds, which are laboratory-grown stones. Set against Gisele Bündchen's $15 million Red Hot bra of 2000, a million-dollar bra was a modest number, and a telling one for a company whose show audience had fallen from 9.2 million viewers in 2014 to 3.2 million in 2018.

A year later Victoria's Secret cancelled the 2019 show. Hosk's bra therefore closed the network-television run of the Fantasy Bra, and she is the answer to a trivia question the brand probably never intended to set.

Away from Victoria's Secret, her runway list includes Versace, Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Balmain, Calvin Klein, Valentino and Dolce&Gabbana.

Last updated October 7, 2026