Jasmine Tookes

Ten years of gymnastics came before Jasmine Tookes ever booked a lingerie job. The California-born model joined the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2012, became an Angel in 2015 and in 2016 wore the $3 million Bright Night Fantasy Bra in Paris, the first woman of color to wear a Fantasy Bra in nine years.

Huntington Beach to the 2012 show

Tookes was born on February 1, 1991, in Huntington Beach, California. Besides gymnastics she played volleyball and softball, and began modeling at about 15. Her first advertising campaigns, in 2010, were for UGG Australia and Gap, followed by a Spring 2011 DKNY campaign and pages in Vogue Italia. Models.com put her among the top ten new faces of September 2011, and Style named her its top new model of that season.

She was one of eleven newcomers in the 2012 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, taped in November and broadcast on CBS on December 4. She walked every show from then until the original series ended in 2018.

Angel, 2015

Victoria's Secret gave her an Angel contract in 2015. She held the title until the brand retired the Angels in 2021. Forbes put her at No. 17 on its 2016 list of the world's highest-paid models, at an estimated $4 million.

The Bright Night Fantasy Bra

The 2016 show was staged at the Grand Palais in Paris, and Tookes was chosen for the Fantasy Bra, named the Bright Night Fantasy Bra and valued at $3 million. Only two Black models had worn one before her: Tyra Banks, in 1997 and 2004, and Selita Ebanks, in 2007. The gap of nine years was itself part of the story that autumn.

In the brand's price history the bra sits in the middle. The 2013 Royal Fantasy Bra had been valued at $10 million; the 2017 and 2018 pieces came in at $2 million and $1 million.

Activewear and the relaunched show

With fellow Angel Josephine Skriver she co-founded JOJA, an activewear company. In May 2025 she launched a beauty brand, Brunel.

Her lingerie career did not end with the Angels. When Victoria's Secret revived the Fashion Show in 2024 she was back on the runway, and she opened the 2025 show in its first segment, "First Light." That makes her one of a handful of models whose runway record spans the old televised show and the streamed version that replaced it.

Elsewhere on the runway

Outside lingerie she has walked for Burberry, Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, Balmain and Prada, and appeared in campaigns for Jimmy Choo, Calvin Klein, Lancôme and Ralph Lauren. She is represented by IMG Models in New York and Paris.

Last updated October 7, 2026