Josephine Skriver

Josephine Skriver, the first Danish Angel since Helena Christensen

When Victoria's Secret named its new Angels in February 2016, Josephine Skriver became the first Dane to hold the contract since Helena Christensen. Born in Copenhagen on April 14, 1993, she had already walked in every Victoria's Secret Fashion Show since 2013, and she kept that run going through the final years of the original televised show.

Scouted on a football trip

Skriver was discovered at 15 during a trip to New York with her football team. She signed with Unique Models in Copenhagen and turned to modeling full time in 2011. Her debut season was Fall/Winter 2011, when she opened the Alberta Ferretti show and closed for Prada, and she went on to walk for Calvin Klein, Gucci, Valentino and Givenchy.

Six shows on the pink carpet

Her first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was the 2013 edition, two years into her career and three years before the Angel contract. She appeared in every show after that, through 2018, the last broadcast before the company announced in November 2019 that it was ending the event. That makes her part of the generation that joined just as the format was peaking and stayed until it closed.

What an Angel contract meant by 2016

By the time Skriver received her wings, the role had shifted. The company dropped its printed catalog in 2016, the year of her contract, and in 2017 it put more weight on bralettes and sports bras than on the padded styles that had made its name.

Advocacy for LGBT families

Outside the runway, Skriver has campaigned publicly for LGBT parents and their children, drawing on her own family's story. In 2015 she was named a celebrity ambassador for the Family Equality Council, an American advocacy group. Her stated aim was that her story would "not be that interesting soon, because that would mean that society has come to accept LGBT parents."

Beyond lingerie

Skriver's other commercial work includes campaigns for H&M, Dior, Bulgari, MAC Cosmetics and Tommy Hilfiger, and editorials for international editions of Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar. In 2020 she appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and was named its Rookie of the Year. Victoria's Secret retired the Angels altogether in 2021 in favor of a group called the VS Collective, which makes Skriver one of the last models hired under the original Angel system.

Last updated October 7, 2026