We Speak Fashion

Precious Lee Returns to the Victoria’s Secret Runway in Black and Crystal

Published

1 hour ago

October 29, 2026

Precious Lee walked the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on October 18, 2026, at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, for her second time on the runway after debuting in 2025. The Atlanta-born supermodel wore a structured black corset with matching bottoms and delicate crystal wings that framed her like jewelry, a look of dark glamour that stood out in a show built on pastels and color.

Lee’s modeling career began while she was a student at Clark Atlanta University, when she attended an Elite Models open call to support a friend and instead received a contract offer. She modeled part-time as an undergraduate, then moved to New York after college to pursue modeling full-time, signing with Ford Models before joining IMG Models, which represents her today. Her first runway show was Christian Siriano in February 2017.

Her breakthroughs came quickly after that. In 2015, she became the first Black curve model to appear in American Vogue. In the spring 2021 Versace show, she became the first Black curve model to walk for the brand in its history. She has since walked for Fendi, Mugler, Lanvin, Tommy Hilfiger, Balmain, Moschino and Michael Kors, modeled couture for Jean Paul Gaultier, and covered Vogue, British Vogue, Vogue Italia, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Dazed.

Her work has extended beyond the runway. She made her acting debut in 2021 on the Starz series Run the World, served as a guest judge on Project Runway, and in 2022 won International Model of the Year at GQ Portugal. Her Victoria’s Secret debut in 2025 came in a dusty pink lingerie look with a peony-petal and crystal headpiece; her return in 2026, in black and crystal, showed the other side of her range. For a model who set out to normalize diversity in high fashion, the second walk mattered as much as the first — it confirmed that her place on the runway was not a debut, but a fixture.

We Speak Fashion

From Cybersecurity at Los Alamos to the Paris Runways: Lucia Richardson Breaks Out at Spring 2027

Published

3 minutes ago

October 29, 2026

We Speak Media

Lucia Richardson may have the most unusual résumé in fashion right now. The 23-year-old from Santa Fe was working in cybersecurity at Los Alamos National Laboratory when she was scouted — and this season, Vogue named her one of its nine Breakout Models of Spring 2027.

“My entry into fashion was anything but conventional,” Richardson told Vogue. “I was working in cybersecurity at Los Alamos National Laboratory when I was unexpectedly scouted in Santa Fe, and suddenly, everything changed.”

What changed, specifically, was her calendar. Her Spring 2027 season highlights, per Vogue, were Chloé, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, Loewe, Khaite, Fendi and Valentino — seven major houses across the fashion capitals. Models.com’s Top Newcomers panel highlighted her Balenciaga appearance, and she also walked Valentino’s Spring 2027 show and Victoria Beckham’s Paris presentation. The fashion press back home noticed too: New Mexico Magazine flagged its hometown model citizen’s breakout for its readers this month.

Richardson’s rise was not entirely overnight. By July 2026 she was already being photographed in Paris during couture week street-style coverage, an early sign that casting directors and photographers were circling long before the Spring 2027 castings opened.

The depth of the season matters as much as the names on it. Seven Vogue-highlighted shows means seven separate casting teams, creative directors and design houses looked at a first-season model and put her on the runway — and her Valentino and Victoria Beckham appearances sat outside even that official highlight list. It is the booking pattern of a model the industry expects to keep, not a one-show novelty carried by an unusual backstory. Every season produces a breakout story, but Richardson’s is the rare one that starts in a national laboratory. From one of the most secure workplaces in America to the runways of Balenciaga and Chloé in a single leap — it is the kind of career change fashion will be retelling for years.