Tyra Banks revives ANTM-style Tyra Mail, returns to Victoria's Secret to announce new fashion show

Tyra Banks' revival of America's Next Top Model-style Tyra Mail has officially earned first callout of the week.

The supermodel and media icon synthesized her legacy both on the runway and in TV history into a new commercial Wednesday, as the former Victoria's Secret Angel teamed up with fashion star Gigi Hadid to tease the upcoming revival of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show with an epic nod to Banks' past as head ANTM judge.

In the clip (below), Hadid enters a glamorous building and rings a bell to get the attention of Banks, who stands behind a counter while holding a golden envelope with her name on it. Banks turns around, flashes Hadid a signature smize, and presents her with the sacred Tyra Mail — which is actually an invitation to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show's 2024 edition.

“See you there,” Banks tells Hadid, all while pop star Chappell Roan's "Femininomenon" plays overhead, and text appears on screen confirming the show's Oct. 15 return in New York City.

The commercial is a clear reference to Banks' recurring Tyra Mail segment on ANTM, which saw her use a large envelope to relay information regarding challenges and contest news to the model hopeful competing across the series for a prestigious modeling contract.

A source close to the show tells Entertainment Weekly that, since Banks is "synonymous with so many iconic fashion moments throughout the '90s and 2000s," the team putting the program together "had a blast giving a nod to the nostalgia of that time" — including Banks' impact on early-aughts pop culture via ANTM.

Victoria's Secret initially discontinued the fashion show in 2019, following criticism that also led to the cancellation of the Victoria's Secret Angel division that once enlisted supermodels like Banks, Heidi Klum, Adriana Lima, Gisele Bündchen, and more as brand ambassadors and runway staples at its shows.

According to to the brand's website, the team behind the lingerie line has "read the comments and heard" criticism regarding Victoria's Secret, and relaunched the fashion show with that in mind.

"The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is BACK and will reflect who we are today, plus everything you know and love — the glamour, runway, wings, musical entertainment, and more!" the statement reads. "Stay tuned… it only gets more iconic from here."

In place of the Angels, Victoria's Secret unveiled in 2021 a diverse group of seven women (including Megan Rapinoe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas) known as the VS Collective, who would represent the brand and a wider range of people, including those with larger body types, trans women, and more.

Banks praised the decision at the time, stating that she was "proud" to be "witnessing a beauty revolution" unfold before her.

"First is crucial so that a door can be opened for others to fit through. Within a 10 year span starting in 1995, I was the first Black Victoria's Secret contract model ever. The first Black Victoria's Secret cover model. The first Black VS model to do so many other groundbreaking things with the brand," she wrote on Instagram, the same day the New York Times published a feature on the label's reinvention — which fell three years after controversy ignited over the company's sexualization of women for the male perspective (and exclusion of different body types and genders). "But after a first, must come a flow of more. A flow of different. A flow of unique. A flow so strong, a flow of so many that we LOSE COUNT."

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While Banks lightly referenced ANTM in the Victoria's Secret commercial, Entertainment Weekly learned in May that Banks has no current plans to bring the reality competition series back for a new season as she works on building her SMiZE & DREAM ice cream empire, despite previously telling EW in 2018 that she wanted to revive it for a final 25th cycle featuring an all-star roster of past contestants.

EW has reached out to Banks for additional comment.

Watch Banks and Hadid in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show ad above.