The Victoria's Secret Show is what a commercial mid-life crisis looks like

The brand that turned Miranda Kerr, Gisele Bundchen and Heidi Klum into household names is on the verge of a mid-life crisis. It's tired, outdated and pegging its hopes of a sales bump on the fickle world of Instagram.

The house of lacy knickers and $4 million Fantasy Bras that manufactures some of its wares in factories in India and Sri Lanka, is struggling in the wake of the departure of its star chief executive Sharen Turney with sales slipping 2 per cent in October, the second dip since May.

One of Turney's biggest achievements was turning the fashion show into a pop cultural event. It is now broadcast on TV around the world, including Australia, and big musical acts like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and, this year, Lady Gaga have provided the soundtrack.

Her tenure also saw the rise of models whose social media followings surpass the population of some island nations like Australia. Kendall Jenner, sister of Kim Kardashian West, has more than 69 million fans on Instagram alone, while VS show co-star Gigi Hadid, daughter of former model and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid, has 29 million.

The two are the most high profile of the cast, overshadowing official "Angels" of the brand like Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio. A move towards social media stars appeared to pay off earlier this year during the second financial reporting period, when e-commerce accounted for 21 per cent of the label's revenue.

However, fluctuating sales figures and a shrinking profit margin appear to be the only major changes occurring in-house at Victoria's Secret.

The women who appear in the campaigns and on the catwalk for the rumoured $16 million show are still exactly the same genetically blessed models we've always seen except now there's more of them.

The 2016 show featured 51 stars (plus one fetus, thanks to Irina Shayk and Bradley Cooper), making it the largest catwalk show in the world. The biggest shake-up this year was that four Chinese models walked – Liu Wen, Xi Mengyao, Sui He and Ju Xiaowen. An impressive line-up considering it wasn't until 2009 the retailer cast a model of Asian decent.

Body positivity has been the biggest fashion trend of the year and something young, cashed up consumers want. According to a report by The Fashion Spot, the spring-summer 2017 catwalks were some of the most diverse in history.

The bi-annual Diversity Report that examined 299 runways and more than 8000 model appearances from the international collections shown at New York, London, Paris and Milan fashion weeks, found more than 25 per cent of the castings for the shows were non-white.

However, despite all the positive changes happening around it, Victoria's Secret seems stuck in 2014 when the #fitspo movement began hijacking social media with photos of green juice and thigh gaps.

Its definition of sexy as showcased by a stable of busty, glossy-haired supermodels is now too narrow for the plugged in, diversity-minded, socially conscious consumers they are chasing. The Western standard of beauty is gradually moving away from impossibly tall and size zero thin towards fuller figures like the Kardashians, Kate Upton and Ashley Graham, who are more representative of average-sized women.

In turn, the show has become the Olympics of body fascism with the cast all training like professional athletes in the lead-up and posting about it online with "#trainlikeanangel", a hashtag that does nothing but promote the brand's sportswear range and unrealistic workout regimes for people who aren't professional models.

The pressure some stars have put their body under for the event has been well documented. In 2011 Lima admitted that nine days before the event, she cuts out all solid foods and consumes only liquids while simultaneously increasing her workouts to two per day. She then fasts for 12 hours before the show.

Debutante Bella Hadid and Australian model Kelly Gale have followed in her footsteps. Hadid admitted to People she didn't set out to lose as much weight as she did in the lead-up after "eating hard protein every day, and working out for three hours every day".

Gale took to Instagram this week to thank her boyfriend for his patience during her prep, "I've been exhausted from workouts ... and crazy from chocolate abstinence".

In the hours following the show, Jenner and the Hadid sisters abandoned the after party and celebrated with burgers, fries, cheesy pasta and margaritas. Like most things they do, the feast was all documented on social media for their fans to appreciate.

The old guard and new diverge when it comes to the sparkling personalities the show once displayed.

Over recent years the models, despite wearing small sheaths of fabric and feathers that make them look like exotic birds drawn by Ken Done, have had a flat, boring energy.

Historically the cast always had a self-aware cheekiness and twinkle in their eye, perfectly encapsulated by Miranda Kerr's famous wink, Heidi Klum chewing gum while previewing the Fantasy Bra or Tyra Banks' smize. Now, the sheen has been dulled and we can see the show for what it really is – a homogeneous, sequin-encrusted marketing exercise for underpants and thinispiration.