Zaldy Makes The Show

There's a genius behind the 2024 Victoria's Secret fashion show reboot -- his name is Zaldy. Destined to become a fashion designer from infancy, Zaldy gained notoriety first as a fixture on the New York club scene of the 80s and 90s. His impossible-to-ignore style made him so in-demand that he ended up walking the catwalk for Mugler and Gaultier alongside supermodels Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell. From those early days in front of the camera, Zaldy worked for decades as the creative genius behind many pop stars: Ru Paul, Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson are just a few of his clients. Along the way he's won three Emmy awards for his work. 

Last year, Victoria's Secret Fashion Director, Priscilla Polley chose Zaldy to design costumes for the brand's reboot. It was a brilliant move. The brand had taken a six year hiatus, the world had changed and it was important to evolve. The organization did make meaningful changes toward greater inclusiveness and the show's leadership was guided by an all-female team and models represented a wide array of body types, ages and ethnicity. And with Zaldy they managed to stay true to their brand tradition of 'angels-in-wings' while adding some new twists.

The reason why we're interested in the designer and the show is because we're obsessed with all things related to pop tab fashion. Our biggest thrill was to see pop tab clothing on the runway. Zaldy created an incredible sparkly jacket, skirt and pants out of chrome black soda tabs, and Swarovski crystals. 

Zaldy and VS Fashion Director, Priscilla Polley, photo courtesy Vogue.com

Zaldy's first ensemble with pop tabs was for Lisa of the band, Blackpink. As the first musical guest of the night, Lisa emerged onstage astride a Harley Davidson motorcycle wearing a black pop tab jacket and black mini skirt. 

photo courtesy allkpop

Thrilled as we are to see any performer dressed in clothing made from pop tabs, we didn't understand why Zaldy would make black soda tab armor while everyone else was dressed in lingerie and five foot tall feathered wings. The only other time we've seen a costume made of soda tabs was Miss Thailand's pop tab dress at the 2023 Miss Universe pageant, an homage to her parents who were trash collectors. 

photo courtesty @lalalalisa_m Instagram

Why did Zaldy make a soda pop tab outfit for Lisa?

According to Zaldy in an interview with Vogue, "When I heard it was Lisa and heard that she was singing ‘Rockstar’, I immediately thought it had to be something really powerful and strong. And then I heard that she was riding in on a motorcycle and I knew right away what to do. I thought about Victoria Secret wings, Harley Davidson wings, I thought of soda tabs for some reason, because I thought it would be kind of like a modern feather". "I just wanted to make it really tough and feel like armor. I chromed these ones specifically for her so that I could pick up all of the chrome on her bike".

photo courtesy l'Officiel Singapore

photo courtesy of @zaldyncy instagram account

Zaldy also created tab pants that were worn by the Russian model Irina Shayk @irinashayk for the section of the show that Zaldy called Section 3: HEROES. The wings are made of silver and black reflective vinyl, and crystals to represent a broken 'glass ceiling'.

A photo of Zaldy in his own sleeveless shirt made of aluminum tabs and crystal. Photo courtesy of @zaldnyc

How did Zaldy create soda tab clothing for Victoria's Secret? Here's our guess:

• A tailored garment is created as a bottom layer. We guess it's probably made of thin leather because it needs to be fairly stiff to support the tabs in a consistent, uniform row.
• Thousands of aluminum soda tabs are sourced. We guess that they're purchased new from a factory as opposed to up-cycled from used can tops. New tabs would be easier to work with because they still have a 'circle' -- the part that normally would get riveted onto the top of a can.
• Next, the aluminum soda tabs are plated with black chrome. The finish is probably created with a black chrome powder coat to create a metallic reflective finish.
• Finally, the tabs are secured onto the leather with Swarovski crystal rivets. Each tab is laid side by side in a row and held in place with a crystal-headed rivet. Spacing is uniform and each row alternates to create the appearance of overlapping scale armor. 
• It probably takes a team of artisans many hours and days to create these pieces!

Read more about Zaldy and the Victoria's Secret 2024 Fashion Show

Zaldy introduces his Victoria's Secret collection on Instagram

Blackpink's Lisa pre-show interview on Vogue

Zaldy's rise from club kid to world famous fashion designer

Harper's Bazaar interview with Zaldy

L'Officiel story on Blackpink Lisa's performance at Victoria's Secret 2024 show

Lisa wearing Zaldy pop tab ensemble on Zaldy's Instagram page