Tyra Lynne Banks, born December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California, is an American fashion and runway model, television creator, and entrepreneur who did something almost no model before her had managed: she turned charisma into a teachable technique. The “smize,” her term for smiling with the eyes while the mouth stays editorial, began as a working method in front of the camera and became a word the industry actually uses, which tells you what her real gift is. Banks does not simply photograph well; she can name what she is doing in a frame, repeat it on demand, and explain it to someone else. That instinct for decoding the image made her a supermodel in the 1990s and a media empire after, and it is why her runway walk, all shoulders and stomp and direct address, reads instantly even in a three-second clip.
Signed by L.A. Models at 15 after four agencies passed, and by Elite Model Management at 16, Banks left a Loyola Marymount enrollment behind in 1991 to make her runway debut at Paris Fashion Week, where she booked a reported 25 shows in her first season, an unprecedented haul for a newcomer that had the fashion press calling her the new Naomi Campbell. The couture run was real but brief: when her body changed in her early twenties and the sample-size bookings thinned, Banks refused the industry’s starve-or-leave ultimatum, a decision she has retold on her own terms for three decades, and rebuilt the career on American commercial ground. A CoverGirl contract in 1993, the first GQ cover by an African American woman in February 1996, the first solo Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover by a Black woman in 1997, and the original Victoria’s Secret Angels class of 1997 turned the Paris runway prodigy into a household name, one of the world’s top-earning models by the early 2000s.
Today the modeling is an occasional, headline-grabbing pleasure and the business is the job. Banks retired from the runway at the 2005 Victoria’s Secret show, built America’s Next Top Model into a global franchise and her talk show into a two-time Daytime Emmy winner, and returned to modeling only when it suited the story: a third Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover at 45 in 2019, and the closing walk of the revived Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in October 2024, at 50, her first time on that runway in 19 years. She now lives in Sydney, Australia, where her ice cream brand SMiZE & Dream opened its flagship in 2025, and she joined the Project Runway judging panel for the season premiering in July 2026, even as she fights Netflix in court over its 2026 documentary about her most famous show.
People also read: Naomi Campbell (Versace), Heidi Klum (Victoria’s Secret), Cindy Crawford (Pepsi Super Bowl 1992), Iman (Yves Saint Laurent)
Quick Facts
| Real Name: | Tyra Lynne Banks |
| Profession: | Fashion model; television creator, host, producer, and entrepreneur |
| Born: | December 4, 1973 |
| Age: | 52 (as of 2026) |
| Birthplace: | Inglewood, California, United States |
| Nationality: | American |
| Height: | 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) |
| Modeling Type(s): | Fashion and runway; later commercial, swimwear, and lingerie |
| Discovered / Path In: | Started modeling at 15 in Los Angeles while at Immaculate Heart High School; rejected by four agencies before L.A. Models signed her, then moved to Elite Model Management at 16 (1990) |
| Runway Debut: | 1991, Paris Fashion Week (booked a reported 25 shows in her first season) |
| Agency / Representation: | Self-directed through The Tyra Banks Company and SMiZE & Dream; previously Elite Model Management (1990s) and IMG Models (from 2010) |
| Known For: | Coining the “smize”; the barrier-breaking 1990s covers (GQ, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit); the original Victoria’s Secret Angels class; creating America’s Next Top Model; closing the revived Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show at 50 in 2024 |
| Notable Campaigns & Covers: | GQ, February 1996; Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, 1996, 1997, and 2019; CoverGirl (from 1993); Victoria’s Secret shows and campaigns, 1996–2005 and 2024; Fantasy Bras 1997 and 2004 |
| Awards: | Daytime Emmy Awards, Outstanding Talk Show Informative (2008, 2009); VH1 Supermodel of the Year (1997); Fashion Los Angeles Awards Fashion Icon (2025); Time 100 (2006) |
| Zodiac Sign: | Sagittarius |
| Relationship: | Partnered with entrepreneur Louis Bélanger-Martin; son York (born 2016) with former partner Erik Asla |
| Years Active: | 1990 to present (runway retirement 2005; returns in 2019 and 2024) |
Featured Video
Video courtesy of Goldman Sachs.
Early Life & Education
Tyra Lynne Banks was born on December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California, to Carolyn London, a medical photographer who would later become her manager and closest collaborator, and Donald Banks, a computer consultant. Her parents divorced when she was six, and she grew up between two households with her older brother, Devin. The photographer mother matters to the story: long before an agency saw Tyra, Carolyn was the one composing her, and Friday nights for the two of them meant ice cream in Hollywood and out-loud dreaming, a ritual Banks would eventually build an entire company around. By her own telling she was the “ugly duckling” of her school years, a sudden growth spurt at 11 leaving her taller and thinner than every kid around her and a target for teasing, an experience she has repeatedly named as the root of her later fixation on self-esteem work.
The path in was neither glamorous nor quick. At 15, while a student at the Catholic girls’ school Immaculate Heart in Los Angeles, Banks started modeling with a portfolio her mother helped assemble, and four agencies turned her down before L.A. Models signed her. At 16 she moved to Elite Model Management, one of the world’s largest agencies, and shot her first print work for the teen magazine Seventeen in 1990. Scouting and signing at those ages was standard industry practice at the time, and Banks has since been pointed about what the business asks of teenagers; her own account of those years, in the 2018 book Perfect Is Boring co-written with her mother, is one of the franker records of it.
She graduated from Immaculate Heart in 1991 and enrolled at Loyola Marymount University, then never attended a class: the offer to model the European collections came first, and she took it. The gamble paid off within a single season. Her 1991 Paris Fashion Week debut produced a reported 25 show bookings, a number the fashion press treated as a record for a newcomer, and the college plan quietly became a story she tells about the moment a career chose her.
Career Highlights and Milestones
The Paris arrival made her a couture name almost overnight. Across the early 1990s Banks walked for Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Oscar de la Renta, Givenchy, Valentino, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, and Donna Karan, and stacked editorials across the American, French, Italian, and Spanish editions of Vogue, multiple editions of Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, and covers from Spanish Vogue to Cosmopolitan. Fashion’s comparison machine dubbed her the new Naomi Campbell, a label both models have since described as the industry’s way of admitting it had room for only one Black star at a time. The couture window, though, closed early. As her body changed in her early twenties, the high-fashion bookings thinned, and Banks made the decision that defines everything after: she declined to shrink herself for the sample rack, left the Paris circuit, and re-aimed the career at the American commercial market, where a CoverGirl cosmetics contract signed in 1993 made her one of the first Black models fronting the brand.
The pivot produced the most consequential run of magazine firsts in 1990s modeling. In February 1996 Banks became the first African American woman on the cover of GQ. That same year she shared the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover with Valeria Mazza, the first time a Black model had appeared on it, shot by Walter Iooss Jr. in South Africa. In February 1997 she went one better: the first Black woman alone on the Swimsuit cover, photographed by Russell James on Harbour Island in the Bahamas, fronting the first stand-alone edition of the franchise, which sold in 32 countries and made her, in the magazine’s own machinery, America’s most visible model. Victoria’s Secret completed the picture. Banks had walked the brand’s show since 1996 and become the first Black model on its catalog cover; in 1997 she joined the original class of contracted Angels and wore that year’s $3 million Diamond Dream Fantasy Bra, the Harry Winston showpiece, returning in 2004 for the $10 million Heavenly 70 by Mouawad. By the early 2000s she ranked among the world’s top-earning models, and when she retired from the runway at the 10th Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in November 2005, scepter in hand, the press covered it like a state occasion.
What looked like an ending was a handover from the image to the infrastructure. America’s Next Top Model, which Banks created, executive produced, and hosted from its May 2003 premiere on UPN, ran 24 US cycles through 2018, with Banks fronting all but one (Rita Ora hosted cycle 23 before Banks returned for the finale season), and licensed into dozens of international Top Model editions. The Tyra Banks Show (2005 to 2010) won back-to-back Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show Informative in 2008 and 2009, and delivered the era-defining 2007 broadcast in which Banks, responding to tabloid photographs mocking her body, put the same swimsuit back on and told her critics to “kiss my fat ass,” a moment that predates the body-positivity vocabulary it helped create. She hosted America’s Got Talent in 2017 and 2018 and Dancing with the Stars from 2020 through 2022, latterly alongside Alfonso Ribeiro, completed Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management executive program in February 2012 (and absorbed a round of press clarifying it was not an MBA), guest-lectured on personal branding at Stanford in 2016, published the New York Times bestselling novel Modelland in 2011, and folded it all into Bankable Productions, the company behind her shows and the 2008 film The Clique.
The current chapter is the most unexpected one. Banks returned to modeling only twice and both times on her own terms: a third Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover in May 2019 at age 45, shot by Laretta Houston in the Bahamas under the banner of her short-lived alter ego BanX, and the closing walk of the revived Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on October 15, 2024, at 50, her first appearance on that runway since 2005. In late 2023 she relocated to Sydney, Australia, with her son and her partner to build SMiZE & Dream, the ice cream company she founded in 2020 as a tribute to her mother, opening its flagship in Darling Harbour in 2025 and going globally viral that September with the world’s first “hot ice cream.” The Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, released in February 2026, reopened the reckoning with the show’s harsher moments; Banks participated, then sued Netflix and the producers in June 2026, alleging her interview was deceptively edited into a defamatory narrative, a claim the courts have yet to resolve. A month later she was back on television anyway, joining Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia, and Law Roach on the Project Runway judging panel for season 22, which premiered July 9, 2026.
Selected Career Highlights
- Signs with Elite Model Management at 16 and shoots her first print work for Seventeen (1990)
- Makes her runway debut at Paris Fashion Week, booking a reported 25 shows in her first season (1991)
- Signs a CoverGirl cosmetics contract and begins a recurring role as Jackie Ames on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1993)
- Becomes the first African American woman on the cover of GQ (February 1996)
- Becomes the first Black model on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover, shared with Valeria Mazza (1996)
- Lands the first solo Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover by a Black woman, fronting the franchise’s first stand-alone edition (February 1997)
- Joins the original Victoria’s Secret Angels and wears the $3 million Diamond Dream Fantasy Bra (1997)
- Stars as Eve in the Disney television movie Life-Size and as Zoe in Coyote Ugly (2000)
- Creates, produces, and hosts America’s Next Top Model, premiering on UPN (May 2003)
- Wears the $10 million Heavenly 70 Fantasy Bra (2004)
- Takes her farewell runway walk at the 10th Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show weeks after launching The Tyra Banks Show (2005)
- Wins back-to-back Daytime Emmy Awards for The Tyra Banks Show (2008, 2009)
- Completes Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management executive program (February 2012)
- Returns from modeling retirement at 45 for a third Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover (May 2019)
- Closes the revived Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show at 50, her first walk on that runway in 19 years (October 15, 2024)
- Opens the SMiZE & Dream flagship in Sydney’s Darling Harbour after relocating to Australia (2025)
Major Recognition
- Two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show Informative, The Tyra Banks Show (2008, 2009)
- VH1 Supermodel of the Year (1997)
- Named to the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people (2006), one of only a handful of women the magazine has ranked repeatedly
- Ranked among Models.com’s Legendary Supermodels, a list of just seventeen names
- Fashion Icon award, The Daily Front Row’s Fashion Los Angeles Awards (2025)
- People‘s 50 Most Beautiful People (1994 and 1996)
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Awards and Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Context | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | People‘s 50 Most Beautiful People | Annual list | First of two selections, at the height of the CoverGirl era | Selected |
| 1996 | People‘s 50 Most Beautiful People | Annual list | Second selection, the year of the GQ and SI Swimsuit firsts | Selected |
| 1997 | VH1 Fashion Awards | Supermodel of the Year | The industry’s television-era crown, in the year of the solo SI cover and the Angels signing | Won |
| 1999 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Supermodel | Winner in the awards’ inaugural year, a marker of her crossover with a young television audience | Won |
| 2006 | Time | Time 100, the world’s most influential people | Recognized for the Top Model and talk show empire; one of a handful of women the magazine has ranked repeatedly | Selected |
| 2008 | Daytime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Talk Show Informative | The Tyra Banks Show, as host and executive producer | Won |
| 2009 | Daytime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Talk Show Informative | The Tyra Banks Show, back-to-back | Won |
| 2010s | Models.com | Legendary Supermodels ranking | One of only seventeen models given the industry database’s highest tier | Inducted |
| 2025 | The Daily Front Row’s Fashion Los Angeles Awards | Fashion Icon | Honored April 24, 2025, at The Beverly Hills Hotel, six months after the Victoria’s Secret return | Awarded |
Selected Campaigns & Covers
| Year(s) | Campaign / Cover | Brand / Publication | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Paris Fashion Week debut season | Chanel; Yves Saint Laurent; Oscar de la Renta; others | Runway | A reported 25 bookings in a first season, the number that made her name before a single major cover. |
| 1990s | European and American editorial run | Vogue, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar international editions | Editorial | The market-spanning portfolio of the couture years; covers from Spanish Vogue to Cosmopolitan. |
| 1993–2000s | CoverGirl contract | CoverGirl | Ambassadorship | One of the brand’s first Black faces; later the prize contract awarded to America’s Next Top Model winners. |
| February 1996 | Cover | GQ | Cover | The first African American woman on the cover of GQ, at the peak of the commercial pivot. |
| 1996 | Swimsuit Issue cover, with Valeria Mazza | Sports Illustrated | Cover | The first Black model on the Swimsuit cover; shot by Walter Iooss Jr. in South Africa. |
| February 1997 | Swimsuit Issue solo cover | Sports Illustrated | Cover | The first Black woman alone on the cover, fronting the first stand-alone Swimsuit edition; shot by Russell James on Harbour Island. |
| 1996–2005 | Victoria’s Secret shows, catalog, and campaigns | Victoria’s Secret | Campaign | First Black model on the catalog cover; original contracted Angels class of 1997. |
| 1997 | Diamond Dream Fantasy Bra | Victoria’s Secret / Harry Winston | Campaign | The $3 million showpiece of her first Angel year. |
| 1999 | Fantasy Bra runway walk | Victoria’s Secret | Runway | The first Angel to walk a runway in a Fantasy Bra, wearing the 1996 Million Dollar Miracle Bra. |
| 2004 | Heavenly 70 Fantasy Bra | Victoria’s Secret / Mouawad | Campaign | The $10 million piece that never walked: the show was skipped that year for the Angels Across America tour. |
| November 2005 | Farewell walk, 10th Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show | Victoria’s Secret | Runway | The retirement walk, red look and scepter, closing the modeling career at 31. |
| May 2019 | Swimsuit Issue cover, third appearance | Sports Illustrated | Cover | Out of retirement at 45 under the BanX banner; shot by Laretta Houston in Great Exuma. |
| October 2024 | Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2024 | Victoria’s Secret | Runway | Closed the revived show at 50, her first VS runway since 2005: the closing slot as a conferred distinction. |
Agency & Representation History
| Years | Agency / Representation | Market(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989–1990 | L.A. Models | Los Angeles | Signed at 15 after four agencies passed; the portfolio her mother helped build. |
| 1990–2000s | Elite Model Management | Worldwide (Los Angeles, Paris, Milan, New York) | Signed at 16; the agency behind the 1991 Paris debut and the European editorial years. |
| 2010–2010s | IMG Models | Worldwide (New York) | Re-signed in May 2010 as the Bankable media businesses expanded. |
| 2005–present | Self-directed via The Tyra Banks Company | Worldwide | The post-retirement career run in-house; the 2019 SI and 2024 Victoria’s Secret returns booked on her own terms. |
Business & Media Ventures
| Years | Venture / Production | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003–present | Bankable Productions / The Tyra Banks Company | Founder | Began as Ty Ty Baby Productions; produced America’s Next Top Model, The Tyra Banks Show, and the 2008 film The Clique. |
| 2003–2018 | America’s Next Top Model | Creator, host, executive producer | 24 US cycles, all but one hosted by Banks; licensed into dozens of international Top Model editions. |
| 2005–2010 | The Tyra Banks Show | Host, executive producer | Two Daytime Emmy Awards; the “kiss my fat ass” broadcast of 2007. |
| 2014 | TYRA Beauty | Founder | Direct-sales cosmetics line launched out of the Harvard OPM years. |
| 2020–present | SMiZE & Dream | Founder | Packaged ice cream in California, pop-ups in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Dubai, and the 2025 Sydney flagship; the reason she moved to Australia. |
Net Worth, Income, & Lifestyle
| Net Worth (2026) | Public estimates vary widely. Banks has not disclosed a verified net worth figure; outlets citing CelebrityNetWorth put the number near $90 million in early 2026. Treat figures found online as unconfirmed. |
| Income Sources | Modeling fees and covers; television creation, hosting, and executive producing (America’s Next Top Model, The Tyra Banks Show, America’s Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars); format licensing; books; the SMiZE & Dream ice cream business. |
| Contracts & Brand Partnerships | The CoverGirl contract (from 1993) and the Victoria’s Secret Angel contract (1997–2005) were the career’s financial engines, worth far more than editorial day rates. Forbes estimated her 2009 earnings at $30 million, and The Hollywood Reporter put her Top Model salary near $18 million a year in 2008; both are reported figures, not disclosures. |
| Properties & Assets | Most detailed financial and property information is kept private. Reliable public documentation is limited, though US coverage has long noted her home renovations and sales as a side income. |
| Lifestyle | Based in Sydney, Australia, since late 2023 with her son and partner; the flagship scoop shop is a working part of her week, and US television commitments keep her commuting across the Pacific. |
Social Media & Online Presence
| Official account: @tyrabanks (verified). The anchor account, mixing archival modeling material, SMiZE & Dream promotion, and the 2024 runway-return content. | |
| TikTok | Official account: @tyrabanks, with the brand account @smizeanddream driving the viral hot ice cream moment of 2025. |
| X (Twitter) | Official account: @tyrabanks (verified); used sparingly, historically for cover reveals and announcements. |
| Official public page under her name, largely mirroring Instagram content. | |
| YouTube | SMiZE & Dream brand channel; no active personal channel of note. |
| Agency Profile | Career profile at Models.com, where she sits on the Legendary Supermodels list. |
| Official Website | Brand site at smize.com, currently her primary web presence. |
NOTE: In addition to any official accounts listed above, many fan-run pages, appreciation accounts, and fashion-history accounts exist across platforms. These are not confirmed to be affiliated with Tyra Banks or her team. Links and usernames can change at any time.
Trivia & Lesser-Known Facts
- Four agencies rejected her before L.A. Models said yes, a fact she has repeated for decades as the founding text of her self-esteem work and of America’s Next Top Model itself.
- Before the acting career, she was a fixture of early-1990s music video casting: Michael Jackson’s “Black or White,” George Michael’s “Too Funky” (alongside Linda Evangelista), Tina Turner’s “Love Thing,” and Lionel Richie’s “Don’t Wanna Lose You.”
- She was the first Angel ever to walk a runway in a Fantasy Bra, wearing Claudia Schiffer’s 1996 Million Dollar Miracle Bra at the 1999 Victoria’s Secret show; her own 2004 Heavenly 70, at $10 million the more expensive piece, never made it down a catwalk because the brand skipped that year’s show for a national tour.
- Her Harvard credential is real but routinely misreported: she completed the Owner/President Management executive education program in February 2012, not an MBA, and Harvard Business School built a case study around her company while she was there.
- The word “smize,” coined on America’s Next Top Model, has outlived the show as her most durable piece of intellectual property: it names her ice cream company, whose every tub hides a “SMiZE SURPRiZE” treat at the bottom.
- Her Washington, D.C. ice cream pop-up in July 2024 drew then Vice President Kamala Harris as a customer, a year before the Sydney flagship made “hot ice cream” a global headline.
Quotes
“I never thought that I would be back on this runway, to be honest.”
– Tyra Banks, Victoria’s Secret social media video ahead of the 2024 Fashion Show (September 2024)
“First is hard. First is lonely. But first is necessary.”
– Tyra Banks, Instagram post on barrier-breaking, published as Victoria’s Secret relaunched its spokesmodel program (June 2021)
“I was stomping because I felt like I was a vessel.”
– Tyra Banks, The Drew Barrymore Show, on the 2024 Victoria’s Secret closing walk (October 2024)
“This is for everybody that has been told that they are not good enough.”
– Tyra Banks, X (Twitter), announcing her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit return cover (May 2019)
“My mum sacrificed so much to make her dreams come true.”
– Tyra Banks, New Idea interview on the founding of SMiZE & Dream (2025)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: What is Tyra Banks’s age?
A: She is 52, born December 4, 1973, in Inglewood, California.
Q: What is Tyra Banks best known for?
A: Two things, really: the barrier-breaking 1990s modeling career, including the first GQ and solo Sports Illustrated Swimsuit covers by a Black woman and the original Victoria’s Secret Angels class, and the television empire she built after it, above all America’s Next Top Model and the concept of the “smize.”
Q: Which agency represents Tyra Banks?
A: None in the traditional sense today; her work runs through her own companies, The Tyra Banks Company and SMiZE & Dream. She came up through L.A. Models and Elite Model Management and re-signed with IMG Models in 2010.
Q: How was Tyra Banks discovered?
A: She was not scouted so much as she persisted: she began modeling at 15 in Los Angeles with a portfolio her mother helped build, was rejected by four agencies, signed with L.A. Models, moved to Elite at 16, and left for the Paris collections at 17.
Q: Is Tyra Banks still modeling?
A: She retired from the runway in 2005 and models only selectively: a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover in 2019 and the closing walk of the 2024 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Her working life now centers on SMiZE & Dream and television, including the Project Runway judging panel from 2026.
Q: What are Tyra Banks’s most famous campaigns and covers?
A: The February 1996 GQ cover, the 1996 and 1997 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit covers, the CoverGirl contract from 1993, the Victoria’s Secret Angel years with the 1997 and 2004 Fantasy Bras, and the 2019 SI return cover.
Q: Does Tyra Banks have official social media?
A: Yes: @tyrabanks on Instagram, TikTok, and X, plus the SMiZE & Dream brand accounts and site. Details are in the Social Media & Online Presence table above.
Upcoming Campaigns & Projects
- Project Runway season 22 (Freeform, premiered July 9, 2026): Banks joined the judging panel in a recurring role alongside Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia, and Law Roach; episodes air through the summer and stream on Hulu and Disney+.
- SMiZE & Dream New York City expansion (announced October 2025): an October 2025 company announcement said the Hot Mama hot ice cream line would come to New York; rollout details and timing remain the company’s to confirm and should be treated as subject to change.
- SMiZE & Dream in Australia (no dates announced): Banks has said publicly she wants “many shops” in the country beyond the Darling Harbour flagship; no specific openings have been announced.
- Banks v. Netflix (filed June 2026): her defamation suit over Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is in its early stages; any trial or resolution timing is unannounced and the matter is unresolved.
Interviews & Features
- Variety, “Tyra Banks Sues Netflix for Defamation Over ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Docuseries” (June 13, 2026), the clearest account of the lawsuit’s claims and the disputed edit.
- Andscape, “Tyra Banks’ winter 1997 ‘Sports Illustrated’ cover” (December 2016), the definitive oral history of the cover that made her a household name, with the photographer and editor on record.
- WWD, “Tyra Banks Reflects on Last Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Walk Nearly 20 Years Ago Before 2024 Runway Return” (September 2024), the trade’s framing of the comeback, with her own account of the 2005 farewell.
- TODAY.com, “Tyra Banks: Smize & Dream Ice Cream Shops To Include ‘Immersive Theater'” (April 2025), the fullest interview on the Sydney move and the business thinking behind the ice cream brand.
- SI Swimsuit, “Tyra Banks Reflects on Being the First Black Woman on the Cover of the SI Swimsuit Issue” (October 2024), the publication’s own retrospective, useful for the full record of her issue appearances.
Public Appearances & Events
- Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2024, New York (October 15, 2024): closed the revived show at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York, her first walk for the brand since 2005, taking the runway after a performance by Cher.
- Fashion Los Angeles Awards, Beverly Hills (April 24, 2025): received the Fashion Icon award at The Daily Front Row’s ninth annual ceremony at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills.
- SMiZE & Dream flagship opening, Sydney (April 2025): opened the brand’s Darling Harbour flagship in Sydney, unveiling the store to her mother Carolyn in a widely shared surprise reveal.
- SXSW Sydney, Sydney (October 2025): appeared on stage in Sydney with Uber’s regional advertising head to announce SMiZE & Dream’s exclusive Uber Eats delivery partnership.
