Like A Diamond

Jasmine Tookes, bearer of the bejeweled bra at last year’s Victoria’s Secret show, is the modeling world’s brightest star

- Sarah Horne Grose

Jasmine Tookes has spent a good portion of the last year draped in $3 million worth of diamonds and emeralds, trailed by a security guard, and jetting from New York to Paris and back again. Christened a Victoria’s Secret Angel in 2015, last year she rocketed to the pinnacle of lingerie model-dom when she was chosen by the brand to don its jeweled “Fantasy Bra”—which is a very big deal, thank you very much. It’s like going from rookie to MVP in just two seasons, and Tookes is elated.

The fact that she’s only the third black model to score that honor—after Tyra Banks and Selita Ebanks—is icing on the cake. When she heard she’d been chosen to wear the pricey undergarment, she cried. “It’s the first time in over a decade [this has happened]. A lot of my followers are African-American girls, and they’re excited. It encourages them and gives them hope…If you want to go for something, go for it.”