NEW YORK The Victoria's Secret "Angels" spread their wings Wednesday night in New York City at the annual Victoria's Secret fashion show.

This was the final Victoria's Secret show for Tyra Banks. The model-turned-actress-turned-television personality has decided to retire her wings and focus on her daytime talk show. She of course made a grand finale wearing next to nothing as she worked the stage. Banks has been on a low-carbohydrate diet for a month to prepare for her big goodbye.

"The end is about new beginnings for me. This is phase two of my career. The beginning of my career was about me, me, me. I think that I think that's the second phase of my life," Banks told Associated Press Television.

It seems the show was about new beginnings for German-born Heidi Klum as well. The model showed off her post-pregnancy body (son Henry was born in mid September) on the runway as hubby Seal performed some of his greatest hits on stage.

Limited Brands Inc. reported a third-quarter loss after it cut prices at the Express apparel chain and bra sales at Victoria's Secret declined.

The loss of $12.3 million, or 3 cents per share, compared with net income of $78.3 million, or 16 cents, a year earlier. Sales were unchanged at $1.89 billion, the Columbus, Ohio-based company said yesterday in a statement.

Lingerie and beauty products retailer Victoria's Secret is bringing back its famous fashion show featuring supermodels decked out in its latest styles, as its parent company Limited Brands Inc. works to reverse its sagging fortunes.

The event, being held on Wednesday, will not be broadcast until December 6 on Viacom-owned CBS, and will also be shown on the Victoria's Secret Web site. The previous fashion show was canceled amid a scandal over Janet Jackson's Superbowl "wardrobe malfunction" and other concerns from conservative groups over scantily clad women on television during prime-time hours.

NEW YORK -- Gisele Bundchen set the tone at the Victoria's Secret fashion show when she stepped onto the runway in a bejewelled bra, tiny red Santa skirt, above-the-knee red boots and a huge grin that said: This is going to be fun.

Unlike designer fashion shows, where models are anonymous hangers for clothes, the lingerie giant encourages models to show some personality. Some, especially Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum and Karolina Kurkova, vamped it up for the cameras last week for the show to be aired Dec. 6 on CBS

A few pieces of lingerie were quite pretty and potentially wearable by the masses, including a hand-beaded lace princess gown with sequin and crystal "snowflake" trim and a light blue strapless bra with organza ruffles and matching panties.

Klum appeared in light-up bra and thong with Swarovski beading. She and husband Seal, who sang, blew kisses to each other.

A lithe brunette with a signature navel piercing, Ambrosio was one of the many Brazilian models to hit it big internationally in the late 1990s. She entered the Elite Look of the Year competition in 1996 and went from there to advertisements for Guess? clothing (the same line which helped launch the careers of Anna Nicole Smith and Laetitia Casta). She has also appeared in ads for Revlon, Giorgio Armani and Victoria's Secret, among many other companies.

Panty-store raiders have hit the Northshore Mall three times in the past month. Peabody police detectives have been sniffing for clues ever since to catch the cunning culprits, who have ripped off more than ,000 worth of Victoria's Secret merchandise.

"Essentially, we are compiling descriptions, comparing one incident to the other to see if it's the same person,'' said Peabody detective Michael Crane. ``It's a very difficult situation, because nobody has come up with a definitive description."

Earlier this year, high-tech tactics led to the conviction of panty-raid ringleader Jennifer Stevanovich, 31, of Andover.

According to a report by Chief Security Officer Magazine, a loss-prevention detective at Victoria's Secret's parent company, Limited Brands, led Andover police to Stevanovich by posing as a customer at an online auction. She was convicted in February of possession of stolen property.

The online investigator tracked Stevanovich to Andover by the return address she used while moving thousands of dollars' worth of panties and other mall-rat essentials on online auction site eBay.

Undercover underwear sleuths on the Web are working with local cops to bust panty-pilfering rings who've stolen tens of thousands of dollars' worth of Victoria's Secret lingerie this year alone in Massachusetts.

bostonherald.com

Media Farm’s Gratuitous Brazilian Model of the Week Award goes to—who else—the Boston Herald, for splashing a picture of Victoria’s Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio on its October 25 cover. The teaser, “Thieves target her hot stuff,” led to a page 7 story that recapped (stay with us here) a loss-prevention trade magazine’s account of a story that broke in Boston nearly a year ago, about an Andover woman who was busted selling stolen underwear over the internet.

But who needs news to be current when you’ve got pictures of hot models and leads like this: “Call them the thong arm of the law”?

NEW YORK, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- IMPERIA, Russia's #1 luxury vodka, will
host an extravagant party following the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on
Wednesday, November 9th at the Lexington Armory. The luxury vodka company is
pulling out all the stops to make this the most spectacular and forbidden fete
in New York City for 2005 -- save possibly for IMPERIA's fireworks-filled
launch on Liberty Island during September's fashion week.
This extravaganza, too hot for TV, will feature 100lbs of caviar and 100
cases of IMPERIA Vodka, which will be delivered by armored truck and security
detail. All will be served by a bevy of sexy Russian beauties.
The coveted invitations will allow the hand-chosen guests to mingle with
some of New York and Hollywood's uber-VIP's and of course, the Victoria's
Secret catwalkers including Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks, Gisele Bundchen, Karolina
Kurkova, Alessandra Ambrosio, Naomi Campbell and Angela Lindvall. The
entertainment will be equally extravagant as the beautiful Dita Von Teese,
shock-rocker Marilyn Manson's fiance, takes the stage for one of her infamous
burlesque shows in a giant IMPERIA Vodka martini glass.

Alessandra

Sexy Photo from Vs Catalog

Alessandra Ambrosio was born on April 11, 1981, in the small town of Erexim in Southern Brazil. She started modelling when she was in a model school and participated in the Elite Model of the Year 1996 contest. This earned her a contract with the Elite agency. Before long, she was hired by Guess? to do the amazing Millenium campaign with fellow Brazilian model Ana Beatriz Barros and the rest is, as they say, history. Today she is living in New York, and is very busy travelling around the world for model jobs. She is one of the most popular models in the Victoria's Secret catalogues along with several other clothing companies. She does fashion shows in Europe, New York and Brazil and has been on the cover and in fashion editorials in major magazines. She was in the famous Pirelli calendar for 2003 with her boyfriend Marcelo Boldrini and Isabeli Fontana. Plus, she has the sexiest name in the world of models. Just the facts:

Birthday: April 11, 1981
Birthplace: Erexim, Rio Grande do Sul
Nationality: Brazilian
Height: 5' 9" = 175cm
Weight: Unknown, but it looks fine
Bust: 34" = 86cm
Waist: 23½" = 60cm
Hips: 35" = 89cm
Hair colour: Brown
Eye colour: Brown