Key Events That Led to the Downfall of the Victoria’s Secret Lingerie Empire.

derwires and strap adjusters.”

This is one of many fascinating facts mentioned in Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American icon . In this work, Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez provide a lively and fast-paced chronicle of Victoria Secret, the retail empire that grew globally on lace and rayon.

Victoria’s Secret angels were once icons of lingerie fashion. Photo: NYT.

But today, even those who don’t know much about fashion and lingerie can tell that the VS brand has been in decline, falling straight from its heyday in the 1990s and 2000s.

And many have sought answers to this rapid decline. In 2022, the three-part documentary Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons, which was released on Hulu, became a hit, focusing on Les Wexner’s murky relationship with financier Jeffrey Epstein. Les was the owner and CEO of Victoria’s Secret, while billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was convicted of child prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.

Epstein’s horrific crimes are also mentioned in Selling Sexy , but only as a side plot among many villainous characters and strategic blunders.

However, the truth is that compared to other businesses, Victoria’s Secret is still a relatively long-lasting brand in the unpredictable retail industry.

As Sherman and Fernandez, both longtime industry chroniclers, put it bluntly in the book’s introduction: “Most fashion brands have a 10- to 15-year creative window before their clout wanes, their name fades, and buyers move on to other new brands.”

There is no Victoria.

Many fashionistas may have wondered about the name of this brand, but in reality, no Victoria has ever revealed her fashion secrets. This character and her chic British bohemian personal style were created in the late 1970s.

And the creators of the character were a San Francisco couple, Gaye and Roy Raymond, who dreamed of selling something unspeakable to adults with sophisticated tastes. At the time, lingerie was typically manufactured in beige, neatly displayed in department stores, and discreetly wrapped in brown paper bags.

The book hit shelves on October 8. Photo: BookTrib.

The couple’s first store, located in Palo Alto, transports customers into a light, elegant bedroom space filled with silk bathrobes and garters at a luxury price point. One standout item is a pair of kimonos for men and women designed by film director Francis Ford Coppola’s wife, Eleanor, priced at $1,200 .

These fashion designs quickly became popular with wealthy bohemians and even became a nationwide fad. However, Roy Raymond’s business acumen outpaced his creativity, and Les Wexner then stepped in, buying the struggling company for $1 million in 1982.

Victoria’s Secret Sales Philosophy

Aretail tycoon from Dayton, Ohio, Wexner had previously found success with the predecessor of the fast-fashion brand The Limited. It didn’t take him long to expand the retail footprint of Victoria’s Secret, which has since transformed from a small lingerie retailer into a global behemoth whose pink and black bags, glossy showrooms, and winged supermodels have become a fashion guide for generations of girls and young women.

This process is at the heart of Selling Sexy , which systematically, if gently, explains the rise and then rapid, chaotic fall of Victoria’s Secret. While many of its creative and strategic leaders were women, its top executives were still men, with Wexner and his longtime deputy, Ed Razek, wielding considerable influence.

While details about Wexner and Razek are scarce, female executives, employees, and other industry experts appear in the book, sharing their perspectives. Using a narrative perspective, Sherman and Fernandez illuminate the role that sexism, racism, and even sizeism played in the company’s downfall. One example is Wexner’s adherence to a “hope, not help” philosophy. They aimed for the perfect body, setting expectations for customers, rather than products that fit women of all shapes and sizes.

But even with Wexner gone, after his ties to Jeffrey Epstein were revealed, the pattern at Victoria’s Secret remains the same. A fashion show is scheduled for October 15, featuring a line-up of supermodels. But it seems women are no longer buying the dream.