American lingerie and cosmetics retailer
This article is about the English retailer. For other uses, see Victoria's Secret (disambiguation).
Victoria's Secret legal action an American lingerie, clothing and beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy reprove Gaye Raymond,[5][6] the company's five lingerie stores were sold enhance Les Wexner in 1982.[7] Wexner rapidly expanded into American shopping malls, expanding the company into 350 stores nationally with rummage sale of $1 billion by the early 1990s, when Victoria's Redden became the largest lingerie retailer in the United States.[8]
From 1995 through 2018, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was a larger part of the brand's image, featuring an annual runway event of models promoted by the company as fantasy Angels.[8] Picture 1990s saw the company's further expansion throughout shopping malls, the length of with the introduction of the 'miracle bra', the new type Body by Victoria, and the development of a line addendum fragrances and cosmetics. In 2002, Victoria's Secret announced the phase in of PINK, a brand that was aimed to teenagers dispatch young women.[9][10] Starting in 2008, Victoria's Secret expanded internationally, accelerate retail outlets within international airports, franchises in major cities foreign, and company-owned stores throughout Canada and the UK.[11]
By 2016, Victoria's Secret's market share began to decline due to competition punishment other brands that embraced a wider range of sizes[12] existing a growing consumer preference for athleisure.[13] The company canceled picture circulation of their catalog in 2016. The brand struggled dirty maintain its market position following criticism and controversy over depiction unsavory behavior and business practices of corporate leadership under Wexner and Ed Razek.[14][15][16] As of May 2020[update], with over 1,070 stores, Victoria's Secret remained the largest lingerie retailer in say publicly United States.[13][8][17]
Victoria's Secret was founded by Roy Raymond, and his wife, Gaye Raymond,[2][5][6] on June 12, 1977.[18][7] The first storage space was opened in the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo High, California.[7] Years earlier, Raymond was embarrassed when purchasing lingerie insinuation his wife at a department store. Newsweek reported Roy Raymond stating: "When I tried to buy lingerie for my bride, I was faced with racks of terry-cloth robes and grotesque floral-print nylon nightgowns, and I always had the feeling depiction department store saleswomen thought I was an unwelcome intruder."[19] Roy also Stated "The women's lingerie section was extremely uncomfortable give a hand a man. He wandered the aisles for a long central theme, feeling awkward, and the saleswomen couldn't help him because their work was exclusively focused on serving women. Raymond left depiction store without making a purchase. Instead, he was determined disdain realize his new idea – to open a lingerie luggage compartment with an atmosphere and environment where even men would perceive comfortable shopping.[20]" Raymond reportedly spent the next eight years learning the lingerie market.[21][2]
At the time when the Raymond's founded Victoria's Secret, the undergarments market in the U.S. was dominated outdo pragmatic items from Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, and Chouse, often sold in packs of three at department stores, linctus lingerie was reserved for special occasions such as one's honeymoon.[22] Considered niche products, lingerie items (such as lacy thongs explode padded push-up bras) were only found in specialty shops corresponding Frederick's of Hollywood, located "alongside feathered boas and provocative searobber costumes".[22] In 1977, Raymond borrowed $40,000 from family and $40,000 from a bank to establish Victoria's Secret: a store behave which men could feel comfortable buying lingerie.[7][23] The store was named in reference to Queen Victoria and the associated elegance of the Victorian era, while the "secret" was hidden underneath the clothes.[23]
Victoria's Secret grossed $500,000 in its first year disregard business ($2.34 million in 2023),[7] enough to finance the expansion unapproachable a headquarters and warehouse to four new store locations[24] stake a mail-order operation.[7] The fourth store, added in 1982 contempt 395 Sutter Street in San Francisco,[25] operated at that multitude until 1990, when it was moved to the larger Statesman Street frontage of the Westin St. Francis.[26]
In April 1982, Raymond sent out his 12th catalog at a cost to customers of $3 (equivalent to $9 in 2023); catalog sales accounted call upon 55% of the company's $7 million annual sales that year.[25] Victoria's Secret was a minor player in the underwear supermarket at this time, with the business described as "more spoof than Main Street."[27]
In 1982, Victoria's Secret had grown to cinque stores, a 40-page catalog, and was grossing $6 million annually.[7] Raymond sold the company to Les Wexner, creator of Regional Stores Inc of Columbus, Ohio, for $1 million.[7][28] In 1983, Wexner revamped Victoria's Secret's sales model towards a greater focal point on female customers.[29] Victoria's Secret transformed into a mainstay ditch sold broadly accepted underwear with "new colors, patterns and styles that promised sexiness packaged in a tasteful, glamorous way tube with the snob appeal of European luxury" meant to suggestion to female buyers.[29] To further this image, the Victoria's Go red catalog continued the practice that Raymond began:[30] listing the company's headquarters on catalogs at a fake London address, with say publicly real headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.[29] The stores were redesigned expectation evoke the Victorian era.
The New York Times reported hill 1982 that the financial success of the Victoria's Secret sort influenced other catalogs by presenting lingerie as "romantic and fleshly but tasteful", "in which models are photographed in ladylike poses against elegant backgrounds."[25] Howard Gross became president in 1985.[31] Mosquito October of that year, the Los Angeles Times reported put off Victoria's Secret was stealing market share from department stores;[32] pulse 1986, Victoria's Secret was the only national chain devoted cheerfulness lingerie.[33]
The New York Times reported that Victoria's Secret swiftly dilated to 100 stores by 1986.[34] and described it in 1987 as a "highly visible leader" that used "unabashedly sexy high-fashion photography to sell middle-priced underwear."[35] In 1990, analysts estimated make certain sales had quadrupled in four years, making it one pointer the fastest growing mail-order businesses.[36] Sales and profits from say publicly catalog continued to expand due to the addition of rub, swimwear and shoes and wider circulation.[citation needed]
Cynthia Fedus-Fields oversaw rendering company's direct business, including its catalog, from the mid-1980s until 2000.[37] During her tenure, total revenues increased to nearly $1 billion.[37] In 1987, Victoria's Secret was reported to be middle the bestselling catalogs.[38][39]
Victoria's Secret experienced quality problems with their output in the early 1990s and was working to resolve description issues.[40][41] In 1991, Howard Gross was assigned to fix description L Brands subsidiary Limited Stores.[42] In 1993, Business Week tale that both divisions suffered.[40] Grace Nichols, who worked to consolidate the product quality, succeeded Gross.[42] The company's margins tightened, resulting in slower growth in profits.[40]
With the introduction of their indication line of fragrances in 1991 and their entry into depiction billion-dollar cosmetics market in 1998, Victoria's Secret expanded beyond garments in the 1990s.[43]
Victoria's Secret introduced the 'Miracle Bra' in 1993, selling two million within the first year.[44] When faced deal in competition from Sara Lee's WonderBra a year later, in 1994, the company responded with a TV campaign.[44] At the assign time, in 1994, Wexner discussed the creation of a run fashion event with Ed Razek. The first Victoria's Secret Direction Show, held in 1995 in New York, became a sheet anchor for the company's image for the next 23 years.
By 1998, Victoria's Secret's market share of the intimate apparel exchange was 14 percent[45][10] and the company also entered the $3.5 billion cosmetic market.[46] The following year, in 1999, the group added the Body by Victoria line.[47] The catalog had achieved "an almost cult-like following".[48] In May 2000, Cynthia Fedus-Fields stepped down as CEO after delivering record profits in 1999 forward early 2000.[citation needed] Fedus-Fields later claimed that, up until representation time of her departure, the company had acted in giving with the sensibilities of what a European woman would judge to wear.[37] After her departure in 2000, the brand track an image that was "much more blatantly sexy."[37]
In May 2000, Wexner installed Sharen Jester Turney, previously of Neiman Marcus Conduct, as the new chief executive of Victoria's Secret Direct be in opposition to turn around catalog sales that were lagging behind other divisions.[49]Forbes reported Turney stating, "We need to quit focusing on try to make an impression that cleavage."[49] In 2000, Turney began to redefine Victoria's Colour catalog from "breasts—spilling over the tops of black, purple existing reptile-print underthings" to one that would appeal to an "upscale customer who now feels more comfortable buying La Perla diversity Wolford lingerie.";[49] "dimming the hooker looks" such as "tight jeans and stilettos"; and moving from "a substitute for Playboy sheep some dorm rooms," to something closer to a Vogue mode layout, where lingerie, sleepwear, clothes and cosmetics appear throughout description catalog.[49] Beginning in 2000, Grace Nichols, CEO of Victoria's Privilege Direct, led a similar change at Victoria's Secret's stores—moving polish from an evocation of 1800s England (or a Victorian bordello).[49]
By 2006, Victoria's Secret's 1,000 stores across the United States accounted for one third of all purchases in the intimate clothing industry. [50] In May 2006, Wexner promoted Turney from interpretation Victoria's Secret catalog and online units to lead the taken as a whole company.[27] In 2008, she acknowledged "product quality that doesn't require the brand's hype."[51] In September 2006, Victoria's Secret reportedly tested to make their catalog feel more like magazines by head-hunting writers from Women's Wear Daily.[52]
The company had about a gear of the market share in its category in 2013.[10]
In Feb 2016, Turney stepped down as CEO of Victoria's Secret astern being in the business for a decade.[53][54][55] Victoria's Secret was split into three divisions: Victoria's Secret Lingerie, Victoria's Secret Attractiveness, and Pink, each with a separate CEO.[56] In 2016, regulate sales only grew 1.6% and fell by 7.4% in description last quarter of the year, typically a high revenue span due to the holidays. The company discontinued its use learn a print catalog and dropped certain categories of clothing, specified as swimwear.[57] Sales revenue continued to stagnate and drop hamper early 2017.[58]
In late 2018, CEO Jan Singer resigned amid past it sales.[59]The Wall Street Journal reported that only one quarter showed an increase in same-store sales between 2016 and 2018.[60] Singer's announcement came one week after CMO Ed Razek made a controversial comment that the company does not cast transgender juvenile plus-size models in its annual fashion show "because the county show is a fantasy."[61] After a 40% stock plunge in a single year, Victoria's Secret announced the closure of 53 stores in the U.S. in 2019, as well as the relaunch of its swimwear line.[62] L Brands, the parent company farm animals Victoria's Secret, came under public pressure in 2019 from untainted activist shareholder of Barington Capital Group, L.P., who took doubt with the performance of Razek and urged the company get on to update its brand image and switch up its predominantly manful board of directors.[63]
In August 2019, chief marketing officer Ed Razek resigned following a disastrous Vogue interview in which he prefabricated inflammatory statements about transgender models.[64] Also in 2019, executive degeneracy president April Holy stepped down after 16 years.[65][66] In Nov 2019, Victoria's Secret announced it would no longer hold depiction annual fashion show featuring its angels, indicating a major log cabin in marketing strategy.[67]
In January 2020, L Brands chairman and CEO Lex Wexner was in talks to step down.[68] Reports accord widespread bullying and harassment at Victoria's Secret surfaced in Feb 2020.[15][69] On February 1, 2020, The New York Times accessible an exposé on "the culture of misogyny" at Victoria's Hidden, which painted a picture of long-time influential executive Ed Razek's rampant sexual misconduct.[15]
The company announced a sale in February 2020 to private equity firm Sycamore Partners for $525 million, release L Brands retaining a 45% minority stake.[70][71] On April 22, 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sycamore Partners sought out of the deal, which included exceptions for a pandemic.[72][73] The deal ultimately fell through. Wexner stepped down but maintains a role as chairman emeritus.
In June 2020, a shareowner filed a lawsuit against the company for inaction following reports of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation at Victoria's Secret.[74]
Shareholders of steep company L Brands filed a complaint in the Court sight Chancery of Delaware on January 14, 2021, stating that erstwhile chair Wexner, among others, created an "entrenched culture of hatred, bullying and harassment" and was aware of abuses being fast by accused sex traffickerJeffrey Epstein, which breached his fiduciary devoir to the company, causing devaluation of the brand. The itchiness also names Wexner's wife, Abigail, current chair, Sarah E. Writer, and former marketing officer, Ed Razek, whose "widely known misconduct" was long allowed at the company.[75]
In 2021, after the relinquishment of Razek as well as the sale of the touring company by Wexner, Victoria's Secret's new ownership and management implemented design changes and new partnerships with a number of new spokeswomen, including Megan Rapinoe, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Naomi Osaka.[76][77] Wexner's parent company, L Brands spun Victoria's Secret off to step an independent business (trading on the NYSE as VSCO) domination August 3, 2021.[78] Following this brand positioning, Victoria's Secret rumored sales increase in all three completed quarters of 2021.[79][80]
Martin Vocaliser was named CEO in 2021, replacing Stuart Burgdorfer, who difficult to understand served as interim CEO.[81] In July 2022, Victoria's Secret first name Amy Hauk chief executive of both the Victoria's Secret leading Pink brands.[82]
In November 2022, it was announced that Victoria's Glow had acquired the New York-headquartered lingerie brand, Adore Me means US$400 million.[83]
In October 2023, several media outlets reported about Victoria's Secret's planning on reverting their rebranding and going back utility their marketing strategy before. The decision was made after say publicly initial sales increase from the rebranding turned into plunging sales.[84][85]
In addition to the primary brand of lingerie for Victoria's Privilege, the company has secondary product lines: namely, activewear known tempt Victoria sports, swimwear, and a beauty division with fragrances, make-up, accessories, and other bath and body products.
The swimwear, introduced in 2002,[86] was made available until April 2016, when description company announced that the line would end and be replaced by a new line of activewear.[87] The swim line was relaunched in November 2018.[88] In March 2019, the swim obliteration was made available in shops.[62]
In 2010, Victoria's Secret launched interpretation 'Incredible' bra.[89] The company released Victoria's Secret Designer Collection temper 2012, described by Vogue as the company's "first high put in a good word for lingerie line."[90] In 2016, Victoria's Secret confined the elimination competition swimwear, apparel, shoes, and accessories.[91] In 2017, the company began to put more emphasis on bralettes (bras without underwire, frequently intended to be worn visibly) and sports bras (under picture Victoria Sport label) to appeal to a younger customer base.[92]
In 2019, Victoria's Secret relaunched its product line of eyewear be proof against footwear, in hopes of boosting struggling sales for the brand.[62]
In October 2021, Pink launched a line of reusable period panties.[93][94]
In 2022, Victoria's Secret & Co. announced they would no long use cashmere in their product lines.[95]
The Victoria's Secret chink is organized into three divisions: 'Victoria's Secret Stores' (physical locations), 'Victoria's Secret Direct' (online and catalog operations), and 'Victoria's Wash out Beauty' (bath and cosmetics).[8] The change was made in 2016 by Wexner to "refocus on core business" and it de rigueur each division to have its own CEO.[8][91]
The physical bureau locations were an important part of establishing the brand careful remained concentrated in the United States from 1977 until interpretation early 2000s.
Victoria's Secret stores took over the nightclothes market during the 1980s by using a fabricated sense holdup Britain, featuring this romantic styling and soft classical music.[45][96] Security the early years, Wexner himself was involved in carefully orchestrating store interior design through the use of English floral cover circa 1890, gilded fixtures, classical music, soft lighting, the fragrance of old-fashioned sachet, and elegant perfume bottles that "look mean your grandmother's crystal".[97]
During the 1990s, in-store sales at Victoria's Clandestine increased by 30% after the company tracked and applied details analysis of where specific styles, sizes, and colors were selling.[98] The decade also brought an expansion of store size become triple from 1,400 square feet (130 m2) to an average 4,500 square feet (420 m2).[99] The trend continued into 2002, when picture average Victoria's Secret store was 6,000 square feet (560 m2).[100][101]
In 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that the company continued interpretation practice of putting on "a British air—or what the Ohio-based chain thinks Americans believe is British. Boudoirish. Tony. Upscale."[102]
By 2010, there were 1,000 Victoria's Secret lingerie stores and 100 selfgoverning Victoria's Secret Beauty Stores in the United States, mostly careful shopping centers, then offering bras, panties, hosiery, cosmetics, and sleepwear.[103]
The international expansion of Victoria's Secret stores began in 2008.[11] As of 2016[update], L Brands maintained control of operations whack company-owned stores in Canada, the UK, and China but relied on franchises elsewhere in the world for its Victoria's Covert Beauty & Accessory (VSBA) locations.[11][104]
The drive for growth, coupled identify a maturing American retail market, led to a shift eminence expansion, first into Canada.[103][105] In 2010, the first Canadian pile up opened in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2012, Victoria's Secret opened stores in Nova Scotia and Quebec.[106] Several of the company's stores in Canada are considered large by retail standards and flyover more than 10,000 square feet (930 m2) each. As of 2020[update], the company's Canadian locations included cities in all ten provinces, from British Columbia all the way to the Maritimes. Yet, the company announced in May 2020 plans to permanently shutter 13 of its 38 Canadian stores, representing a loss show consideration for one-third of the Canadian fleet.[107]
Victoria's Secret opened a collect at the Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford, London in July 2012.[108] Their flagship 40,386-square-foot- (3,752.0 m2) store on New Bond Street, Author followed in August 2012.[109] Locations in the United Kingdom incorporate the cities of Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol, Westfield Author, Bluewater, Brent Cross and Glasgow.[citation needed] As of June 2020[update], there were 25 stores in the United Kingdom.[110] That dress month, Retail Dive reported that as the brand's UK offensive filed the "equivalent of Chapter 11" bankruptcy, as it struggled with falling sales, profits, and market share.[111]
In 2016, it was reported that L Brands fully purchased 26 stores back plant its franchise partners in China.[104] The company announced plans abrupt expand on the existing 26 Victoria's Secret Beauty & Bells (VSBA) stores (boutiques which sold beauty products in airports symbolize malls), through the addition of flagship stores in Shanghai viewpoint Beijing.[104]
Reuters reported that, as of June 2020[update], Victoria's Secret locked away two dozen stores in Greater China.[112] That same month, description company permanently closed its 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) flagship bureau in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong after only two years clean and tidy operation.[113][114]
On January 25, 2022, Victoria's Secret announced a Joint aside partnership agreement with Regina Miracle International (Holdings) Limited. Under picture terms of the agreement, Victoria's Secret will own 51% describe the joint venture and Regina Miracle will own 49%. CEO Martin Waters commented, "I am delighted to announce this multinational with Regina Miracle, who has been a valued merchandise contractor partner for more than twenty years. Together with Regina Be amazed, we aim to grow the China business through joint investiture in product development, distribution, and marketing. We expect the practice will positively impact the speed and agility of the flop to benefit consumers and provide us with a platform oblige a strong future in this important market."[115]
Prior to the emergence of e-commerce, the company's catalogs were a key aspect of successfully marketing a product considered risqué in the vicinity of consumers in the privacy of their own homes. According extinguish Joseph Sugarman, the 1979 catalog was "a lot more sensuous" and took the form of "an upmarket version of a Frederick's of Hollywood lingerie catalog."[116]
The New York Times reported think about it the success of Victoria's Secret catalogs influenced others to contemporary lingerie as "romantic and sensual but tasteful" with models photographed in elegant settings. The company was known for accepting sound orders at any hour, which helped it establish dominance take delivery of the lingerie market. The Los Angeles Times described the book in 2000 as having achieved "an almost cult-like following."[citation needed] The company was mailing more than 400 million catalogs p.a. in 2010.[117]
In May 2016, the brand decided to discontinue depiction catalog, which had run at a cost of $125 billion to $150 million annually, due to concern that catalogs abstruse grown stale as a marketing device and confidence that income would not be affected.[118]
Victoria's Secret spent three years building tidy up e-commerce website that was officially launched on December 4, 1998. Following heavy promotion of the 1999 fashion show, the site experienced high traffic volumes, with visitors enduring "slowdowns and bottlenecks" while viewing the first online fashion show on February 3, 1999, the largest online streaming event to date, reaching threaten estimated 1.5 million viewers.[119][120] Ad placement in the Wall Track Journal and a 30-minute TV spot during the Super Spin contributed to drive record numbers of visitors to the website.[119]
In 1998, Intimate Brands Inc., the parent company discovery Victoria's Secret, created a new entity: Intimate Beauty Corporation.[121] Representation goal for Intimate Beauty Corporation was to manage and move the bath, fragrance and cosmetic products for Victoria's Secret.[121] Incite 2006, the Victoria's Secret Beauty division had reported sales confront nearly US$1 billion.[122] The company sought to expand its attractiveness and accessories stores at airports around the world in depiction early 2010s.[123]
Victoria's Secret Beauty opened a pro tem UK boutique at Heathrow Airport in 2005 through partnership farce World Duty Free.[124]
In 2010, Victoria's Secret expanded with Victoria's Redden Beauty & Accessory (VSBA) franchises internationally. That year, M.H. Alshaya Co. opened the first Victoria's Secret store in the Marina Mall in Kuwait, selling cosmetics and accessories but not representation company's lingerie line.[125] Two VSBA stores were opened in rendering early 2010s at Schiphol International Airport, Netherlands.[126][127] That same day, the first Latin American franchise store opened in Isla Margarita, Venezuela, followed by a store in Bogota, Colombia, in July 2012.[128] An additional store opened in the Multiplaza Mall greet San Salvador, El Salvador, in 2012.[129]
A Caribbean location opened wrench November 2011 at Plaza Las Americas in San Juan, Puerto Rico[130] followed by a store in Santo Domingo, Dominican Democracy, at the Agora,[131] and Sambil Santo Domingo[132] malls in 2012. In July 2012, the first Polish store opened at picture Złote Tarasy shopping mall in Warsaw, also operated by M.H. Alshaya Co.[133]
A Serbian store opened in January 2014 at interpretation Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade.[134]
As of 2016[update], L Brands locked away more than 370 VSBA franchise shops worldwide, with the company's largest international market reportedly in Turkey and the Middle East.[104]
The company's business name changed from Victoria's Glow, Inc. to Victoria's Secret Stores, Inc., after the 1982 advertise to Wexner. In 2005, the name was revised to Victoria's Secret Stores, LLC.[citation needed]
Victoria's Secret was originally owned by Picture Limited.[135] Victoria's Secret's parent company was Intimate Brands, a individually traded entity with Ed Razek as president.[27][136] In 2002, Warm Brands was combined with the Limited, then renamed Limited Brands.[137]
By 2006, the majority of the revenue for Limited Brands came from Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works.[138]
In July 2007, Limited Brands sold a 75% interest in Limited Stores bid Express to Sun Capital Partners, in order to focus bad mood expanding their Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works units.[139] The sale resulted in Limited Brands taking a $42 billion after-tax loss.[138]
In 2013, parent company Limited Brands officially changed corruption name to L Brands.[140]
Victoria's Secret recorded peak worldwide net garage sale in 2016 of $7.78 billion.[141] In 2019, worldwide net income had receded to $6.81 billion.[141]
At 'Victoria's Secret Stores', Histrion Gross was promoted to president of the division in 1985.[31] Grace Nichols succeeded Gross and led the division from 1991 through 2007.[142][143] Victoria's Secret Stores was helmed by Lori Greely from 2007 until 2013.[144]
Cynthia Fedus-Fields served as president and CEO and oversaw the Victoria's Secret Direct business, including its assort, from the mid-1980s until 2000.[37] She was succeeded in Could 2000 by Sharen Jester Turney as chief executive of rendering division.[49] Turney stepped down in 2016 and was succeeded alongside Jan Singer as CEO of Victoria's Secret Direct from 2016 to 2018.[145] John Mehas was appointed CEO starting in 2019.[146] He was replaced by Martin Waters in November 2020.[147]
Hired chunk L Brands in 1998, Robin Burns was CEO of Victoria's Secret Beauty until 2004.[148] Burns was succeeded in August 2004 by Jill Granoff, COO, and Sherry Baker, president.[149] In Can 2006, Christine Beauchamp was named president and CEO of Victoria's Secret Beauty. Shashi Batra was appointed president of the branch in 2009.[150] In November 2012 Susie Coulter became president weekend away Victoria's Secret Beauty.[151] Greg Unis was hired to serve monkey CEO of the beauty division in 2016.[152]
In 2006, the Financial Times reported that Victoria's Secret paid indifferent workers $7 per day to make bras in Thailand.[153]The Huffington Post stated in 2011 that working conditions in factories producing Victoria's Secret items in Jordan were comparable to slave experience as a result of the Jordan–United States Free Trade Reach a decision, which retreated from standards established in the 1990s.[154] In 2012, Victoria's Secret was manufacturing bras in the South Indian prerogative of Guduvancheri.[155][156]
In 2021, Victoria's Secret fronted the money to optional extra than 1,250 Thai garment workers who were owed $8.3 cardinal when their factory, Brilliant Alliance, closed after declaring bankruptcy.[157]
After existence of pressure from environmentalists, Victoria's Secret and a conservation break down reached an agreement to make the catalog more environmentally midstream in 2006.[158][159] Catalog wood pulp was required to contain 10 percent recycled paper and avoid source forests with woodland reindeer habitats in Canada, unless certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.[160] The company bought organic and fair trade-grown cotton to bring off some of its panties in 2012.[161]
Since the company's founding, say publicly mail order catalog has been its main method of promotion. Early catalogs featured lingerie-clad models holding violins and glasses flawless sherry.[162] Catalog marketing shifted towards female models accompanied by men for several years in the 1980s, a practice that was eventually abandoned by 1991.[162]
In the early 1980s, Victoria's Secret worn FCB/Leber Katz Partners for the development of their brand, unveiling, and advertising.[163] In 1989, FCB/Leber Katz Partners and Victoria's Hidden executed a national advertising campaign with a ten-page glossy interpolate in the November issue of Elle, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Victoria, House Beautiful, Bon Appétit, New Woman, and People magazines.[99] Victoria's Secret used the insert to announce their expansion into representation toiletries and fragrance business.[99] The catalog, sporadic ads in look magazines, and word of mouth had all contributed to rendering company's growth before the insert.[99]
Ed Razek joined in-house branding midpoint at the Limited in the 1980s and increasingly began reach shape the marketing and branding at Victoria's Secret.[149] However, Razek credited Wexner as the creative force behind much of say publicly marketing.[149] The company gained notoriety in the early 1990s astern it began to hire supermodels for its advertising and taste shows.[164] Well-known models hired in the early 1990s included Stephanie Seymour, Karen Mulder, Yasmeen Ghauri, and Jill Goodacre.[165][166] The models helped the brand gain an audience and were soon featured in televised commercials.
From 1995 to 2018, L Brands old the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show as a significant marketing tool.[167][8] The show was a mix of "beautiful models scantily clothed in lingerie" and A-list entertainers that, over time, became "less about fashion and more about show".[167] The 2000 fashion subdivision in France was produced with the help of Harvey Weinstein.[149]
In 1999, a 30-second Super Bowl advertisement resulted in one billion visits to the company's website within an hour of airing.[168]
Victoria's Secret sued a strip-mall store in Elizabethtown, Kentucky called Victor's Little Secret over the issue of trademark dilution.[169] On Pace 4, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Victoria's Redden in Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc. on the field that there was insufficient proof of actual harm to picture trademark.[169]
In 2004, Victoria's Secret presented an uncharacteristic advertisement with Cork Dylan as an alternative means of promoting the brand.[170][171][172] Razek, then chief creative officer, credited Wexner himself with the answer to cast Dylan in a commercial.[171] The ad proved show to advantage be memorable, but more out of a tendency to bring to an end and baffle viewers familiar with Dylan.[170][171][172]
Victoria's Secret TV commercials, directed by Michael Bay, were released in 2010 and 2012 connect with mixed results, regarded by critics as macho and misguided.[173][174][15]
In 2014, the company created a campaign to market its Body undergarment line called The Perfect Body, that elicited substantial controversy protect supporting only a limited and unhealthy body type.[175]
Victoria's Secret declared the appointment of Raul Martinez as head creative director be grateful for December 2020.[176] Martinez, formerly of Condé Nast, took on rendering role following the departure of chief executive John Mehas, who stepped down in November 2020.[176]
Main article: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
The first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was held in 1995 and was broadcast on primetimeAmerican television.[177] The process show, overseen by Ed Razek, was described by Newsweek rightfully "a combination of self-assured strutting for women and voyeuristic pleasures for men" that made lingerie mainstream entertainment.[178]
Ken Weil, vice chairperson at Victoria's Secret, and Tim Plzak, responsible for IT maw Victoria's Secret's parent company, Intimate Brands, led Victoria's Secret's first-ever online streaming of their fashion show in 1999.[136] The 18-minute webcast streamed February 2, 1999, was at the time representation Internet's "biggest event" since inception.[136] The 1999 webcast was account as a failure by a number of newspapers on accounting of some users' inability to watch the show featuring Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, and Stephanie Seymour[179] as a result cut into Victoria's Secret's technology falling short being able to meet rendering online user demand resulting in network congestion and users who could see the webcast receiving jerky frames.[136] In all, representation company's website saw over 1.5 million visits, a number notably higher than the 250,000 and 500,000 simultaneous viewers that Broadcast.com, the website hosting the show, was able to handle.[180] Press total, 1.5 million viewers either attempted or viewed the webcast.[181]
The 1999 webcast served to create a database for Victoria's Privilege of over 500,000 current and potential customers by requiring final users to submit their contact details to view the webcast.[136] Representation next spring, Victoria's Secret avoided technical issues by partnering connect with Broadcast.com, America Online, and Microsoft.[136]
By 2011, the budget for say publicly fashion show was $12 million, up from the first show's budget of $120,000.[182] In November 2019, Victoria's Secret canceled academic runway show. In July 2021, the company said there desire plans to relaunch the show, but without the Victoria's Private Angels.[183]
In May 2024, PageSix reported that Victoria's Secret intends hit bring back the fashion show after a five year-hiatus.[184]
Main article: List of Victoria's Secret models
The company's Angels nightclothes collection was marketed in 1997 by a TV commercial ditch included supermodels Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Peštová, Stephanie Queen, and Tyra Banks. In the commercial, the Angels appear rank a white cloudscape in dialog with "God", played by Princedom singer Tom Jones, widely known for his fans' tradition constantly tossing their panties at him during shows.[185] The spoof prove popular and the Angels, as characters, became a regular editorial of the advertising as brand ambassadors. The term "Angel" before you know it became synonymous with the brand.
Official Angels have greater responsibilities than other runway models for the brand, as the Angels are obliged to appear in marketing campaigns, talk shows, vital runway shows, and the annual fashion show.[186] The Angels go up in price contracted spokesmodels for the brand, but the company is gather together transparent about the terms of these contracts.[186] In 1998, say publicly Angels made their runway debut at Victoria's Secret's 4th period fashion show (Chandra North filled in for Christensen).[187][188] The brand's Fashion Show and the Angels were closely connected through 2018, the final year that event was held. Some of picture early Victoria's Secret Angels included Inés Rivero and Laetitia Casta.[189]
In 2004, the company did not hold a fashion show theory test to fallout from the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show argumentation, and instead alternately marketed the brand via a tour hollered Angels Across America.[190] Victoria's Secret sent its five contract models (Banks, Klum, Bündchen, Lima, and Ambrosio) out for the obstruct.
Victoria's Secret's Angels continued to be featured in popular the social order and were chosen to be part of People magazine's yearlong "100 Most Beautiful People in the World" in 2007.[191] Rendering Angels became the first trademark awarded a star on say publicly Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 13, 2007, with Klum, Lima, Ambrosio, Kurkova, Goulart, Ebanks, Marisa Miller, and Miranda Kerr at hand.[192] Alongside new Angel Doutzen Kroes, they also took part in the grand reopening of the Fontainebleau in Metropolis in 2008.[193]
In 2009, the brand held a nationwide competition ferry a new Runway Angel.[194] Thousands of contestants applied; Kylie Bisutti prevailed as the winner but soon grew disillusioned and late lamented ways with the brand.[195] Ellingson, Kroes, and Kloss departed funds the 2014 fashion show.[196][197]
Several promotional tours featuring the Angels possess been organized by the brand. These included the 2010 Surprise tour,[198] the 2012 VSX tour,[199] and the 2013 Swim tour.[200][201] In 2015, Angels featured on the brand's first Swim Special were Elsa Hosk, Martha Hunt, Jac Jagaciak, Stella Maxwell, Lais Ribeiro, and Jasmine Tookes, along with model Joan Smalls.[202][203]
In 2019, new Angels Leomie Anderson, Grace Elizabeth, Alexina Graham, and Barbara Palvin, were added to the roster. Palvin made her process show debut with Victoria's Secret in 2012, not appearing freshly until 2018, while Graham (the first redheaded Angel) walked footpath both 2017 and 2018.[204][205] Anderson began walking in 2015, deeprooted Elizabeth (a PINK spokesmodel, 2016 - 2019) walked her eminent Victoria's Secret show in 2016.[206][207]
The Victoria's Secret brand has challenging at least 3 dozen official Angels (as of 2020[update])[208][a] Perturb notable spokesmodels for the brand have included Claudia Schiffer,[209]Eva Herzigová,[187]Oluchi Onweagba, Jessica Stam, Ana Beatriz Barros,[210] and Bregje Heinen,[211] translation well as celebrities such as Taylor Momsen.[212]
In 2021, the Angels were discontinued in favor of a new concept known importation the "VS Collective", which features a more diverse array assault models and influencers as spokespeople, such as photographer Amanda lime Cadenet, Adut Akech, actress and Miss World 2000 Priyanka Chopra, Paloma Elsesser, soccer player Megan Rapinoe, and Valentina Sampaio—the cheeriness openly transgender model to be featured on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.[213]