Victoria’s Secret is an American lingerie, clothing, and beauty retailer. It was founded in 1977 by Roy Raymond, who was looking to buy his wife lingerie and found himself uncomfortable with the whole situation. He noticed there wasn’t a place for a man to buy underwear for a woman without feeling weird and that there was a huge gap in the women’s underwear market.
By 1982, the business was making $4 million, but was approaching bankruptcy since the business was only catering to men. American businessman Les Wexner came forward and recognized that the business would thrive if it switched its focus to attracting women. Even though the company was originally founded for men, the only way for it to succeed was for it to appeal to both genders.
Wexner implemented the idea and built a business that both men and women loved. By 1995, Victoria’s Secret was a global success and was worth $1.9 billion. With the company’s influence and success, Victoria’s Secret created an annual fashion show to showcase their clothing in a high-profile setting. The show is a night filled with celebrities, performances, and fashion.
The first show was in 1995 and instantly became one of the most popular off-calendar fashion events. Young girls and women anticipated the show with its television debut in 2001 attracting 12 million viewers. Little did they know, a history of scandals would engulf the company and ultimately end the show.
The company itself was supposed to define femininity, but the two powerful men that presided over it established a culture of misogyny, bullying, and harassment. Ed Razek, one of the top executives in the company, was the subject of repeated complaints about inappropriate conduct. He tried to kiss models and reportedly touched his crotch ahead of a fashion show. Executives alerted Wexner, who did nothing and the women who complained faced retaliation.
Wexner was known to be demeaning to women, and in 2019 it came out that he had ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was his personal money manager. Epstein had been luring young women in by posing as a Victoria’s Secret model recruiter. This added to the picture of Victoria’s Secret as a troubled organization, leading the company to cancel its fashion show in 2018.
The company faced backlash from body positivity, transgender rights, and #MeToo movements and had the worst ratings in history. In 2020, Razek & Wexner stepped down, selling the majority stake in Victoria’s Secret to a private equity firm.
This past fall, six years later, the fashion show came back bigger than ever. The show was streamed on Amazon Live and Prime Video, in addition to YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The show has 24 million views on YouTube and social media was blowing up with excitement for the show.
Performances were given by Cher, Grammy-winner Tyla, and K-pop star Lisa with the show’s first-all women lineup. Several iconic models returned for the show, inducing Tyra Banks, Gigi Hadid, Candice Swanepoel, and more providing viewers with plenty of nostalgia. New models made their debuts such as Alex Consani, Ashley Graham, Kate Moss, and her daughter Lila Moss. There also was a pre-show pink carpet live stream hosted by Olivia Culpo and Tefi Pessoa getting reactions to the show’s return and building anticipation.
Overall, the show was received well, but people were still reminiscent of what it was years ago. Controversy surrounded the show as some expected more inclusion of body types and diversity. It is hard for a company to come out of the limelight after years and be well received.
Victoria’s Secret took that step and approached it well, but if they want to stay relevant they need to put more emphasis on this generation’s goals. The company is struggling as it has lost relevance for not keeping pace with ever changing societal norms. There is now greater emphasis on body types, skin colors and gender identities within brands. The company has slowly started to diversify itself to appear to more audiences. If Victoria’s Secret focuses on this they have a chance to turn their company around and remain relevant to society’s standards. Hopes are high for this year’s show.