What Happened to Victoria’s Secret?

the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show became a cultural Touchstone that embodied Glitz glamor and sexuality over the course of its 20-year run it's more about the bodies I think I make sure that they don't put stuff on that's like butt naked but following societal shifts and the metoo movement it started to epitomize the company's problems here we go now after a four-year Hiatus the event is back the Victoria's Secret has a delicate tightrope to walk between totally rebranding itself and relying on its successful roots Victoria's Secret was founded in 1977 by Roy Raymond who started the company initially for men to shop for their wives and girlfriends but it quickly became popular among women as well and by the mid 80s and the late 90s Victoria's Secret had on board models like Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks who really brought cultural significance to a brand that really only started in Suburban malls there was so much noise made about the way these supermodels looked they were super tall they were super lean so it really did create a narrowly impossible Beauty standard that very few people could meet by the early 2000s Victoria's Secrets fashion show had millions of viewers every year and it really became a cultural symbol of both what it means to be sexy but also where to buy your underwear and lingerie then in the midst of some highly publicized sexual assault charges against some of Hollywood's Elite a movement started by Toronto Burke back in 2006 explodes online and hashtag me too is everywhere I was sexually assaulted a bunch of times we're here we're woke we are ready once the metoo movement really gained Traction in the U.S and more and more women were coming out with their stories of sexual abuse and harassment questions about all kinds of marketing especially marketing that was perpetuated by men came into question and Victoria's Secret of course was dominated by male leaders you have to be beautiful you have to be athletic you have to be healthy Victoria's Secret Chief marketing officer Ed razak came out and said that the company would never hire transgender or plus size models in its fashion show sales peaked in 2017 at 7.8 billion dollars but beginning in 2018 started to decline people wanted to see body types that looked like them for it not to have its size range be large enough for the average American woman can be really disheartening for a lot of people in 2019 Victoria's Secret said it would cancel its annual fashion show the viewership had been declining for some years which is also evidence of the sort of cultural shift Victoria's Secret has been under Fire for a long time it raises a question about the whole image of the company prior to 2021 Victoria's Secret was part of a larger parent company called L Brands which also owned the limited and Bath and Body Works this is a ladies Paradise Les Wexner who is a prominent Ohio billionaire was at the helm of L Brands and Wexner developed a personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein Epstein used that connection to try to get closer to young women he does have very close ties to Jeff Epstein that will potentially hurt his business a lot in 2020 Wexner her stepped down from his role as CEO Victoria's Secret was spun out of L Brands as its own public company and since it went public in August of 2021 the shares are down more than 65 percent let's talk about skin the landscape of the lingerie and underwear Market was changing consumers were consistently spending more online even before coven 19. small Brands founded on Instagram or direct to Consumer brands that were focused on e-commerce started to eat into market share in recent years we've seen a lot of female fronted Brands like parade like Rihanna's Savage Fenty Brand Nubian skin was one that in the very early days expanded the shade range if you think about the way Lively and Spanx in particular highlighted their female Founders it was a matter of we want this to be comfortable and that contrasts greatly with Victoria's Secret many of them are also still accessible price wise hi everyone Megan rapino here meanwhile Victoria's Secret dives into its Rebrand leaning into diversity and inclusion with several new campaigns we're embedding the eni into our business initiatives that are both internal facing but also consumer facing so touching our customers and supplier diversities the relaunch of the iconic Fashion Show is an opportunity for the brand to put a button on all of these changes instead of a live event it'll Premiere as a film this fall featuring designers from around the world there will be Angels there will be wings and they've said that they are going to work with some of the models that were part of the original production there's a lot of younger Generations who are really idolizing the odds they really do want the glitz and the glamor so there can be that traction there from a year earlier in the first three months of 2023 sales are down 11 and the company said in early June that the full year forecast will be weaker than it originally expected despite the sales decline its power isn't gone Victoria's Secret Remains the largest player in the U.S lingerie Market it has nearly a thousand stores globally it's still selling billions of dollars worth of products every year and it's one of the few public companies in this market and so it doesn't seem like it's going away anytime soon foreign [Music]

Channel: Bloomberg Originals

Views: 35,939

Keywords: Christine Li Edwards, Lindsay Gordon, Madison Mills, Olivia Rockeman, Rihanna, Victoria's Secret, Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Victoria's Secret Stores LLC, models

Id: HGvWse1T-GY

Length: 5min 36sec (336 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 28 2023