Rise and fall of Victoria’s Secret laid bare in recent book

Fashion journalists Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez dive into a lingerie retail giant’s history in their recent book “Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon.”

Founded in California in 1977, the business grew from a tiny chain of boutiques to a retail phenomenon with more than $8 billion in annual sales at its peak. Its supermodel spokeswomen, known as the Angels, personified a recent beauty standard.

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion display returned on Oct. 15, after a multiyear hiatus.

ABC information’ Linsey Davis sat down with Sherman and Fernandez to talk about why they decided to write this book, how the business’s fortunes changed and the possibility of the brand being reinvented.

ABC information: Women in lace, leather and feathers. It’s the iconic image of one of the most innovative brands in retail history, a chain of tiny boutiques that grew into a lingerie empire to become one of the best known secrets in America.

Puck correspondent Lauren Sherman and The Cut’s Chantal Fernandez interviewed dozens of former and now executives to bring us the narrative of the rise and fall of Victoria’s Secret in their book, “Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon.”

Lauren and Chantal, benevolent enough to join us in studio, thank you both so much for being in here. Lauren, let’s commence with you. Why did you decide that you wanted to receive a look at this really, icon when it comes to the brand of, of fashion and sexy clothing?

SHERMAN: We’ve been covering the fashion business for, combined, I don’t recognize, like 40 years or something, a long period, and thinking about what deserves a book and not an piece.

And this is an epic narrative. It’s a narrative of American entrepreneurship. It’s a narrative of American population because customer population is American population. There was nothing that benevolent of paid close attention to Victoria’s Secret and the impact it had on our population, and we wanted to unpack that.

ABC information: And how would you declare, because by the 1970s, it feels like Victoria’s Secret was already a household name, a fixture really in most malls. Would you declare that they really were able to shape America’s ideals of the standards of beauty and what is sexy?

FERNANDEZ: Yes, particularly as they expanded throughout American malls and began to trade using the Angels and supermodels, especially in the ’90s and the early 2000s. They were so effective at using mass media to promote their brand and to promote this concept of American beauty, American femininity, American women achievement. This, it was all wrapped up in a very powerful image, and it was so successful that it came to define an American beauty standard.

ABC information: And you all write the beauty standards eventually became unattainable. How do you ponder that the, the business’s focus on really selling a specific benevolent of sexy led to that?

SHERMAN: Well, the question is whether or not Victoria’s Secret was reflecting the population or making the population. And sometimes they were shaping the population. They were saying, they were putting the most famous models in the globe on the cover of their catalogs and on their catwalk and saying, this is what beauty is. I ponder it was deeply influential.

FERNANDEZ: They didn’t make this beauty standard, but they sort of perfected it and commercialized it and shared it with America on a mass scale that, you recognize, high fashion luxury advertising didn’t have the same benevolent of reach by virtue of the product and the worth.

ABC information: By 1982, Les Wexner, a quick fashion pioneer, was able to save Victoria’s Secret from insolvency. Do you ponder that this really marks the instant that Victoria’s Secret started selling sexy?

FERNANDEZ: Absolutely. By the period he acquired Victoria’s Secret, he already had a huge network of stores. He had financing apportionment. He was the rationale why Victoria’s Secret was able to expand so quickly across the country and had the executives and the wherewithal to really reach people, because originally the boutiques were much more upscale and he brought it into a more accessible worth point.

ABC information: Now, Wexner also, there’s benevolent of a wrinkle that’s further complicated because of his, what, two-decade connection that he had with [late financier] Jeffrey Epstein. We recognize that the current leadership of Victoria’s Secret chose to not participate with the writing of your book. But how did you all write around, benevolent of, some of the sensitivities related to that?

SHERMAN: Well, we did, we addressed it head on, but we didn’t desire to make the book about the connection between Les Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein, because the narrative of Victoria’s Secret is not about that. It’s, that’s part of it, but it’s not the whole narrative. The whole narrative is there are a million amazing, fascinating executives who did pioneering things, who worked there, and we wanted to highlight them as well.

FERNANDEZ: Its greatest impact was a reputational hit when the business was already at a really frail instant and that was a lot of what we zeroed in on, what did the association with this really disturbing figure cruel for the brand when it was already embroiled in some media criticism around being out of touch?

ABC information: And it seems like to me that the, the, the fashion shows really became iconic, part of the brand really. And why did those leave away?

SHERMAN: They went away because they sort of fell out of fashion and there wasn’t enough demand for them at that point. And the business was going through so much upheaval when they stopped doing them five years ago.

They’re bringing it back because they require to reconnect with the customer. There’s a sense of nostalgia for the times when people celebrated those fashion shows and they ponder that they’ve grown and are going to be able to nail it. Whether they are and whether the customer cares is, is still debatable.

ABC information: It feels like over period, the fashion industry has moved more toward inclusivity and diversity. And that Victoria’s Secret may have been a little slower to adjust to or adopt these ideals of, of beauty as, as bringing more people into the tent. Why do you ponder that is?

FERNANDEZ: Their schedule had worked for them for so long and they were such a large business. Obviously, there should have been more debate within the business at the highest levels of leadership to declare population is really changing and we have to respond to this.

But their, their schedule had worked for them and they thought they could continue to control that connection with the customer by sticking with what had worked and were blind to some of those changes that were, a lot of other fashion brands had already been working on.

ABC information: Do you ponder that the business can reinvent itself at this point, or is the damage too deep?

SHERMAN: It’s a giant business. There are a lot of people who still, who still buy bras from Victoria’s Secret. And so, yeah, of course they have a chance. They still have a customer base. But connecting with the customer is harder today than ever. We live in a really fragmented population and, and customers aren’t as faithful as they used to be. And so winning them back or winning them over in the first place, if they’re really youthful, is going to be extremely challenging and require a very, very sharp schedule.

ABC information: Lauren and Chantal, we thank you both so much for this work. I desire to let our viewers recognize that you can discover “Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon” anywhere books are sold.

And we should note that in 2019, Wexner accused Epstein of misappropriating “vast sums” of his personal fortune more than a decade earlier. Epstein was also accused of trying to involve himself in the recruitment of lingerie models for the Victoria’s Secret catalog.

When ABC information reached out to [former Victoria’s Secret parent company] L Brands, asking whether Epstein ever served as talent scout for Victoria’s Secret, the business did not respond to a request for comment.

We reached out for comment from Victoria’s Secret — they sent us a statement that reads:

“While we appreciate the profit in the history of our business, we remain concentrated on our now and upcoming. Today we are guided by our imagination to celebrate and back women in all we do. We are proud of the advancement we’ve made — and continue to make — driven by an unwavering leadership throng with shared values and relentless imagination to provide the best products and experiences to assist women express their confidence, sexiness and power.”