Who founded Victoria's Secret, who raised it, what scandals was it subject to?

Leslie Wexner, the little-known owner of Limited Brands, which owns Victoria's Secret, is one of Ohio's richest businessmen. Wexner buys Victoria's Secret, founded by Ray Raymond in 1982, for one million dollars. It transforms the lingerie brand, which makes women feel sexy, sophisticated, and always young, into a retail giant with an annual turnover of 15 billion dollars and ranks 70th in the Forbes world rich list.

As for Victoria's unknowable secret, where most of its profits go as donations: the Heritage Program for North American Jewish Volunteers, the Masters' Fellowship Program in Rabbinic and Judaic Studies, and the Harvard University Master of Public Administration Fellowship Program for Israeli Public Workers.

There is a word specially created for those who donate most of their wealth to support Israel, "Zionaires," and Les Wexner fits just that description.

Scandals

Angels and Jeffrey Epstein

The documentary Angels and Demons, which aired on Hulu TV and Paramount +, denounced the claims behind the 'glare that touted female empowerment through sexuality, the reluctance and inability of executives to create inclusive models, and the brand's ex-CEO Les Wexner's sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It sheds light on the close ties he has established with.

It was a stupid idea but it worked

Director Tyrnauer says her entry into Victoria's Secret's radar is very recent: "In 2019, some Victoria's Secret models started to rebel on social media. I had never really paid any attention to the brand before.” Until then, he hadn't even heard of the 'Angels', which was part of the brand's marketing strategy: "The worst, stupidest, most humiliating, reactionary, backward marketing idea I've ever heard, I thought. But it worked very well in its time.”

One of the most striking aspects of the documentary is the close relationship Lex Wesner, now in his 80s, had with Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his cell as a sex offender in 2019. When Epstein posed for the cameras as Victoria's Secret's 'talent scout' in 1997, it was still unknown to the public that he was a sex offender who gave powerful men access to young women. But the private jet known as the 'Lolita Express', which transported young women to men, was owned by Les Wexner.

The fall of Victoria's Secret began with the collapse of the myth of the 'ideal female body' to which it owes its entire existence. The body affirmation movement, which developed as a reaction to the uniform body aesthetics, and the demand for diversity in gender and race, damaged the brand's image. The MeToo movement, the disclosure label of abused women, is the final nail in the coffin.

Victoria's Secret has been trying to write a new story for itself since 2020. He collaborates with a wide variety of spokespeople, including football player Megan Rapinoe and Indian player Priyanka Chopra Jonas. So, do their efforts pay off? According to some, this is a more modern 'marketing' method in line with the requirements of the age.

In the documentary, Matt Tyrnauer says he "wanted to show how marketing activities hide the ugly truth": "We have to try to understand how some things can seduce us like that. This is where we should look.”

Founded by a young entrepreneur in the mid-70s, Victoria's Secret exploded in the 90s and 2000s to become one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Do you know the interesting story of Victoria's Secret, who was looking for those days with candles as a result of the scandals she experienced in the last 5 years?

Victoria's Secret became one of the most known and most talked about brands in the USA in the late 90s. The brand, which has an important place in the definition of the concept of "sexy underwear", has thus gained a global status.

But in 2016, the tide turned. First, Sharen Turney, who had been in the CEO chair for many years, left the job. In the four years since Turney's departure, sales have plummeted, with customers frequently complaining about deteriorating product quality. As a result, analysts' concerns about the future of the Victoria's Secret brand increased day by day.

In February 2020, company officials took action and announced that 55 percent of the shares would be sold to Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm. Sycamore promised to turn the tide. On the other hand, Les Wexner, CEO and chairman of L Brands, the head company of Victoria's Secret, announced that he is stepping down after nearly 60 years.

But as 2020 drew to a close, Sycamore Partners backed out of the settlement by filing a lawsuit. L Brands first announced they would fight the lawsuit, then confirmed a few weeks later that the deal was canceled.

At the end of April 2021, Bloomberg announced that L Brands was seeking a new buyer. In the news, it was stated that the valuation of the company reached 2 billion dollars, especially due to the increase in sales figures in the last few quarters. Victoria's Secret was worth half that in February 2020.

However, L Brands' latest statement on May 11 stated that instead of selling, Victoria's Secret's operations will be continued as a stand-alone company, not under the roof of the holding. According to the New York Times, L Brands officials stated that they talked to many buyers and said that they concluded that this new scenario would be a more profitable solution for shareholders. The value of Victoria's Secret in this way is expected to be between 5-7 billion dollars.

PRODUCTS FOR WOMEN, TARGET AUDIENCE MEN

Victoria's Secret was founded in 1977 by American businessman Roy Raymond. Raymond, who was 30 at the time, wanted to buy a nice nightgown for his wife, but the colors and patterns of all the products he found in the stores he went to looked pretty ugly under the lights. Moreover, store employees were looking at a man who wanted to buy women's underwear with not-so-good eyes.

Learning that her other boyfriends felt the same way, Raymond had an idea. It would do something that had never happened before and create a store concept where men could easily buy women's underwear. In other words, the products sold were for women, but the target audience was men.

The inspiration for the brand's name, which means "Victoria's Secret", was the period of Queen Victoria in England. Raymond wanted to create a perception of refinement, with the name reminiscent of this period, considered the pinnacle of the British Empire.

Naomi Barr, who penned a profile for Slate in 2013, summed up Raymond's mind as follows: "He dreamed of a Victorian women's room: dark wood furniture, oriental rugs, and silk curtains. She chose it to evoke the idea of dignity. Victoria, who looks so refined on the outside, has her secrets hidden under her clothes.”

ESTABLISHED WITH $80,000, SOLD FOR $1 MILLION

Opening stores in various locations in the USA with a total capital of 80,000 dollars with his own savings and bank loans, Raymond also became the creator of the brand's famous product catalogs.

By 1982, the company's annual sales figures had exceeded $4 million. However, there was news in the newspapers that Victoria's Secret was about to go bankrupt. At this point, Les Wexner stepped in.

Founder of L Brands, formerly Limited Brands, Wexner was already a celebrity in the retail industry at the time. His company was growing day by day and was on its way to becoming an empire. Limited, which started with a single store in 1963, reached 188 stores in 1977. According to Forbes magazine, Wexner, who was 40 at the time, had a fortune of $50 million.

Limited Brands, which wanted to expand by purchasing new brands in the early 80s, bought Express and Lane Bryant in June 1982 and were traded on the New York Stock Exchange. A month later, with Wexner's initiatives, Limited Brand bought Victoria's Secret's 6 stores and catalog for 1 million dollars. (There were reports that the sale was for $4 million in those years, but then the truth was revealed.)

STORES FOR WOMEN, NOT MEN

The first thing Wexner did was turn Raymond's concept upside down. Because Wexner thought that the discomfort that Raymond felt at first was felt by women when they stepped into Victoria's Secret stores.

The laundry was nice, but the setting was not for women. Redesigned with this vision, Victoria's Secret stores have become focused on women, not men. Dark furnishings and crimson velvet were replaced by warmly lit stores, classical music, vintage perfume bottles, and floral and lace products lined up in rows on hangers.

Wexner, who closely follows the European underwear market, wanted to carry his aesthetic understanding to the USA as well. That's why he set out to create a cheaper version of the prestigious lingerie brand La Perla, which is very famous in Europe. Products would still look luxurious and expensive, but their prices would be much more accessible.

Wexner's vision worked. In the early 90's Victoria's Secret became the largest underwear retailer in the USA. 350 stores were reached across the country, and the sales figures exceeded 1 billion dollars.

VICTORIA'S SECRET FASHION SHOW BORN IN 1995

Over the next few years, important steps were taken to strengthen Victoria's Secret's image. In 1995, the first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (VSFS), which later became a tradition, was held.

Ed Razek, who served as the marketing director of L Brands for many years, was leading the fashion shows. VSFS soon became an iconic part of the brand's image.

Razek and his team were choosing the models to walk on the runway one by one. This is exactly why Razek has become one of the most important people in the fashion world. Razek played an important role in the careers of many famous supermodels such as Gisele Bündchen, Tyra Banks, and Heidi Klum.

In 1999, VSFS was first published online. The site crashed with 1.5 million people logging in to watch. TIME magazine described the event as "the internet-breaking moment of the age".

'ANGELLER' CAMPAIGN BROUGHT A LOT

On the other hand, Victoria's Secret continued to launch its best-known and most successful products. Miracle Bra and Body by Victoria series bras with their thick fillings met the consumers in this period. Body by Victoria in particular has been an incredible success. According to Michael Silverstein in his book "Trading Up", Body by Victoria became so popular that it doubled the sales figure of the best-selling bra in Victoria's Secret history.

This is how the concept of Victoria's Secret angel emerged in 1997. Launching the "Angels" (angels) collection at the time, the brand shot a television commercial featuring Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Pestova, Stephanie Seymour, and Tyra Banks. The word "angel" has become almost synonymous with Victoria's Secret in the US, with the advert's overkill.

In the 90s and early 2000s, Victoria's Secret commercials always featured "angels" wearing underwear and heavy make-up. These advertising campaigns were prepared under the leadership of Razek, and the most famous photographers and television directors of the period were working on the projects.

15 MILLION DOLLAR BRA IS AN EVENT

Over time, fashion shows have grown and become very costly organizations. For example, in 2000, Gisele Bündschen took the podium with a $15 million Fantasy Bra. Embellished with diamonds and rubies, this bra went down in history as the most expensive underwear ever produced.

As a matter of fact, in the Fantasy Bra tradition that started in 1996, every year an angel takes the runway wearing these very specially designed bras, this person changes every year. But a Fantasy Bra like the one Bündschen wore had never been seen before.

In 2000, Sharen Jester Turney became CEO of Victoria's Secret Direct, which sells through the Victoria's Secret catalog. According to the news published in the newspapers at the time, Turney was not happy that the photographs in the catalog were a spectacle for men. Instead, she dreamed of a fashion magazine mood for women.

SALES RECORD BROKEN IN 2016

Turney became CEO of the entire company in 2006. Under her 9 years of leadership, Victoria's Secret has seen significant growth. Sales increased by 70 percent, reaching $7.7 billion in 2016.

Turney, however, announced his abrupt resignation the same year. Wexner took over as CEO temporarily. Wexner made major changes with the dust on his feet: he removed the catalog from publication, and canceled the beachwear and outerwear collections, making the focus only on underwear. At the same time, he divided the brand into Victoria's Secret Lingerie, Victoria's Secret Beauty, and Pink and appointed a separate CEO for each. Jan Singer became CEO of Victoria's Secret Lingerie in September 2016.

Between 2015-2018, sales began to decline. The most important reason for this was Victoria's Secret's inability to catch up with the underwear trends. Consumers were now showing interest in bralettes and sports bras, while padded and supportive products still graced Victoria's Secret's shelves.

RIHANNA'S SAVAGE X FENTY FORGET VICTORIA

With the spread of the body positivity trend, brands such as Aerie, ThirdLove, and Lively that adopted this philosophy continued to lose market share while growing. The company was accused of not keeping up with the requirements of the times.

Victoria's Secret was hit hard, especially when Savage X Fenty, owned by Rihanna, entered the market like a bombshell. Savage X Fenty's annual fashion shows, in which models reminiscent of VSFS but with very different body types, walked together on the runway, made the millennials forget Victoria's Secret.

In October 2018, model Robyn Lawley even launched a Victoria's Secret boycott on Instagram. On the other hand, in an interview she gave to Vogue magazine, Rihanna underlined the difference between the two brands with thick lines and said, "My physique is not like a Victoria's Secret girl."

A former employee who prepared the company's catalog in the 2010s told TIME magazine in 2018, "Their mentality seems a bit outdated. Especially if you think that women have too much say today and we don't want to be seen as symbols of sexuality," and summed up the issue.

LOSE 9 PERCENT OF MARKET SHARE

Between 2016 and 2018, the company's market share in the US decreased from 33 percent to 24 percent. Some consumers also complained about the decline in product quality.

The girls' brand Pink, one of the company's most important assets, was also in bad shape. As sales declined, big discounts came to the fore to prevent loss of customers.

"We believe Pink is on the verge of collapse," commented Jefferies analyst Randal Konik in a March 2018 note to investors, regarding the discounts in stores. Some parents thought it was the hypersexuality of Victoria's Secret commercials that brought Pink's end.

WHAT RAZEK SAID WAS THE Apocalypse

The fashion shows, which were eagerly awaited for years, were the target of criticism as much as the brand's products and advertisements. Seen as an outdated event, VSFS began to lose an audience. In November 2018, Razek's comments about plus size and trans models caused an apocalypse on the internet.

In an interview with Vogue, Razek (who was 70 at the time) said that there will be no trans models on the show because VSFS is a fantasy. "It's a 42-minute entertainment special. That's it." Razek also said in the interview that they are considering putting plus-size models on the fashion show, but they always decided against it.

Razek, who later issued an apology, could not get rid of calls to resign but did not leave his seat. On the other hand, less than a week after Razek's comments went viral, CEO Jan Singer's resignation came. Singer was replaced by John Mehas in early 2019.

Mehas started work during a difficult time. Store sales were down 3 percent in 2018, and new brands entering the market continued to reduce Victoria's Secret's market share.

SHAREHOLDERS TAKING ACTION

Shareholders were also quite angry. In March 2019, activist shareholder Barington Capital sent a letter to Wexner, making a series of recommendations for improving growth and "unlocking the substantial value" of Victoria's Secret.

The letter, signed by Barrington CEO James A. Mitarotonda, described the company's image as "outdated".

Mitarotonda wrote: "Unable to keep up with the evolution of women's perceptions of beauty, diversity and acceptance, Victoria's Secret's brand image has come to seem outdated and even insensitive to many."

Barrington also expressed that the imbalance in the company's board of directors is also a problem. At that time, 9 members of the 11-member board of directors were men.

FEMALE MANAGERS COME, RAZEK GOES

Victoria's Secret officials must have found these criticisms to be justified, and after a statement confirming the accuracy of the letter, two more female members (Sarah E. Nash and Anne Sheehan) joined the board of directors. In addition, steps were taken to find a solution to the obsolescence of the company's brand image.

Hungarian model Barbara Palvin, who has a more curvy body compared to classical angels, joined the ranks of Victoria's Secret. This move garnered the appreciation of consumers. On Instagram, comments such as "This model looks healthy and I love it", and "Finally a real human body".

The company also signed a deal with Brazilian trans model Valentina Sampaio. Sampaio, who surprised his fans by sharing a post tagging the Victoria's Secret Pink brand in August last year, was later confirmed by his manager that he signed a contract with the company.

Something more interesting happened that same day: Wexner's e-mail to company employees announced that Razek would resign in mid-August. Then on November 21, a statement from the company confirmed that the VSFS to be held that year was canceled.

L Brands CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer, who spoke with analysts about third-quarter revenues, said, "We will continue to communicate with customers, but it will not be an organization the size of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show."

Wexner previously told company employees in May that Victoria's Secret was "re-evaluating" the show. Model Shanina Shaik, who walks the runway in many VSFS, also said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in Australia in July 2019 that there will be no fashion show.

THE MOST GREAT SCANDAL EXPLOSED IN 2019

While these positive developments were taking place on the one hand, a new scandal broke out in the summer of 2019 on the other. CEO Wexner's ties to Jeffrey Epstein, who was tried and convicted of sexual harassment, have been revealed. Epstein had been involved in managing Wexner's money for many years and tried to interfere with the company's affairs and have a say in model selection, according to former Victoria's Secret executives who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. Some of the abuse victims even made statements that Epstein was trying to take advantage of them using his links with Victoria's Secret.

L Brands' board of directors enlisted an outside law firm to review the company's relationship with Epstein. At an investors meeting in September, Wexner described his relationship with Epstein:

"We've all been betrayed by our friends at some point in our lives. Being taken advantage of by such a sick soul, such a planner, such an immoral person is something I'm ashamed to even pass by. But it's all in the past."

In February 2020, Victoria's Secret announced that Wexner, 83, would step down as chairman and CEO of L Brands, but would remain on the board as honorary chairman. The statement also included information that 55 percent of the company's shares would be sold to Sycamore Partners.

Wexner's press release stated that Sycamore will add a new perspective to the business, emphasizing that "he has deep experience and a track record of success in the retail industry."

250 STORES CLOSED IN THE PANDEMIC

In March 2020, Victoria's Secret stores were closed due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. At the end of April 2020, Sycamore filed a lawsuit and unilaterally terminated the contract, arguing that Victoria's Secret's decision to close stores, cut new inventory and not pay April rent amounted to a breach of the agreement reached in February between the two companies.

In the statement made by L Brands, it was stated that the termination of the contract is invalid and the case will be fought to the end.

On May 4, 2020, L Brands announced that the agreement with Sycamore was mutually terminated. The company also stated that there have been changes in the management staff, and the focus will be on cost-cutting and performance-enhancing measures in the future. In this context, 250 Victoria's Secret and Pink stores in the USA and Canada were completely closed.

In the second half of 2020, the recovery period for Victoria's Secret has begun. The improvement, especially with the increase in internet sales, was reflected in the fourth quarter figures. In a note to clients by Jeffries analysts, recent revenues were described as "admirable".

On April 23, 2021, Bloomberg announced that L Brands had resumed talks to put the brand for sale. Sources speaking to the agency stated that the value of the company could reach up to 3 billion dollars. In the statement made on May 11 from L Brands, it was reported that the sale was abandoned and Victoria's Secret will continue its operations as a stand-alone company, thus making it more profitable for the shareholders.