| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Apparel |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Headquarters | Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
| Number of locations | 1,040 company-owned stores 18 independently owned stores (January 2011)[1] |
| Key people | CEO of Victoria's Secret Stores: Lori Greeley[2] CEO of Victoria's Secret Megabrand and Intimate Apparel: Sharen Jester Turney |
| Products | Bras, panties, sleepwear, hosiery, women's clothing, lingerie, swimwear, footwear, fragrances and beauty products |
| Revenue | $5,604 million (FY 2009)[2] |
| Parent | Limited Brands |
| Website | victoriassecret.com |
Victoria's Secret is an American retailer of women's wear, lingerie and beauty products.[3] It is the largest segment of publicly-traded Limited Brands with sales of over US$5 billion and an operating income of $1 billion in 2006.[3] Victoria's Secret is known for its annual fashion show, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and for its catalogs, both of which feature top fashion models.
Contents |
Victoria's Secret was started in San Francisco, California, in 1977 by Tufts University and Stanford Graduate School of Business alumnus Roy Raymond,[4] who felt embarrassed trying to purchase lingerie for his wife in a department store environment. He opened the first store at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, and quickly followed it with a mail-order catalog and three other stores.[4] The stores were meant to create a comfortable environment for men, with wood-paneled walls, Victorian details and helpful sales staff. Instead of racks of bras and panties in every size, there were single styles, paired together and mounted on the wall in frames. Men could browse for styles for women and sales staff would help estimate the appropriate size, pulling from inventory in the back rooms.
In 1982, after five years of operation, Roy Raymond sold the Victoria's Secret company, with its six stores and 42-page catalogue, grossing $6 million per year, to Leslie Wexner, creator of The Limited, for $4 million.[5] The Limited kept the personalized image of Victoria's Secret intact. Victoria's Secret was rapidly expanded into the U.S. malls throughout the 1980s. The company was able to vend a widened range of products, such as shoes, evening wear, and perfumes, with its mail catalog issued eight times annually. By the early 1990s, Victoria's Secret had become the largest American lingerie retailer, topping one billion dollars.
Beginning in 1995, Victoria's Secret began holding the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which is broadcast on primetime American television. The show is a lavish event with elaborate costumed lingerie, varying music, and set design according to the different themes running within the show. The show attracts hundreds of celebrities and entertainers, with special performers and/or acts every year.
On July 10, 2007, Limited Brands sold 75% of The Limited clothing chain to firm Sun Capital Partners to focus and boost sales growth on Victoria's Secret lingerie stores and Bath & Body Works units, which provided 72% of revenue in 2006 and almost all the firm's profit.[6] There are 1,000 Victoria's Secret lingerie stores and 100 independent Victoria's Secret Beauty Stores in the US, mostly in shopping centers. It sells brassieres, panties, hosiery, cosmetics, sleepwear, and other products. Victoria's Secret mails more than 400 million of its catalogs per year.[2] Under pressure from environmentalist groups, Victoria's Secret's parent firm and a conservation group have reached an agreement to make the lingerie retailer's catalog more environmentally friendly in 2006. The catalog will no longer be made of pulp supplied from any woodland caribou habitat range in Canada, unless it has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. The catalogs will also be made of 10 percent recycled paper from post-consumer waste.[7]
The company gained notoriety in the early 1990s after it began to use supermodels in its advertising and fashion shows. Throughout the past decade, it has turned down celebrity models and endorsements.[8] The company buys fair trade grown cotton, to make its lingeries, but the Bloomberg has found the supplier employs children to pick cotton on the fields in Burkina Faso. [9]
On October 22, 2008, Victoria's Secret launched a Spanish version of its website.[10]
Victoria's Secret opened their first stores outside the United States in three Canadian cities: Edmonton in August 2010, Toronto in September 2010 and Calgary in May 2011. Edmonton and Calgary have the only four locations in Western Canada, which includes the West Edmonton Mall, Kingsway Mall, Chinook Centre, and Southcentre Mall, while eight locations were opened in Toronto, including Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Toronto Eaton Centre, Upper Canada Mall, Mapleview Centre in Burlington, Sherway Gardens in Etobicoke and Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga in which holds the largest store in Canada. Quebec's first store will open in 2012 at Carrefour Laval.
The first Victoria Secret stores outside North America opened in Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, although these are franchise stores owned and operated by M.H. Alshaya Co primarily offering beauty and branded accessory products.[11]
The Brand’s first Caribbean store opened in November 2011 at Plaza Las Americas in San Juan, Puerto Rico.[12] A second store will open in October 2012 at Sambil Santo Domingo Mall in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.[13]
In November 2004, the company opened its first boutique in the UK at Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5 with the help of World Duty Free.[14] In 2012, Victoria's Secret will open their first 16,500-square-foot (1,530 m2) flagship store on New Bond Street, London [15] as part of two or three stores opening across the city. It also plans further nationwide expansion across the UK. Victoria's Secret executive vice president and chief administrative officer Martyn R Redgrave told WWD "That's what we're looking to do as we expand, in the U.K. in particular, and those will be company-owned and operated."[16]
Although it now refers to the brand's most visible spokeswomen (while the fashion show models are referred to as "Runway Angels"), the Angels started out as Victoria's Secret's lingerie line.[17] The models featured in the original advertising campaign in 1997 were Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Pestova, Stephanie Seymour, and Tyra Banks.[18] Due to their growing popularity, the brand used them in several other advertising campaigns until Christensen's departure.[17][19] In February 1998, the Angels made their runway debut at Victoria's Secret's 4th annual fashion show, with Chandra North filling in for Christensen.[19] Their line-up has been changed multiple times over the years and the brand currently lists 11 supermodels on its website, including Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.[20] Among other recognitions, the Victoria's Secret Angels were chosen to be part of People Magazine's annual "100 Most Beautiful People in the World" issue in 2007[21] and became the first trademark awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 13, 2007.[22]
Other notable spokesmodels for the brand have included: Claudia Schiffer,[23] Eva Herzigova,[19] Ana Hickmann,[24] Oluchi Onweagba,[25] Jessica Stam,[26] Quiana Grant,[27] Emanuela de Paula,[28] Katsia Zingarevich[29] and Lais Ribeiro.[30] Both Ana Beatriz Barros[31] and Daria Werbowy[32] are known to have turned down an Angel contract.
| Nationality |
Name |
Contract |
First hiring |
Runway shows |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Stephanie Seymour | 1997–2000[18] | 1990[33] | 1995–2000 | 1995 Fashion Show host |
| Denmark | Helena Christensen | 1997-1998[18][19] | 1996[34] | 1996–1997 | |
| Netherlands | Karen Mulder | 1997–2000[18] | 1992[35] | 1998–2000 | |
| Czech Republic | Daniela Peštová | 1997-2002[18] | 1996[36] | 1998–2001 | |
| United States | Tyra Banks | 1997-2005[18][37] | 1996 | 1996–2005 | |
| Argentina | Inés Rivero | 1998[38] | 1998 | 1998–2001 | |
| France | Laetitia Casta | 1998–2000[38] | 1997 | 1997–2000 | |
| Germany United States[39] |
Heidi Klum | 1999–2010[40][41] | 1997 | 1997-2009 (host only in 2006) | Fashion Show host 2002, 2006–2009 |
| Brazil | Gisele Bundchen | 2000-2007[42] | 1999 | 1999–2006 | |
| Brazil | Adriana Lima | 2000- | 1999[43] | 1999–2008, 2010- | |
| Brazil | Alessandra Ambrosio | 2004-[44] | 2000 | 2000- | PINK spokesmodel: 2004-2006[45] |
| Czech Republic | Karolína Kurková | 2005-2008[46][47] | 2000 | 2000–2008, 2010 | |
| Cayman Islands | Selita Ebanks | 2005-2008[48][49] | 2004 | 2005-2010 | |
| Brazil | Izabel Goulart | 2005-2008[48] | 2004 | 2005- | |
| United States | Marisa Miller | 2007-2010[50][51] | 2002[52] | 2007–2009 | |
| Australia | Miranda Kerr | 2007-[53] | 2005[54] | 2006–2009, 2011- | PINK spokesmodel: 2006-2008[55][56] |
| Netherlands | Doutzen Kroes | 2008-[8] | 2004 | 2005–2006, 2008–2009, 2011- | |
| Namibia | Behati Prinsloo | 2009-[57] | 2007 | 2007- | PINK Spokesmodel 2008- |
| South Africa | Candice Swanepoel | 2010- | 2007 | 2007- | PINK Spokesmodel 2007-2010 |
| United Kingdom | Rosie Huntington-Whiteley | 2010[58] | 2006 | 2006-2010 | PINK Spokesmodel 2006-2007[59][60] |
| United States | Erin Heatherton | 2010-[41] | 2008 | 2008- | |
| United States | Chanel Iman | 2010-[41] | 2008[61] | 2009- | PINK Spokesmodel 2009- |
| United States | Lily Aldridge | 2010-[62] | 2008 | 2009- | |
| United States | Lindsay Ellingson | 2011-[63] | 2006 | 2007- |
Note: Most Angels started working with the company years prior to signing an Angel contract. Listed above are the dates of first published or aired campaigns or, by default, first runway show or event.
Founded in 2004 and marketed toward late-teen and college-age women, sub-brand PINK sells age-appropriate underwear, sleepwear, lounge wear, beauty products, and accessories, with the intent to transition buyers into more adult product lines, such as Angels, Very Sexy, and Body by Victoria.[64] The PINK brand is marketed to be fun, playful, and flirtatious. Ambrosio, Kerr, and Prinsloo have all been official faces of PINK. Other models, such as Jessica Stam, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley,[60] Erin Heatherton,[65] Chanel Iman,[65] Candice Swanepoel[66] and Elsa Hosk[67] have been taking part in events for the brand. Promotions for the line come from college tours, tie-ins with the music channel MTV, and social media such as Facebook, MySpace, and other social media that is of interest to young adults. In 2011, the line announced a partnership with all 32 NFL teams and began selling apparel containing NFL team logos and names.[68]
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