Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon

Journalists Sherman and Fernandez debut with an enthralling deep dive into the history of Victoria’s Secret. They recount how husband-and-wife duo Roy and Gaye Raymond opened the first Victoria’s Secret store in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1977, seeking to tap an underserved market for upscale lingerie. Roy’s thriftlessness imperiled what was otherwise a thriving business, leading him to sell his four stores in 1983 to retail maven Les Wexner, who updated the Victorian decor; stocked cheaper, tawdrier products to bring in more customers; and pushed for rapid expansion across the U.S. Sherman and Fernandez chart the company’s transformation into a multibillion-dollar brand, but the most revealing sections cover the business’s beleaguered recent past. For instance, the authors discuss how executives’ unwillingness to update their business model for the digital age contributed to the company’s mounting financial woes throughout the 2010s, when changing mores around body inclusivity heightened scrutiny of the business’s glamorization of thinness. Victoria’s Secret also took hits to its reputation after Wexner’s close ties with Jeffrey Epstein received renewed attention following the financier’s 2019 arrest for sex trafficking, and a 2020 New York Times report revealed that chief marketing officer Ed Razek routinely fat-shamed colleagues and made inappropriate advances toward models. A sharp assessment of the company’s financial and moral failings, this pulls no punches. (Oct.)