{"id":3134,"date":"2019-04-15T20:16:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T01:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bowdoinreview.jafico.co.uk\/?p=3134"},"modified":"2019-04-15T20:16:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T01:16:37","slug":"victorias-secret-the-outdated-beauty-ideals-of-a-dying-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/business\/victorias-secret-the-outdated-beauty-ideals-of-a-dying-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria\u2019s Secret: The Outdated Beauty Ideals of a Dying Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you walk into Victoria\u2019s Secret, you are immediately accosted by a cloyingly sweet wave of perfume as your eyes adjust to the dim light. Life-sized pictures of scantily clad models with seductive expressions stare down at you from the deep purple walls. For many years, this defined the lingerie shopping experience for many women. Victoria\u2019s Secret, with its \u201cAngels\u201d as the face of the brand, represented \u201cideal\u201d feminine beauty. However this image is rapidly becoming outdated, and Victoria\u2019s Secret\u2019s failure to update its antiquated beauty standards has had significant financial ramifications. On February 28th the company announced that it will close <\/span>53 of its retail stores<\/span><\/a>, signaling that the brand may be in trouble. <\/span><\/p>\n

When it was created in 1977, the Victoria\u2019s Secret mission was a unique one. Roy Raymond, the founder of the company, saw an opening in the intimate apparel industry. At that time, most of the \u201cintimate apparel\u201d on the market consisted of plain cotton underwear, with lingerie being something you might find in a fancy department store or on the costume rack. Although he was selling a product designed for women, the store Raymond envisioned was targeted at <\/span>men<\/span><\/i>. Raymond found that he was uncomfortable buying lingerie for his wife, saying that he felt like an <\/span>\u201cunwelcome intruder.\u201d<\/span><\/a> \u00a0So he sought to create a place that would allow men to comfortably and easily buy lingerie for their wives or girlfriends. The infamous Victoria\u2019s Secret catalog was born out of this idea, featuring displays of women in skimpy lingerie, which directly targeted a male audience. The name \u201cVictoria\u201d refers to the Victorian era, and the plush purple velvet and dark wood decor of the stores sought to evoke the luxury of that time period. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 1982 Les Wexner, the CEO of L Brands, recognized the potential of Victoria\u2019s Secret and bought the company, but he decided that it needed rebranding. At the time, there were no stores dedicated exclusively to selling lingerie, and Wexner realized that if he could make it affordable, women would buy it. As retail consultant Craig Johnson explained to <\/span>Newsweek<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>“He made sexy mainstream. That was his genius.” For a few decades this genius carried Victoria\u2019s Secret to immense success. The brand helped its parent company, L Brands, increase its <\/span>stock price<\/span><\/a> from around $4 in 1985 to $25 in 2000, and then dramatically to $90 in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, since early 2016, L Brands has reported <\/span>declining earnings<\/span><\/a> for the lingerie brand. So what has changed? It would seem that the image presented by Victoria\u2019s Secret no longer resonates with most women. With the rise of a new body positive movement and the inclusion of more \u201cplus-sized\u201d models, the fashion industry is evolving in response to women\u2019s desire to see themselves represented in the image of the brands they are wearing. Instead of adapting to meet these changing preferences, Victoria\u2019s Secret has stubbornly stuck to its outdated version of feminine beauty. <\/span><\/p>\n

The annual Victoria\u2019s Secret fashion show perfectly exemplifies this obstinacy. The show typically includes a cadre of supermodels known as the \u201cAngels,\u201d all of whom fit a strict set of proportions and a narrow conception of beauty. In 2017, CBS reported that ratings were down <\/span>30%<\/span><\/a> from the previous year and the number of viewers had declined significantly. Given that the \u201cAngels\u201d represent a small subset of the population, it is understandable that many women feel a disassociation between their reality and the on-screen image exemplified by the \u201cAngels.\u201d In an interview, Ed Razek, the senior officer in charge of casting for the show, was confronted about the lack of diversity. When <\/span>asked if he thought the brand should include transgender models in the fashion show, <\/span>Razek responded<\/span><\/a>, \u201cNo. No, I don’t think we should.” By way of explanation he said, <\/span>“The show is a fantasy. It’s a 42-minute entertainment special. That’s what it is. It is the only one of its kind in the world.” This is an acknowledgement that the brand, in keeping with its history, is targeting a male \u201cfantasy\u201d instead of appealing to real women\u2019s values, and furthermore that this fantasy only includes one type of woman. With this statement, the brand chooses to entirely disregard the desires and identities of its customers, in favor of sticking to an outmoded idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

Victoria\u2019s Secret customers aren\u2019t the only ones who have recognized the company\u2019s failure t<\/span>o respond to the changing times. A numb<\/span>er of competitors have taken advantage of the opening in the market, choosing to establish themselves in almost direct opposition to Victoria\u2019s Secret. Aerie, the lingerie brand owned by American Eagle, uses the tagline <\/span>#AerieREAL<\/span><\/a> to emphasize their focus on \u201cgirl power, body positivity, no retouching.\u201d Their models are diverse and representative of the population, and they are committed to showing them as they really are and not editing their images to conform to a fantasy. Third Love, with its message of \u201cBras and Underwear for Every Body\u201d, features models from ages 16 to 60 and even makes bras specifically for nursing mothers. The company offers a broad range of sizes, as opposed to Victoria\u2019s Secret whose limited options exclude many would-be customers. Rihanna\u2019s Savage X Fenty espouses a similar message and has received a lot of attention recently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Victoria\u2019s Secret\u2019s shortcomings, coupled with the increased competition in the market, has had a detrimental effect on its business. Its stock fell <\/span>59%<\/span><\/a> in 2018, causing one major investor to advise L Brands <\/span>to sell the <\/span><\/a>company. In November, CEO Jan Singer stepped down after only two years, and was replaced by a man. <\/span>The reason behind Victoria\u2019s Secret\u2019s struggles harkens back to its origins as a store targeted at men.<\/span> The brand sells a product for women, yet completely ignores women\u2019s views of themselves, of beauty, and of fashion. <\/span>As Heidi Zak, the founder of Third Love, said in an address to Victoria\u2019s Secret: \u201cIt\u2019s time to stop telling women what makes them sexy \u2014 <\/span>let us decide.\u201d <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you walk into Victoria\u2019s Secret, you are immediately accosted by a cloyingly sweet wave of perfume as your eyes adjust to the dim light. Life-sized pictures of scantily clad models with seductive expressions stare down at you from the deep purple walls. For many years, this defined the lingerie shopping experience for many women. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":608,"featured_media":3140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[380],"class_list":{"0":"post-3134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-victorias-secret","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/608"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/bowdoin-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}