What’s Victoria’s Secret?
“Secrets secrets are no fun, unless you share with everyone.”
Victoria’s Secret lives in my mind, and many others’, as a pop/fashion icon of the early/mid 2000s. As far as brands go, no brand delivered a double-edge sword mentality better than Victoria’s Secret.
On one hand, Victoria’s Secret set the definition for sex, fantasy, and femininity for decades. There was something symbolic about it- finally being able to shop there once you were “of an appropriate age” was almost like a rite of passage into womanhood. It was surrounded in excitement and mystique and the tiny seeds of hope within young women that they would one day be able to achieve the glamour and sex appeal of Victoria’s Secret Angels. On the other hand, Victoria’s Secret embraced what all late 90s/early 2000s media represented, a lack of body positivity and inclusion. Victoria’s Secret focused on a narrow definition of “desirable,” which in turn, created a segment in their potential customer base of women who felt they were not the “appropriate” customer Victoria’s Secret was meant for.
VSFS, 2019
In the mid 2010’s amid changing fashion trends and the growth of the body-positive movement, along with more body-positive underwear brands entering the space, Victoria’s Secret sales began to decline. Across social media, the extension of the body positivity campaign and the creation of the #MeToo campaign also contributed to the decline of Victoria’s Secret. Customers began to desire comfort over sexiness (sports bras/bralettes over padded/pushups) and they wanted to see real women in campaigns- not the airbrushed, fully made-up, half-starved models that graced Victoria’s Secret’s ads.
The brand faced issues with their customers regarding hyper-sexualization in their ads, vocally choosing to be non-inclusive with their model selection, and alienating their customer base by refusing to stray from their rigid definition of “fantasy”. This firm stance, in addition with controversial comments from CMO Ed Razek, indicated to an already wavering loyalty among customers that Victoria’s Secret was sticking to their playbook- a playbook that dated back to the late 90s/early 2000s. And it screwed them.
Now, Victoria’s Secret is rebranding. But is it too little, too late?
In June of 2021, Victoria’s Secret officially turned their backs on their Angels and exchanged them for activists. With the unveiling of the “VS Collective,” Victoria’s Secret marks the beginning of a new era. Lead by 7 advocates, including highly recognizable names such as Priyanka Chopra and Megan Rapinoe, this new collaborative supposedly takes Victoria’s Secret in a whole new direction, pushing the lingerie brand to redefine “sexy” to be broader and more inclusive. The team is also in charge of creating new programs, product lines, and content while also championing Victoria’s Secret’s new breast cancer fundraising initiative.
There’s a lot that’s promised. But how is Victoria’s Secret actually changing?
Here’s my argument: it’s not. Not really. At least, not where it counts and not where people actually WANT to see change.
From a glance-over perspective, there has been change. Promotions are more inclusive, the store-fronts feel more inclusive. But adding plus sized bodies into promotional materials and store-front mannequins is bare minimum. The brand’s product line and size range remain largely unchanged- meaning the consumers they fit and cater to, remain the same. The Collective is nice, seeing a diverse range of different sized mannequins in store fronts is nice; but what’s touted as change in the name of diversity and inclusion, is really instead, a reinforcement of the idea that fantasy, still does not include every body type.
Victoria’s Secret PINK store with inclusive mannequins
What we are offered is a sacrifice. A sacrifice of everything Victoria’s Secret once was to appease consumers by including larger bodies. For a long time, Victoria’s Secret touted an image of ultimate fantasy that celebrated and represented 0.0000001% of the actual bodies we see in real life. For Victoria’s Secret, a rebrand meant ditching the idea of fantasy completely in lieu of a “real woman” initiative. We didn’t ask Victoria’s Secret to ditch the fantasy. What we asked for, was to be included.
Currently, Victoria’s Secret’s rebrand feels like a bandage slapped over a still-bleeding wound. Despite a huge announcement, the actual changes have been minimal, surface level at best. The rollouts are slow. In August, the brand announced its first nursing bra. At the beginning of October, Victoria’s Secret announced a new line of mastectomy bras in partnership with Stella McCartney. Some rebrands take time. But with the slow-paced changes Victoria’s Secret seems to be making, will consumers remember or even care by the time all the pieces fall into place?