Description

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The story of how Victoria’s Secret skyrocketed from a tiny chain of boutiques to an intimates monolith with annual sales in excess of $6 billion—all the while defining female beauty and sex standards for generations of Americans—and how the brand's grip on the industry slipped.

Victoria's Secret is one of the most influential, and polarizing, brands to ever infiltrate the psyche of the American consumer. The company’s catalog made national headlines in the ’70s for its glamorization of lingerie, which was, in the post-bra burning era, sold either by puritanical department stores or tawdry, red-light district shops. By 1984, the owners were forced to sell to Columbus retail magnate Les Wexner, who was swiftly building an empire that would shape retail as we knew it for the next 40 years.

Just a decade later, Victoria's Secret was a billion-dollar brand, selling the majority of bras bought in the US. However, its ubiquity in underwear drawers couldn't compare to the influence it had on the greater culture, helping to define what it meant to look like a happy, successful—and most importantly, sexy—modern woman to a whole generation of consumers across the globe through its airbrushed advertisements, pink velvet-lined stores, and annual televised fashion show, which drew in millions of viewers each year.

But as culture changed, Victoria's Secret did not change with it. Not only did the company miss out on big expansion opportunities it also refused to change its marketing as the world became less obsessed with thinness and perfection, and more keenly focused on body acceptance.

Meanwhile, Wexner, the mastermind, became increasingly known for his complicated relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, whose lifestyle he funded for many years. In March 2021, with his legacy in peril, Wexner and his wife Abigail stepped down from the Victoria's Secret board as he faced investigation by the FBI.

Today, Victoria's Secret is trying to rebuild its reputation—and maintain the still-significant grip it has on the consumer. Selling Sexy expertly draws from sources within the company and across the fashion industry to examine: What happens now to a brand with such a heavy history?

About the Author

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Lauren Sherman has been reporting from inside the fashion industry for more than fifteen years. Now a special correspondent at Puck, she was the Business of Fashion’s chief correspondent, and before that a staff reporter at Forbes. She has contributed to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, as well as Fast Company, Women’s Health, and the Gentlewoman. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.

Chantal Fernandez is a writer covering fashion, retail, luxury, and beauty with a focus on business and culture. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, New York magazine, Elle, and the Business of Fashion. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

Praise For…

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"In elegant, tasteful prose, Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez’s Selling Sexy tells the incredible story of the rise and fall of Les Wexner’s once-dominant retail juggernaut. Thanks to Sherman and Fernandez’s encyclopedic knowledge of the business of fashion, Wexner’s successes and failures are put into highly readable and essential context. You won’t be able to put the book down."
—William D. Cohan, author of The Last Tycoons and Power Failure

"This is the rare business book that examines the cultural impact of one of the most important brands of our time—and reads like a thriller."
—Marisa Meltzer, author of Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier