Founded by Roy Raymond in 1977, the company started out as a taboo-busting underwear brand. Raymond had been looking for a good bra, but wasn’t finding anything he liked, so he decided to create his own. The result was the VS bra, which has since become a staple for many women.
In the beginning, Victoria Secret was all about the fantasy: the “Angels” were supermodels who exemplified the company’s ideal woman. But as the brand grew, the ideal became raunchier and sexier. By the time of the infamous “Pornography” scandal in 2018, which found former CEO Leslie Wexner and his co-conspirator, Jeffrey Epstein, engaged in sexual misconduct with underage teens, the brand had lost its way. Same-store sales were plummeting and the VS fashion show’s sexy personification of unrealistic body standards sent a bad message to young women.
Amid the backlash against the lingerie giant, new CEO Martin Waters announced plans for a radical rebrand of the company. Gone were the sexy models and over-sexualized fashion shows. In their place, the company would present a “collective” of trailblazing activists and models like plus-size model Paloma Elsesser and US football star and anti-bullying campaigner Megan Rapinoe.
While some people saw the rebrand as “woke,” others were critical of it, calling it inclusivity-washing or even diversity-baiting. Others were concerned that the rebrand was too late, given that same-store sales had been declining for years and that the company was still losing market share to new competitors.
Waters and his team have had a difficult task trying to reconcile this image conflict with the brand’s core mission of female empowerment. But they have made progress, including changing the language of their ads and letting their customers define what sexy means. In addition, the company has diversified its product line to include more maternity and nursing bras.
It’s too early to say whether the rebrand will succeed, but it has the potential to be a model for other brands that want to evolve their approach to female empowerment. In particular, companies targeting younger audiences should take note: This group is more likely to expect a progressive social stance from the brands they support, and may be less forgiving of branding that fumbles the ball.