Victoria’s Secret: The World's Most Famous Lingerie Line

Perhaps no two other words have more power in the world of fashion and lingerie than these: Victoria's Secret. Instantly recognizable worldwide for its famous models, the highly popular and much-publicized annual Victoria's Secret fashion show and its wide selection of underwear, Victoria's Secret is arguably the world's most famous lingerie line to date, raking in billions in yearly revenues and jump-starting the careers of some of the planet's hottest women, including the likes of supermodels Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks, Gisele Bundchen and Claudia Schiffer. It has been credited with transforming the public conception of lingerie from embarrassing to glamorous with its promotion of underwear as a sexy, mainstream necessity.

However bright the Victoria's Secret star may be today, it took a lot of hard work and persistence for the brand to gain the current fame and fortune it now enjoys. The company was founded in 1977 by Roy Raymond and his wife Gaye in San Francisco, California, when Roy himself found it embarrassing to shop for underwear for his wife. Raymond made a detailed study of the possible business niche in underwear, then launched Victoria's Secret initially as a place where men could buy underwear comfortably. The primary shop at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California did well, allowing Victoria's Secret to expand to more locations. The company opened a mail-order catalogue and opened more shops. But in 1982, as Victoria's Secret headed towards bankruptcy, Raymond sold the company to Limited Stores Inc., where Leslie Wexner overhauled the brand to focus more on women shoppers.

The revamped Victoria's Secret was a hit, and Victoria's Secret became the first chain of lingerie stores in the USA, outselling department stores in underwear. It was also making millions in its mail-order catalogue. While the company was plagued with controversial quality issues in the nineties, Victoria's Secret held on and kept its head afloat, making a successful comeback in the early 2000s and forever changing the landscape of the lingerie industry. Its wildly popular marketing stunts in the form of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows and the introduction of Victoria's Secret Angels, an exclusive group of models who are the face of the brand. Now selling globally, with over a thousand company-owned stores in North America and the United Kingdom, Victoria's Secret is a powerhouse that will stay successful for a very long time.