Editors

Where Victoria’s Secret’s Rebranding Goes Wrong

EditorsJun 24, 2021

Where Victoria’s Secret’s Rebranding Goes Wrong

From exclusionary marketing to a lack of eco-friendly options, here’s why the company’s new transformation plan misses the mark.

20210624_Victoria's Secret.jpg
A Victoria’s Secret store in New York City. The lingerie brand is undergoing a rebranding, but its efforts may not be enough to save it, according to Associate Editor Lenore Fedow. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/WestportWiki)
The executives behind the rebranding of Victoria’s Secret are akin to me in algebra class. They just don’t get it.

I’ve written about the lingerie company’s trials and tribulations previously, noting how slow it’s been to adapt to changing tastes, clinging to an outdated idea of what “sexy” is at the expense of its bottom line.

So when I heard the company was rebranding as part of its spin-off from parent company L Brands, I was eager to see if it was making some necessary changes.

Perhaps it was expanding its size range to better cater to the average shopper, or maybe it was appointing a woman to lead the company.

No and no.

Victoria’s Secret is making the same mistakes it’s always made—failing to listen to its customers or adapt to a changing world.

In exploring the company’s rebranding plan and how it misses the mark, let’s take a look at what retailers need to understand about today’s consumer.

Lesson 1: Representation is everything.

Victoria’s Secret advertising campaigns have never been reflective of the world we live in.

Its ads have historically featured thin, (mostly) white models, known as the Victoria’s Secret “Angels.”

The company is by no means the only retailer to lack diversity in its advertising campaigns, whether we’re talking race, age, body type, differences in physical ability, or any other metric.

I could say the same of many major jewelry brands, who send me press photos of the same type of thin, white woman time and time again.

However, as other companies started to open up their casting calls, Victoria’s Secret doubled down on its exclusionary marketing tactics.

Only after public outcry following some incredibly insensitive comments from former executive Ed Razek about plus-size and transgender women did the brand add more diversity to its roster.

It hired its first transgender model, Valentina Sampaio, and its first size 14 model, Ali Tate Cutler.

In recent years, Victoria’s Secret ads have featured a somewhat more diverse lineup, but if you’re looking for someone over a size 14 or the age of 40, you’re out of luck.

I am a straight, white woman in my mid-20s who wears between a size 14 and 16, and the company’s ads have never resonated with me.

What must it be like for people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, those living with disabilities, the many people who are above a size 14, etc.?

Representational advertising resonates with people. If I can’t see myself in your clothing, shoes, or jewelry, I’m much less likely to buy them. And if I come to your store and you don’t make me feel welcome, I’ll find a store that does.

Other companies have picked up on this. Lingerie brand ThirdLove offers 78 sizes, including half-cup sizes, and its “nude” bras are available in a variety of earth tones in order to match the wide array of skin tones.

Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty put on its own lingerie runway show in 2019, showcasing women of all sizes, ages, races, and ethnicities. Two visibly pregnant models strutted down the runway.

It can and has been done. Victoria’s Secret just didn’t want to, until its hand was forced.

As part of its rebranding, the company said it’s doing away with its “Angels” and is touting a new group of ambassadors, called the VS Collective.

To be clear here, the brand didn’t have an epiphany about body positivity or the danger of promoting Eurocentric beauty ideals. Its fashion show was canned in 2019 due to dwindling audiences and a wave of public criticism, so the “Angels” were already out of a venue.

The new group includes the previously mentioned Valentina Sampaio as well as actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas, soccer star Megan Rapinoe, mental wellness advocate Adut Akech, equality activist Amanda de Cadenet, skier Eileen Gu (also a new Tiffany & Co. ambassador), and plus-size model Paloma Elsesser.

While it is a more varied group of women than the brand would usually feature, it has a disingenuous air to it.

Did your mom or dad ever force your older sibling to play with you when they didn’t really want to? That’s the best analogy for what’s happening here.

Consumers, particularly those in underrepresented communities, can tell the difference between when a company is pandering to them and when it’s taking real steps to be more inclusive.

While its ads may not be as inclusive as they could be, surely the company has made some changes to its executive team to better cater to its customer base, right?

Well, yes and no.

I was hopeful when I saw that six out of the seven of its new board members were women, but deeply disappointed at who filled the last slot.

In the seventh seat, and at the top of the company, is Martin Waters, the new male CEO of Victoria’s Secret.

I am not discounting this man’s talent or ability, but the choice is so tone-deaf it hurts.

The company doesn’t take actionable measures to be more inclusive, but rather superficial ones to let you think that is so. Customers can tell the difference.

It gets to the heart of Victoria’s Secret’s real issue—it was never really for or about women.

Lesson 2: Cater to your customer.

If you’re a woman who has ever watched a Victoria’s Secret fashion show, you know it was not for you.

The brand has been criticized, and rightly so, for catering to the male gaze while claiming to be a company for women, a flaw its new CEO has acknowledged.

“When the world was changing, we were too slow to respond,” Waters said in a recent interview with The New York Times.

“We needed to stop being about what men want and to be about what women want.”

Whether a store sells bras or bracelets, the onus is on the retailer to stay up-to-date on market trends and offer what their customer base is looking to buy.

In the jewelry world, as more women buy jewelry for themselves, brands have had to shift gears from “what do men want to buy for the women in their life and how can we cater to them?” to “what do women want to buy for themselves and how can we cater to them?”

In contrast, as athleisure continued to grow in popularity, particularly among the core demographic of younger consumers, Victoria’s Secret insisted on pushing sexy, barely-there lingerie.

A 2019 report from The NPD Group titled “The Bra Evolution,” found that comfort and support were listed as the top priorities for U.S. women buying a bra for themselves, while “sexiness” was in eighth place.

In addition, as other lingerie brands have expanded their size ranges, Victoria’s Secret’s remains limited and inconsistent.

While there are some larger cup and band sizes available, you won’t find those sizes in every style. Most panties, and its popular swimsuit line, don’t go past a size extra-large.

The average American woman wears a size 16 to 18, according to data from Coresight Research, so the brand is leaving out countless women.

If you’re a high-end couture brand, perhaps you can afford to be exclusionary in your sizing.

If, like Victoria’s Secret, you’re a mall store looking to sell to the local community, you might want to rethink stopping at the size where your average customer starts.

The average-sized American woman on the hunt for a comfortable bra is walking right past Victoria’s Secret.

Perhaps with new leadership will come new options that cater to what women actually want, but Victoria Secret’s track record doesn’t fill me with hope.

Lesson 3: Customers don’t easily forget past transgressions.

If I sound like a plus-size woman with a grudge, then you are an astute reader.

When I was in high school, glittery sweatpants from Victoria’s Secret’s teen-focused Pink brand were all the rage. I never found a pair that fit.

If everyone else could fit in those pants and I couldn’t, that meant something was wrong with me, right? And maybe if I skipped lunch for a few days, they’d fit.

Now, I am not putting the blame solely on Victoria’s Secret for the way the fashion and advertising worlds have warped the minds of teen girls and held us all to impossible beauty standards.

But, with this rebranding, Victoria’s Secret wants to wipe the slate clean and start over. It wants us to forget its part in promoting an incredibly dangerous narrative, without so much as an apology let alone a plan to do better.

I won’t give it a pass.

Eating disorders have one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness, second only to opioid overdoses, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.

Every 52 minutes someone dies as a direct result of an eating disorder. That’s around 10,200 deaths per year.

And it wasn’t just the women watching from the sidelines who were hurt. Former Victoria’s Secret model Erin Heatherton opened up in a Time interview about the extreme diet and exercise regimen she was on to maintain her “Angel” physique.

“I was really depressed because I was working so hard and I felt like my body was resisting me,” she said. “And I got to a point where one night I got home from a workout and I remember staring at my food and thinking maybe I should just not eat.”

While brands like Aerie were publicly vowing to stop airbrushing models and start showing what real women look like, Victoria’s Secret was still parading around impossibly thin models.

And while its executive made disparaging comments about the transgender community, violence against transwomen, particularly women of color, was surging.

I don’t even have the space to get into former CEO Les Wexner’s ties to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, but that’s not so easily washed away either.

Companies think they can slap on a fresh coat of paint and consumers will forgive and forget, but they won’t. Not younger consumers, at least.

That’s not to say a brand with a complicated past is completely irredeemable, but a retailer in said position could only move forward with an actionable plan, not just lip service, to right its wrongs.

As younger consumers lead more with their conscience and look for brands that make them feel good about shopping with them, I would bet I’m not alone in steering clear of Victoria’s Secret.

Lesson 4: Consumers want to feel good about what they’re buying.

I noticed Victoria’s Secret is missing something else that’s become increasingly important to consumers: it has very limited eco-friendly or sustainable options.

It does have a section on its website called “Brands We Love” that highlights outside brands, like Los Angeles-based For Love & Lemons, offering sustainable options.

However, Victoria’s Secret doesn’t seem to offer any sustainable lingerie options of its own. This seems like a huge oversight for such a well-known, global brand.

From H&M’s “Conscious Collection” to the ASOS “responsible edit” section, even fast-fashion retailers are hopping aboard the Eco-Friendly Express. (Ask bankrupt Forever 21 what happens to those that miss the train.)

“Customers are demanding to be part of the sustainability conversation, and they are increasingly using their wallets to make their voices heard,” said research firm McKinsey in a recent report on sustainability in retail.

Good On You, an organization that rates brand’s sustainability, gave Victoria’s Secret a rating of “Not Good Enough.”

“We found no evidence the brand has a policy to minimize the impacts of microplastics or minimize textile waste when manufacturing its products,” the review stated.

“Victoria’s Secret, along with many other big-name brands, signed up to Greenpeace’s ‘Detox My Fashion’ program back in 2011 and had set a deadline to eliminate hazardous chemicals by 2020. Unfortunately, 2020 has come and gone, and there is no evidence it met its target.”

Final Lesson

We tend to think of major retailers as these huge, faceless entities, but there are real people behind the scenes making the choices and they can choose to do better.

The thing Victoria’s Secret gets wrong time and time again is thinking it knows better than its customers. Any retailer worth their salt knows the importance of being customer-focused and tuning in to market trends.

Whether you’re a lingerie company pushing skimpy panties on a comfort-seeking woman or you’re a jeweler steering curious customers away from lab-grown diamonds, you’re doing a disservice to everyone involved.

Today’s consumer wants to feel represented and heard. They’re not interested in what you think their style should be, but rather seek out brands who align with their aesthetic and values.

Can Victoria’s Secret ever be redeemed? Is this rebranding going to be enough to welcome back the women it pushed away?

That remains to be seen, but I say its days are numbered.

You can call it “cancel culture,” but I’ll call it “the consequences of your actions.”

 Related stories will be right here … 

The Latest

Boucheron Impermanence Boucheron Dragonfly Earrings and Wisteria Hair Piece
CollectionsJul 15, 2025
Boucheron’s New High Jewelry Calls Attention to Nature’s Impermanence

The “Impermanence” collection contemplates nature through the Japanese art of Ikebana (flower arranging) and philosophy of wabi-sabi.

James Avery Cedar Park
MajorsJul 15, 2025
James Avery Expands to 2 More States

The Texas-based jewelry retailer has set up shop in Tennessee and Arizona.

Eric Ford, Couture’s new brand director and former fine jewelry buyer at Neiman Marcus
Events & AwardsJul 15, 2025
Neiman Marcus Vet Joins Couture as Brand Director

Eric Ford will step into the role, bringing with him decades of experience.

an instructor and a student in a bench jewelry classroom
Brought to you by
Investing in the Next Generation of Bench Jewelers

The Seymour & Evelyn Holtzman Bench Scholarship from Jewelers of America returns for a second year.

Bench jeweler holding a ring and a tool
IndependentsJul 15, 2025
Ben Bridge Jeweler Acquires Olympic Manufacturing

In addition to improved capabilities, the acquisition will allow the jeweler to offer support to other independent jewelers.

Weekly QuizJul 10, 2025
This Week’s Quiz
Test your jewelry news knowledge by answering these questions.
Take the Quiz
Guzema Celestial Blue
CollectionsJul 15, 2025
Guzema Debuts First Colored Gemstone Jewelry

The “Celestial Blue” capsule collection campaign features Olympian Kateryna Sadurska.

Nanis Mykonos Store Exterior and Interior
MajorsJul 14, 2025
Nanis Opens First Store

The seasonal store, located in Mykonos, Greece, offers exclusive events, personal styling, and curated experiences.

Jewelers of America logo with meetup, State of the Majors, giveaway and massages
Brought to you by
Jewelers of America is Headed to Las Vegas for JCK 2025

The countdown is on for the JCK Las Vegas Show and JA is pulling out all the stops.

Long’s Jewelers Summer of Love promo
IndependentsJul 14, 2025
It’s the Summer of Love at Long’s Jewelers

The New England jeweler is hosting a bridal event for the month of August.

Ethical Gem Fair
SourcingJul 14, 2025
Ethical Gem Fair Heads to Seattle

The trade-only event will host its debut fair in the Emerald City later this month.

The Edge and The Edge Retail Academy Logos
Events & AwardsJul 11, 2025
The Edge’s Annual Conference Returns in September

Its sessions will focus on inventory strategies, staff performance, retention and acquisition, emerging market trends, and more.

Miseno Arco Earrings
CollectionsJul 11, 2025
Piece of the Week: Miseno’s ‘Arco’ Earrings

For its 10th anniversary, Miseno designed the “Arco” earrings based on the Arco Felice, an arch conceptualized in A.D. 95 in Miseno, Italy.

James Avery Texas charm
Policies & IssuesJul 11, 2025
James Avery to Donate $1M to Texas Hill Country Relief Efforts

The jewelry company is one of several contributing to relief efforts in the region after the recent floods.

Kelly Osbourne Engagement Ring
TrendsJul 11, 2025
Kelly Osbourne’s Engagement Ring Is Sweet as Honey

Inspired by fiancé Sid Wilson’s nickname for her, the white and yellow diamond ring features a unique honeycomb design.

Penny Preville Anniversary Bangles and Penny Preville
CollectionsJul 10, 2025
Penny Preville Celebrates 5 Decades of Jewelry Design

The brand is marking its 50th anniversary with a limited-edition bangle, high jewelry suites, new collections, and more.

Exterior shot of Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler in Bellevue, Washington
IndependentsJul 10, 2025
Steven Goldfarb to Retire, Close Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler

Goldfarb said changes in the industry, coupled with his age and the updates needed to modernize his business, drove his decision.

LVMH chairman and CEO of the Americas Michael Burke
MajorsJul 10, 2025
LVMH Names New Chairman, CEO of the Americas

Longtime LVMH executive Michael Burke has stepped into the role.

A calligraphy sculptural ring made in 18-karat Fairtrade gold (Photo by: Jamie Trounce)
Events & AwardsJul 10, 2025
IAC Gold and Diamond Conference Returns to NYC

Central topics of next week’s event include climate action, labor rights, artisan preservation, and value retention in producing countries.

Vickie Rokkos
MajorsJul 10, 2025
Hearts On Fire Appoints New Sales Director

Vickie Rokkos has joined the jewelry company as its new national sales director of North America.

Mikimoto The Bows high jewelry necklace
SurveysJul 09, 2025
Jewelry Stays Strong as Luxury Market Slows, Bain & Co. Says

Turbulence will be the new baseline for luxury as it faces its biggest potential setbacks in 15 years, a recent report said.

1 NJ-Supplier-Bulletin-Snake-One.jpg
Supplier BulletinJul 09, 2025
JCK Unwrapped: Trends, Insights & Post-Show Tips

Sponsored by Rio Grande Jewelry Supply

Cece Jewellery For the Love of Fruits Pendants
CollectionsJul 09, 2025
Cece Jewellery’s New Fruit Jewels Celebrate Life’s Sweetness

The “For the Love of Fruits” collection features five fruit pendants, each holding a different meaning.

 The Dash Diamond Crater of Diamonds State Park
SourcingJul 09, 2025
Florida Couple Finds 3-Carat Diamond in Arkansas

They discovered “The Dash Diamond,” named for their dog, at the Crater of Diamonds State Park earlier this month.

Mikimoto Les Pétales Campaign Imagery and Les Pétales Necklace
CollectionsJul 08, 2025
Mikimoto’s High Jewelry Collection Turns Pearls into Petals

The “Les Pétales” collection imagines roses caught mid-bloom as a tribute to nature’s beauty.

National Jeweler columnist and jewelry sales expert Peter Smith
ColumnistsJul 08, 2025
Peter Smith: Why Jewelers Struggle With Premium Pricing

Luxury brands charge thousands for their shoes and handbags. Jewelers pricing diamond products should take note, Peter Smith writes.

David Rotenberg of David Craig Jewelers
IndependentsJul 08, 2025
David Rotenberg of David Craig Jewelers Dies at 79

Rotenberg was an active member of the American Gem Society and an accomplished appraiser who also worked with therapy dogs at a hospital.

Diamond Divas Cast
TechnologyJul 08, 2025
‘Diamond Divas’ Brings the Showroom to Social Media Reality Series

It follows New York-based brand Shahla Karimi Jewelry’s all-women team in “Say Yes to the Dress” meets “The Office”-style episodes.

×

This site uses cookies to give you the best online experience. By continuing to use & browse this site, we assume you agree to our Privacy Policy