Victoria's Secret Etc, Etc (PLEASE READ POST #1 BEFORE POSTING)

[lucy92]

This seems incredibly optimistic and it's also the exact opposite of what I've read. There are a ton of other options out there besides VS! When VS came for other brands publicly, those brands responded publicly... seems like fair play to me. And VS isn't doing well financially:


[slate.com]

That excerpt from slate does not reflect VS current valuation. It references the first quarter of 2020 when the pandemic was in the first wave and everyone was panicking.



Let's look at the actual #s of VS competitors:

Thirdlove - Likely not even profitable yet. This story has a quote from the CEO where she says the company will be "close" to profitable in 4th Q of 2020.

Fenty - definitely not profitable. This BOF story from December 2020 says it isn't profitable and will require 100 million of new cash to scale in the hopes of becoming profitable

Adore Me - Has been profitable since 2018. Here's a great Linkedin piece where the CEO discusses the lingerie landscape and valuations and the mechanics behind the company. What's implied here is that the crazy valuations of his DTC lingerie competitors doesn't wash as they've outsourced everything and own no IP, stores or real estate.

Skims: Has a crazy 1.6b valuation - but i'm not sure of actual net revenue. Most of the sales are from shapewear - not bras, panties or sleepwear like VS.

 

[dior_couture1245]

Megan Rapinoe?!?! Oh HELL no. She is so insufferable. I'm not sure there's anyone alive who's desperate to see her in her bra and panties...but she ticks the boxes, she's obnoxious and she got the right politics...so she's a star....a star no one asked for.

Not that I've ever really cared for VS, but there was a time when it was pretty aspirational....then it got corny and tweeny....and now this?

Good luck. Good riddance.

 

[cestmagique]

^even better! The 'collective' won't be modeling bras and undies, they'll be podcasting together... I seriously couldn't be less interested in what this company has to say.

 

[gianna]

I’m glad VS had been reflecting through out the pandemic and decided to finally make a change.

I wonder if they really ended their contract with Candice though? If yes, I think she deserves a proper goodbye like Adriana, Alessandra, etc.

 

[PrettyPlease]

Candice's contract ended in 2018.

 

[Armani]

Imaan Hammam, Adut Akech & Bella Hadid are shooting something for VS today.

 

[lucy92]

There's an interesting piece in the NY times by Vanessa Friedman today discussing the impact of the Angels:
Why Did We Fall for the Angels?

She asks: Why did it work for so long in the first place?

 

[theBlueRider]

There's an interesting piece in the NY times by Vanessa Friedman today discussing the impact of the Angels:
Why Did We Fall for the Angels?

She asks: Why did it work for so long in the first place?

Although she fails to highlight that it stopped working just before the first decade of the 2000's despite the company still pushing hard the same marketing technique. So the current move is more than a decade too late. The company was having a lot of internal strife a lot earlier than the writer portrays.

She also fails to mention that the "Angel" went from an "exotic" mature look (Helena Christensen, Tyra Banks) and audience to the very "pre teen queen" look TheFashionSpot was complaining about for too long. I think maybe the only people who were ok with that evolution were the Jeffrey Epstein type people.

 

[theBlueRider]

^Also forgot to mention that the "Angel" contracts were shrinking dramatically before the first decade of the 2000s....so...

 

[lucy92]

Bridget Malcolm who was not cast in the 2017 VS fashion show is still angry.

She posted an attack video on TikTok against VS.

What isn't mentioned is one possible reason for not casting - Malcolm's decision to be Playboy Playmate of the Month for January 2017.

 

[theBlueRider]

Bridget Malcolm who was not cast in the 2017 VS fashion show is still angry.

She posted an attack video on TikTok against VS.

What isn't mentioned is one possible reason for not casting - Malcolm's decision to be Playboy Playmate of the Month for January 2017.

This is exactly why the culture around the "Angels" for the past 10 years should've been revised.

A model no one really liked (haha TheFashionSpot on the record) for VS but somehow got into the show and it was always her *childhood* dream. Five years after not getting cast a repeat appearance for a show and company dwindling in audience and profits, she is still angry and it occupies her mind. This. Is. Exactly. Why. It. Became. A. Problem.

It just looks pathetic from so many different angles.

 

[Littleathquakes]

^ I'm lost. Why is it their problem that she's cold and bothered?

 

[theBlueRider]

^ I'm lost. Why is it their problem that she's cold and bothered?

It's a problem that feeds on itself.

During the late stage "Angel" era, the company (like Ed Razek) was aggressively pushing the idea of how the opportunity to walk in the vs show is one of the greatest dreams and rarest achievements in a lifetime and the people who are chosen are the most valued, exquisite and rarest people on the planet. All of this during a decline in sales and ratings. But the amplification of the idea in the later years really fed into certain people's (mainly models and aspiring models) perceptions of what is successful and fueled the egos of models who started working with the company during the late stages. Models who drank the Kool-Aid don't seem to have a grasp on their own personal identity and career outside of walking in the show once or twice.

Basically, they created monsters.

 

[Littleathquakes]

Sounds like a stretch to me.

 

[squilliam]

What they have to do is increase their size and color range, have more inclusive marketing that shows off women being sexy for themselves and not the male gaze, and improve the quality of their products. Add some shapewear and maternity/breastfeeding stuff to their line as well. Instead they have to go the stupid convoluted way to try and "save" the company. Is it too hard to do what needs to be done or are they just that out of touch to not realize it?

 

[lucy92]

I went into the flagship NYC VS this week on it's first day open after remodeling. The store had less of a boudoir feel to it - there was a soft pink aesthetic.

There was no fashion show imagery up. It had been taken down.

 

[axiomatic]

A New Podcast Promises to Reveal All of Victoria’s Secrets

Narrated by journalists Justine Harman and Vanessa Grigoriadis (who has written and podcasted for this magazine), the series promises to reveal all the company’s secrets, with firsthand input from “women who witnessed what really happened behind the curtain.” For example: We hear from former Angel Bridget Malcolm about having to stay skinny enough to fit a size 30A bra; another model, Erin Heatherton, recalls taking a cocktail of diet drugs — phentermine, later described by Heatherton’s therapist as “bathwater meth,” along with hormonal injections — to meet the brand’s outlandish size expectations.

 

[squilliam]

It's weird they'd want her to fit into a 30A bra because I'm pretty sure they never sold that size. Their lowest size was usually 32A or 34A, I can't remember if they had AA anything but I doubt it. Not saying she's lying, it's just weird that they'd do that

 

[marsnoop2]

While I certainly find some of the VS executives problematic in their beliefs, this thing is really beating a dead horse here for 5 minutes of fame.

 

[Ivancica]

"former Angel Bridget Malcolm" - when was she an "Angel"?