Victoria's Secret,
History
Victoria's Secret, Briarwood Mall, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Victoria's Secret was started in San Francisco, California, in 1977 by Stanford Graduate School of Business alumnus Roy Raymond, who felt embarrassed trying to purchase lingerie for his wife in a department store environment. He opened the first store at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, and quickly followed it with a mail-order catalog and three other stores. The stores were meant to create a comfortable environment for men, with wood-paneled walls, Victorian details and helpful sales staff. Instead of racks of bras and panties in every size, there were single styles, paired together and mounted on the wall in frames. Men could browse for styles for women and sales staff would help estimate the appropriate size, pulling from inventory in the back rooms. In 1982, after five years of operations, Roy Raymond sold the company to The Limited. Raymond's next business venture ended in bankruptcy. Raymond killed himself by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in 1993.
The Limited kept the personalized image of Victoria's Secret intact. Victoria's Secret was rapidly expanded into the U.S. malls throughout the 1980s. The company was able to vend a widened range of products, such as shoes, evening wear, and perfumes, with its mail catalog issued eight times annually.
By the early 1990s, Victoria's Secret had become the largest American lingerie retailer, topping one billion dollars.
Beginning in 1995, Victoria's Secret began holding the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which is broadcasted primetime on American television. The show is a lavish event with elaborate costumed lingerie, varying music, and set design according to the different themes running within the show. The show attracts hundreds of celebrities and entertainers, with special performers and/or acts every year.
On July 10, 2007, Limited Brands sold 75% of The Limited clothing chain to firm Sun Capital Partners to focus and boost sales growth on Victoria's Secret lingerie stores and Bath & Body Works units, which provided 72% of revenue in 2006 and almost all the firm's profit. There are 1,000 Victoria's Secret lingerie stores and 100 independent Victoria's Secret Beauty Stores in the US, mostly in shopping centers. It sells brassieres, panties, hosiery, cosmetics, sleepwear, and other products. Victoria's Secret mails more than 400 million of its catalogs per year. Under pressure from environmentalist groups, Victoria's Secret's parent firm and a conservation group have reached an agreement to make the lingerie retailer's catalog more environmentally friendly in 2006. The catalog will no longer be made of pulp supplied from any woodland caribou habitat range in Canada, unless it has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. The catalogs will also be made of 10 percent recycled paper from post-consumer waste.
Victoria's Secret is now attempting to build its image with a fairly conservative, middle-class shopper in mind, avoiding any connotations of sleaziness that lingerie might carry.
The company gained notoriety in the early 1990s after it began to use supermodels in its advertising and fashion shows. Throughout the past decade, it has turned down celebrity models and endorsements.
For men, Victoria's Secret launched a "Very Sexy For Him" set, which includes cologne and aftershave.
Victoria's Secret makes use of a rigorous customer service model, stressing upselling, frequent staff attention, and signing up customers for a store credit card that provides discounts for frequent shoppers in the way of coupons by mail and free merchandise.
Victoria's Secret Angels
Although it now refers to the brand's most visible spokeswomen, the Angels started out as lingerie line. The models featured in the original advertising campaign in 1997 were Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Pestova, Stephanie Seymour and Tyra Banks. Due to their growing popularity, the brand used them in several other advertising campaigns until Christensen's departure. In February 1998, the Angels made their runway debut at Victoria's Secret's 4th annual fashion show, with Chandra North filling in for Christensen.Their line-up has been changed multiple times over the years, with its most recent addition being Dutch model Doutzen Kroes. Among other recognitions, the Victoria's Secret Angels were chosen to be part of People Magazine's annual "100 Most Beautiful People in the World" issue in 2007 and became the first trademark awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 13, 2007. Other spokesmodels for the brand have included Ana Hickmann,Ana Beatriz Barros,Oluchi Onweagba,Emanuela de Paula, PINK Spokesmodel since 2008 Behati Prinsloo, and current PINK Supermodels Candice Swanepoel, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Lindsay Ellingson, Erin Heatherton and Chanel Iman.
Current
Heidi Klum – (1999–present)
Adriana Lima – (2000–present)
Alessandra Ambrosio – (2004–present)
Marisa Miller – (2007–present)
Miranda Kerr – (2007–present)
Doutzen Kroes – (2008–present)
The models started working for the company before being contracted as Angels. Listed below are the years the current Angels started shooting and working for the company. Their first runway show for the company is the second year listed below. The years the models were contracted into Angels are listed above.
Heidi Klum – 1997, First Runway: 1997
Adriana Lima – 1998/1999 (disputed), First Runway: 1999
Alessandra Ambrosio – 2000, First Runway: 2000, PINK spokesmodel: 2004-2006
Marisa Miller – 2002, First Runway: 2007
Miranda Kerr – 2005, First Runway: 2006, PINK Spokesmodel 2006-2008
Doutzen Kroes – 2004, First Runway: 2005
Former
Helena Christensen – (1997)
Karen Mulder – (1997-2000)
Stephanie Seymour – (1997-2000)
Daniela Peštová – (1997-2002)
Tyra Banks – (1997–2005)
Yasmeen Ghauri – (1998)
Inés Rivero – (1998)
Laetitia Casta – (1998–2000)
Gisele Bündchen – (2000–2007)
Karolína Kurková – (2005–2008)
Izabel Goulart – (2005–2008)
Selita Ebanks – (2005–2008)
(source:wikipedia)
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