Victoria's Secret

Victoria's Secret,

is an American retailer of women's wear, lingerie and beauty products. It is the largest segment of publicly-traded Limited Brands with sales surpassing $5 billion USD and an operating income of $1 billion in 2006. Victoria's Secret is known for its annual fashion show, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and for its catalogs, both of which feature top fashion models.

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)

Santa Monica Place

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Main entrance, facing Third Street Promenade, circa mid-2000s

Santa Monica Place was a three-story, 570,000-square-foot (53,000 m²) shopping mall in Santa Monica, California. The mall is located at the south end of the famousThird Street Promenade, and is also two blocks from the Santa Monica Pier and the beach. The mall is closed currently and is in the process of a major redevelopment with the new complex set to open in August 6, 2010.

Santa Monica Place opened in 1980 adjacent to the old Third Street Mall and was renovated in 1991 and again in 1996. The complex features 120 shops, the largest of which is Macy's. It is 152,000 sq ft (14,100 m²). on three levels. The mall featured aRobinsons May department store, but due to the merger between Federated/May Co., it was closed in 2006. It was 131,250 sq ft (12,194 m²). on three levels. The mall featured some upscale brands such as Kenneth Cole and Williams-Sonoma.

Santa Monica Place was designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry early in his professional career with Gruen Associates, constructed in 1980, and renovated in 1990. It has served as a backdrop for several films and television shows, most notably the exterior of the Ridgemont Mall in Fast Times at Ridgemont High; it has also been used in Pretty in Pink as well as Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Beverly Hills, 90210, and in the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles.

Interior, main court, circa mid-2000s

Redevelopment

Developer, The Macerich Company, purchased the mall in 1999 and in 2004 proposed tearing down the mall and replacing it with a 10-acre (40,000 m²) complex of high-rise condos, shops and offices. The plan met with strong opposition from local residents who felt the project did not meet the low-rise character of the neighborhood and would worsen traffic. In a second 2007 proposal, Macerich significantly scaled back its plans, which was received as positive by the public, and was passed. The project involves removing the mall's roof, gutting out the interior, create public walkways, an indoor/outdoor dining deck, and other adaptive reuse measures. The two anchor department stores have also been converted, with Macy's rebuilt as Bloomingdale's andRobinson's-May turned into a Nordstrom. The grand reopening is scheduled for August 6, 2010.

]

References

1. ^ Martha Groves, Hopes high for low-profile mall, Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2007.

Clotilde Reiss

Clotilde Reiss (born 31 July 1985) is a French student, whose arrest in Iran on espionage charges on 1 July 2009 has generated considerable diplomatic controversy. She holds a master's degree from Sciences-Po Lille. At the time of her arrest she was teaching in Isfahan and writing a master'sthesis about teaching history and geography in Iranian schools.
Reiss was arrested at Tehran airport on 1 July 2009 on her way home to France via Beirut. Iranian authorities alleged that Reiss took photographs of the 2009 Iranian election protests in Isfahan and emailed them to a friend, an act which constituted potential espionage against the Islamic Republic in the eyes of Iranian prosecutors. News of her arrest did not become public for several days, during which time the French government tried unsuccessfully to obtain her release.
When it became clear that Iran intended to put Reiss on trial, officials at the highest level of the French government publicly mobilized on her behalf; French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called the charges against her "absurd" and President Nicolas Sarkozy dismissed them as "pure fantasy". She was visited by the ambassador of France in Tehran, Bernard Poletti, on 9 July 2009.
Her trial began in Tehran on August 8, 2009[4], at the same time as Nazak Afshar, a French-Iranian employee of the French Embassy and Hossein Rassam, an Iranian employee of the British embassy. The Swedish Presidency of the European Union expressed concern over the trial and demanded that the prisoners be released promptly, saying, "The Presidency reiterates that actions against one EU country - citizen or embassy staff - is considered an action against all of EU, and will be treated accordingly." She was released on bail and resided at the French embassy, unable to leave the country pending the final outcome of her trial.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran issued a statement signaling his government's willingness to release Reiss, but clarifying that her release depended on the "approach and behavior adopted by French officials. He declined to elaborate further as to what he expected from the French government, saying only that "they know what to do." France has suggested that Iran is attempting to blackmail Paris into releasing an Iranian agent jailed in France for the 1991 murder of an exiled former prime minister in exchange for Reiss's freedom, a swap that they have vigorously opposed.
Clotilde Reiss was freed on Sunday, May 16th, 2010. She arrived in Paris on Sunday the 16 May 2010 at around one o'clock and was received at the Elysee by president Nicolas Sarkozy. In a statement, she thanked her supporters and the president, "who proclaimed my innocence as soon as I was arrested".wikipedia

Marisa Miller

Marisa Lee Miller, (born August 6, 1978) is an American model best known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues, and her work for lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret. After a stint shooting with photographer Mario Testino for fashion magazines like Vogue, Miller began working for both companies in 2002. In 2007, she became a Victoria's Secret Angel, and graced the cover of the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue to record-setting numbers. Her accomplishments have led to her being dubbed the "return of the great American supermodel."
She is also known for contracts with companies like Harley-Davidson and for ranking #1 on Maxim magazine's 2008 "Hot 100" list. Aside from modeling, she is an ambassador for the American Cancer Society.

Early life

Born Marisa Lee Bertetta in Santa Cruz, California, to parents Marc and Krista Bertetta. Miller attended high school at Aptos High and Monte Vista Christian School. She considered herself a tomboy growing up, with mostly male friends and little awareness of anything girly. Out of shyness, she often wore large t-shirts to hide her body and would get fully dressed just to go to the trash-can while at the beach.
Miller was first "discovered" at age sixteen walking through a San Francisco café by two Italian modeling agents.After talking to her mother, she was on a plane to Italy with her mother a few months later, despite her "shy and conservative" personality.Miller gained attention when 1997 she appeared in the first issue of Perfect 10 magazine. Although she came in third behind Ashley Degenford and Monica Hansen in Perfect 10 magazine's first annual model search, she was repeatedly showcased in following issues, including the covers of the Winter 1998 and August/September 1999 editions, as well as a reprint for the Fall 2004 edition cover.



Career

Miller moved from a start as an amateur magazine model to high profile mainstream work after an acquaintance showed a picture of her to famed fashion photographer Mario Testino in 2001. Testino asked to meet Miller, who was running a surf school at the time, and was invited to Manhattan Beach, California, where she would be surfing.
Noticing her, Testino snapped pictures of her and approached her with a job offer. It turned out to be editorials for both the American and Italian editions of Vogue. Within six months, Miller was working for Victoria's Secret and the coveted Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, in which she appeared in every issue from 2002 to 2008. In particular, she famously posed wearing only an iPod in the 2007 issue.She has also appeared in a diverse range of magazines, many of them international editions, such as GQ, Maxim, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, and Vanity Fair,. She has featured in advertisements for Nordstrom, J.Crew, Guess?, Tommy Hilfiger, Pepsi, Panasonic, Bath & Body Works, True Religion jeans, and motorcycle company Harley-Davidson.She first partnered with Harley-Davidson to launch the VRSCF V-Rod Muscle motorcycle in 2008 and rejoined in November 2009 to act as the face and spokesmodel of the company's first "Military Appreciation Month" campaign, featuring Miller as a classic pin-up in military-themed advertisements and online content.In July 2008, Miller took her first step beyond modeling when her shoe line with skateboarder/surfer-oriented company Vans launched.

Miller backstage at the Fashion for Relief show, a charity event in aid of victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Miller's first work in television was as a judge on the Bravo reality series Manhunt: The Search for America's Most Gorgeous Male Model in 2004, the same year she appeared in Puddle of Mudd's "Spin You Around" music video. 2007 brought appearances in the pilot episode and finale of VH1's reality show The Shot and cameos in HBO's Entourage and the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother, the latter with her fellow Victoria's Secret Angels. In 2009, she had a guest judge role on an episode of America's Next Top Model and a minor role in an episode of Gary Unmarried. It wasn't until 2007 that she filmed her first television commercial for Victoria's Secret, appearing alongside Heidi Klum for the It bra. Miller starred in a 2008 viral video on YouTube with All Star baseball player Ryan Braun for Remington's ShortCut hair clippersand has appeared in commercials for the NFL Network and the California Travel and Tourism Commission's "Visit California" campaign.
On December 4, 2007, Miller made her debut in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and opened a segment in the following year's edition. Other runway credits of Miller's include 2007's Fashion for Relief show, benefiting victims of Hurricane Katrina,[2] as well as MTV's Fashionably Loud, Imitation of Christ, Inca, and Amir Slama's Rosa Cha, for which she was one of the most anticipated models.
On the February 12, 2008 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman, it a three-story billboard in New York City was revealed to show that Miller would grace the cover of that year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The tandem online launch of the issue drew record page views to the SI website: 228 million, a 41% increase over 2007. In September 2008, Sports Illustrated released a "Best of Marisa Miller" swimsuit calendar for the 2009 year.
Victoria's Secret also put her to work in 2008, with a five-city tour to promote the 2008 Swim collection's release in stores; the April-May tour included stops in New York City, Miami, Chicago (where she threw the opening pitch at a Chicago Cubs baseball game), Boston, and Minneapolis. The relaunch of Victoria Secret's sports line, VSX, soon followed, along with her first official campaign as an Angel:promoting the company's fragrance Very Sexy Dare.
External images
Harlequin Bra Low Resolution
Harlequin Bra High Resolution
Images provided by Victoria's Secret Press room.
For the 2009 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Miller was chosen to wear the year's "Fantasy Bra," a harlequin design featuring 2,300 white, champagne, and cognac diamonds, and a 16-carat heart-shaped brown-yellow diamond pendant for a $3-million value and 150 total carats.
In response to claims that Miller had parted with Victoria's Secret in January 2010, the Chief Marketing Officer for Limited Brands responded, saying the claims were "unfounded and untrue" while adding "we adore Marisa and we will continue to work with her in the future."



Media recognition

The swell in publicity resulting from her 2008 work served to land Miller in the number one spot on Maxim magazine's "Hot 100" rankings for 2008, beating out list regulars such as Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel, and Eva Longoria-Parker. This marked the first time anyone has debuted on the list in the number one position. In her subsequent cover story for the July issue, Maxim proclaimed her as the "return of the great American supermodel." Of such acclaim, Miller admits, "I get a kick out of it, but it would be stupid to let it go to my head. It’s modeling—I didn’t find the cure for cancer." Miller continued to be highly rated and appeared on the list in 2009 in 18th place, and in 2010 in 10th place.
She also finished first place in The Best Damn Sports Show Period "Smokin' Sixteen" competition in 2008,[25] repeating her 2007 win over competitors such as Gisele Bündchen and Adriana Lima. Miller ranked second in AskMen.com's "Top 99" for 2010, after ranking third in 2009, ninth in 2008, twelfth in 2007, and fourteenth in 2006. She added to her popular accolades with the "Hot N' Fresh" award at the second annual Spike Guys' Choice Awards.
In 2010, Miller was ranked the third "Most Beautiful Woman" by British magazine FHM in the 16th of the annual poll. Miller came in behind actress Megan Fox in second place, and British singer Cheryl Cole in first place.



Personal life

She married Jim Miller, a Los Angeles surfing contest promoter and lifeguard from California in 2000. The couple separated in 2002, they divorced soon after. She married music producer Griffin Guess on April 15, 2006.
From an early age she loved surfing and her aunt was on the pro tour. In 2004, she placed second in the celebrity division of the Kelly Slater Surf Invitational and says of the sport, "I feel my absolute best—physically, mentally and spiritually—when I'm surfing every day." She also won the most valuable player award at the 4th annual Celebrity Beach Bowl. She was a standout volleyball player in high school and has taken up boxing. After signing with Harley Davidson, Miller received her motorcycle license and rides a Harley Nightster. She has said that she would like to be a sportscaster. Miller comes from a family of nurses, her mother went back to college late in life to become a pediatrics nurse and her sisters are also nurses, and she has previously expressed an interest in following the same career path if she stops modeling.
As of 2009, Miller is an ambassador for the American Cancer Society. Proceeds from her online store are donated to the charity. She also supports the Young Survival Coalition, which raises awareness of breast cancer in women under 40, as well as environmental organization the Surfrider Foundation, which aims to preserve the world's oceans and beaches. In October 2009, Miller hosted the Monte Foundation music festival, an annual fundraiser for schools in the Aptos area, where she and Guess own a home.
Source:wikipedia