Victoria's Secret is the most famous American lingerie brand in the world for its marketing, its legendary shows called "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" and the popular models that were part of the "Victoria's Secret Los Angeles" group. However, for its founder it was not easy to lead the company to success and his personal life ended in disgrace. Roy Raymond was born in 1947 in Connecticut, United States, and always stood out as an intelligent and brilliant business man. He studied at Tufts University, one of the nation's leading research institutions, and then did postgraduate work at the Stanford University School of Business.

Raymond used to buy lingerie for his wife Gaye and didn't like the aesthetics of the stores with their fluorescent lights. Since he had a great business vision, he decided to found the Victoria's Secret brand in 1977 with stores that make everyone feel comfortable, including men. Today the image of Victoria's Secret is macho and little deconstructed, since it bets on hegemonic bodies. However, for the time it was created, it was considered revolutionary because until then the underwear used by women was only designed to last a long time and lingerie was used only on wedding anniversaries or honeymoons.

Raymond understood that he had to create sexy, yet affordable pieces for women to buy and wear on a daily basis. Thanks to a bank loan of $40,000, and another loan of $40,000 from her in-laws, she opened the first Victoria's Secret store in a mall in Palo Alto, California. The name was an inspiration in the Victorian era of England and the refinement of the ladies of high society. His reception was a success and the first year he sold $500,000, which is why he managed to open three more stores and launched the first edition of the catalogue.

By 1982, Raymond already had annual sales of $4,000,000, but was on the verge of bankruptcy. Consequently, he looked for a new partner and that is how Leslie Wexner arrived, an entrepreneur with a very keen eye on clothing, mainly sportswear, and on the needs of the market. When Wexner joined the company, he was worth $50,000,000 thanks to his casual clothing brand The Limited, and he saw Victoria's Secret as an opportunity to expand. However, Raymond's business model did not attract women and he decided to buy the firm for $1,000,000.

It was Wexner who realized that women wanted to feel glamorous in their underwear, but at affordable prices. Therefore, the first thing she did was change the aesthetics of the premises and thus her black design with golden tones was born. Then the most daring professional models and outfits came to the catalogue. In parallel, Raymond founded the My Child's Destiny children's store, but his bad strategy forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1986. His life ended up falling apart when he divorced Gaye and his sadness was such that he made an unexpected decision: he committed suicide by throwing himself of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in 1993.

Wexner, for his part, continued the success of Victoria's Secret to the point of turning it into an absolute icon of international glamour. In recent times, due to the amount of criticism for the extremely difficult to reach of the models that gave image to the brand, Victoria's Secret decided to renew its imprint a bit and widen the range, attracting more real models.

Do you think the company is on the right track?