It would be very difficult to find a single person in our country who did not know "Victoria's secret". Throughout the Spanish geography, this brand has penetrated the market and the collective unconscious of consumers so much that it would be very strange to walk down a large shopping street in any city without seeing a single one of these lingerie stores. Like so many other great companies, Victoria's Secret did not come out of nowhere: it was born at a certain moment with very few expectations and soon had an unusual boom that expanded the firm beyond its borders, in the United States, until it reached our country.

Its products and its multiple annual galas have served to define "sexy" in the western capitalist world, which has brought advantages, but also disadvantages. After all, the female eroticism that the brand illustrates with each of its bras or panties is still a controversial business in which the objectification of women or the sometimes tricky canons of beauty are always questioned. , unhealthy and unfair. Currently, the company has many problems when it comes to making its balance of expenses and profits as a result of the fall in sales and the complaints of its clients due to a decrease in quality, according to 'Business Insider'. But above all, when it comes to managing and accepting criticism from feminist sectors for presenting their models with categories, as if they were also part of the factory's catalogue.

With $80,000 in savings and loans, Raymond and his wife rented space in a small strip mall in Palo Alto, California.

Founded in 1977 by American businessman Roy Raymond, the initial purpose was to create a place where men could feel comfortable buying underwear for their partners, lovers or wives. The objective, therefore, was clear: to establish a women's lingerie store aimed at men. Its founder was inspired by the English Victorian era with the intention of evoking the refinement of this period when it comes to intimate garments.

"Raymond envisioned a Victorian boudoir, replete with dark wood, oriental rugs, and silk drapes," sums up journalist Naomi Barr in 'Slate.' "She chose the name Victoria to regain the propriety and respect for fashion associated with the Victorian era." To achieve this, he opened just a couple of stores and began to publish a catalog that would later become very famous. "In 1977, with $80,000 earned from family savings and loans, Raymond and his wife leased space in a small strip mall in Palo Alto, California, and Victoria's Secret was born," Barr recounts.

Two years before the first Fashion Show, its founder committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate. The causes are still unknown

Five years later, the company earned more than 4 million dollars (approximately 3.5 million euros) per year in sales. Despite these astronomical figures, bankruptcy was a matter of time. Then came billionaire Les Wexner, founder of retail giant Limited Brands, already making a name for himself in the world of retail as he built his impressive empire. Thus, the first thing Wexner did was reverse the business, which until then had been aimed at men, to focus on the female audience.

Another of the new measures to better position itself in the market and attract the largest possible audience was to continue to define itself as a luxury brand while lowering prices to make its lingerie affordable. This was the formula for success that propelled Victoria's Secret into the next decade, a stage that ended with the staging of its annual fashion show in 1995, which finally managed to consolidate the firm as one of the best in the world, with parades of such important models of the time as Gisele Bündchen, Tyra Banks or Heidi Klum. Two years earlier, on August 26, 1994, Raymond took his own life by jumping from the mythical Golden Gate in New York. He was only 46 years old. It is still unknown why he did it.

As early as 1997, the term "Victoria's Secret angel" became popular all over the world as a result of a television advertisement featuring models Helena Christensen, Karen Mulder, Daniela Pestová, Stephanie Symour and Tyra Banks. All thanks to the marketing proposal designed by the visionary Ed Razek, who is now director of this area at Limited Brands and who hired the best photographers and television directors to make commercials. The shows increasingly acquired more prestige. In the year 2000, Bündchen paraded with what was the most expensive lingerie item in history, a "fantasy bra" encrusted with diamonds and rubies valued at 15 million dollars (about 13.4 million euros). In that same year, Shaern Jester Turney would become the CEO of the company, who renewed the aesthetics of the products so that the brand's image was more like Vogue than Playboy, as reported by 'Business Insider'. Under this perspective, the brand continued to grow and sales increased by 70% to 7.7 million dollars (approximately 6.8 million euros).

A crashing fall

Years passed, and after many organizational and management changes, Jan Singer took over as manager in September 2016. Sales began to plummet. All due to a new reformulation of the product, which went from padded bras and push-ups to bralettes and sports bras, thus losing the luxurious image that had brought it so much success. To make matters worse, more underwear brands appeared and Victoria's Secret ended up being accused of not being adapted to the times. To alleviate the drop in sales, deep discounts were used in a last attempt to attract buyers.

The brand is a bit 'deaf' in not being aligned with women's attitudes towards beauty, diversity and inclusion

But now there are other problems. In November 2018, Razek was embroiled in a murky controversy after making harmful comments against transgender people and XL-size models. The marketing director declared in an interview for 'Vogue' magazine that transsexuals would not appear in the traditional Fashion Show that year because it was "mere show". Later he apologized, but it was already late, the fuse was lit.

Less than a week later, then-CEO Jan Singer resigned. In his place, John Mehas, whose task to build the company is really difficult: sales have fallen by 3% in 2018, according to the US media, and other companies are competing to end his reign, came to the management. In addition, it has lost many shareholders, such as James A. Mitarotonda, CEO of Barington, who, in a letter addressed to Wexner himself, expressed his discontent: "The image of Victoria's Secret is beginning to look old and even a little ' deaf' by not being aligned with the evolution of women's attitudes towards beauty, diversity and inclusion", emphasizing that the current Board of Directors is made up of 12 members, 9 of whom are men.

In April of this year, model Barbara Palvin announced through Instagram that she had been named "Angel". But in which category? The firm added it to the "curvy" group, that is, "plus size", something that set social networks on fire as soon as the news broke. Palvin is only 5'7" and weighs 120 pounds, so it's totally unfair to put him in this category. But nothing dampened the joy of the young woman: "I never thought that this could happen, it has exceeded my expectations," she wrote in a post. When will certain firms take responsibility for the beauty and body weight standards they enact through their models and actresses? For the moment, public opinion is responding to certain attitudes that are somewhat harmful for the female population that do not fit these parameters, it only remains to be seen if it will be enough.