While visiting his West Coast Limited stores in the late 1970s, Leslie Wexner was intrigued by a shop that sold women’s underwear. It was called Victoria’s Secret.
It was brothel Victorian, he once said in an interview. Not erotic, but very sexy.
Wexner, who left his family’s general clothing store to specialize in women’s casual wear, saw the possibilities. He bought the store and catalog in 1982 for $1 million.
He studied European attitudes toward lingerie and, yes, even got some advice from girlfriends. In the process, he made underwear fun. Once, Brazilian supermodel and Leonardo DiCaprio ex, Gisele Bundchen even wore a bra and briefs studded with 300 carats worth of Thai rubies, valued at $15 million.
In 2007, Victoria’s Secret accounted for more than half of Limited Brands nearly $9.5 billion in revenue. Wexner is a multi-billionaire with strong ties to the arts (Wexner Center for the Arts and the Wexner Prize), philanthropy (Wexner Foundation) and Ohio State University.
Wexner is a trustee of the University and Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee is a director of Limited Brands. The Wexner Center is located at the University. Wexner’s wife, Abigail Wexner, a Barnard-educated lawyer and community activist, is also on the Limited Brands board.
Limited Brands’s other stores include Bath & Body Works, La Senza, C.O. Bigelow, Henri Bendel and the White Barn Candle Co.
Loyal customers swear the Victoria’s Secret bras fit better (that troublesome strap never strays) and while many will still go to Costco to buy practical, everyday underwear, they go to Victoria’s Secret for special occasions.
One such customer is Orange County, Calif., civil engineer Agnes Villanueva, 46. She introduced this writer to Victoria’s Secret several years ago and once picked up half a dozen cotton thongs as an unusual party favor. Her guests were middle-aged women she met at a private Catholic school in the 1970s.
By email, Villanueva recently explained her motivation: “Wearing sexy, skimpy, almost non-existent underwear was such a taboo. We were raised to be modest and conservative, but I wanted to encourage that naughty beast in each of us to break free.”
Sexy sophisticate is more what Wexner had in mind when he invented the story of Victoria as the fictional founder of the store and conceived of her as finely bred lady of French and English descent. Her lingerie reflected that refinement.
And Wexner gambled on women paying a little more money for the cache of a “brand” name, one equated with quality, beauty and comfort. That gamble paid off for the company and for him. Forbes lists Wexner’s net worth at $2.8 billion.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
1 Comments
#1. Anonymous Guest 02.06.2008
As one of Engr. Villanueva’s encouraged guests, this I must swear –
That “sexy, skimpy, almost non-existent underwear,”
Had such a delightfully enticing flair,
For this “conservative middle-aged woman” not to wear!
Thanks to Wexner for sheer chic comfort and special occasions of breaking free, courtesy of Agnes Villanueva!
Leave a Comment