Victoria's Secret: Roy Raymond's Palo Alto Shop to Wexner's Angels

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Roy Raymond opened the first Victoria's Secret in Palo Alto, California, in 1977 after an awkward attempt to buy lingerie for his wife in a department store. He borrowed $40,000 from a bank and $40,000 from family, styled the shop for male shoppers, grossed half a million dollars in year one and started a mail order catalog. In 1982 Les Wexner bought the five-store chain for $1 million and refocused it on women, remaking stores as a Victorian boudoir and printing a London address on catalogs run from Columbus, Ohio. The 1993 Miracle Bra sold two million units in its first year, and the fashion show began in 1995 at the Plaza Hotel.

A 1997 Angels commercial with Tom Jones turned models into the brand, a 1999 Super Bowl ad sent about 1.5 million viewers to a webcast and crashed the servers, and by 2013 the company held a third of the U.S. intimates market. As shoppers moved to athleisure and inclusive rivals, marketing chief Ed Razek's 2018 Vogue remarks on transgender and plus-size models led to his 2019 resignation and the show's cancellation. A 2020 New York Times report described a culture of misogyny and harassment, and reporting detailed Wexner's ties to Jeffrey Epstein, who had posed as a company recruiter. In 2021 L Brands spun off Victoria's Secret, retired the Angels and launched the VS Collective.

• A 2004 Victoria's Secret commercial featured Bob Dylan.
• Wexner reportedly gave Epstein power of attorney over his finances, a New York townhouse and use of a Boeing 727.
• Shareholders filed a 2021 complaint alleging Wexner and other executives breached fiduciary duties.
• In 2021 the brand fronted an $8.3 million settlement for more than 1,000 unpaid Thai garment workers.
• The VS Collective included Megan Rapinoe, Priyanka Chopra and Naomi Osaka, and the company bought Adore Me for $400 million in 2022.