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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 of over US$5 billion 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 was started in San Francisco, California, in 1977 by Tufts University and 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 operation, Roy Raymond sold the Victoria's Secret company, with its six stores and 42-page catalogue, grossing $6 million per year, to Leslie Wexner, creator of The Limited, for $4 million. 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.

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.

International expansion

Victoria's Secret opened their first stores outside the United States in three Canadian cities: Edmonton in August 2010, Toronto in September 2010 and Calgary in May 2011. Edmonton and Calgary have the only three locations in Western Canada, which includes the West Edmonton Mall, Kingsway Mall, and Chinook Centre, while seven locations were opened in Toronto, including Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Toronto Eaton Centre, and the Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga which holds the largest store in Canada. Victoria Secret also opened outside North America with its first stores in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. In 2012 Victoria's Secret will open their first location in the United Kingdom with a 16,500-square-foot (1,530 m²) flagship store on Bond Street, London and also Latin America's first in Sambil Santo Domingo Mall in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Victoria's Secret Angels

Although it now refers to the brand's most visible spokeswomen (while the fashion show models are referred to as "Runway Angels"), the Angels started out as Victoria's Secret's 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 and the brand currently lists 12 supermodels on its website, including Marisa Miller. 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 notable spokesmodels for the brand have included: Claudia Schiffer, Eva Herzigova, Ana Hickmann, Oluchi Onweagba, Jessica Stam, Emanuela de Paula, and Katsia Zingarevich. Both Ana Beatriz Barros and Daria Werbowy are known to have turned down an Angel contract.

PINK

Founded in 2004 and marketed towards late-teen and college-age women, sub-brand PINK sells age-appropriate underwear, sleepwear, lounge wear, beauty products, and accessories, with the intent to transition buyers into more adult product lines, such as Angels, Very Sexy, and Body by Victoria. Ambrosio, Kerr, and Prinsloo have all been official faces of PINK. Other models, such as Jessica Stam, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Erin Heatherton, Chanel Iman, and Candice Swanepoel have been taking part in events for the brand.

The following is a list of current and former Victoria's Secret fashion models. Bolded names indicate current or former Victoria's Secret Angels.