I Will Take As Many Words As I Want To Write This Story
[b]My recent letter to Victoria's Secret and John Menas[/b]
[i]It's no secret this company is failing. It is failing the market and investors in their parent company, L Brands, but it is also fails women as a whole.
I worked in a store as a beauty and makeup adviser in 2012 when we had a make up line. After that I apprenticed at Clinique-a program that has ended. I saw young women after young woman come in and leave happy with what they bought. I also saw many in tears as the store was great for their friends but NOT for them. They did not exist to VS and the corporate heads at VS and then Limited Brands. So many came to me, in tears saying "Why do you not carry clothes I can wear. I have enough of your scents. I want clothing and lingerie". Some them asked me to do something about it which I could not.
i have watched this store rebuke the + size community since it inception. I have shopped at VS since 1979! I know of what I speak! It was once glamorous. Luxurious. Decadent but with class. It oozed femininity and yet it did not support all women.
Now it is 2019--are we not past shaming body types of even gender stereotypes? Women already KNOW what femininity is--we do not need VS telling us what it is. Women breastfeed, they have C-sections, they fight putting on and taking off pounds, they are vital in the workplace and they are vital in the home and community.
And not every woman is shaped the same!!!! It's bad enough that we face social shaming every single day of our lives . We do not need it from VS when Third Love is so much better as is Aerie. We do not exist to be a warped male fantasy-we are so much more than that!
Ok-deep breathe---below is what I just told VS and their new head of lingerie, John Menas. (who replaced Jan Siegler)
I doubt they will listen so it shall be interesting to watch the inheritable fall.[/i]
"[c=#BF0000]Force Ed Razek out of the company. Release all models from their contracts effective 8/1. They are not needed. Be the face of every women no matter their size, shape, or gender roles. We as women already know what sexy is. It's mid 2019, are we not past trying to define what femininity and gender roles are for women?
Stop with the casual lines. We have enough of that. It's not what we want from a lingerie store.
We do not exist to be marketed as a male's fantasy or his idea of what femininity is. We live for ourselves and we are better at it than any illusion he may have of us! Treat us a human beings and cater to what we want and need. We are not trophies for a male fantasy which has gotten rather old.
Bring back what we once loved-and still would. Second Skin Satin, the original Victoria perfume. The lines of bras and panties with ladies names for the line name. Biofit. Stop selling rubbish and catering to girls, yes girls, 8-21.
[b]Pink is NOT LIFE[/b]. One can only have so much of that. There comes an age you lose us and you do not market to us as successful adult women. Third Love and Aerie are looking better all the time and I even have serious issues with Aerie.
The Fashion show is no more. NikitaDragun ( a twitter user who did the VS show, as a transwomen BETTER than VS did last year) properly schooled you on how to that properly!
The catalog is gone. The free panties are gone as Jan wanted to make panties a business. ( a mistake) YOU DO NOT NEED supermodels!!! You need women being exactly that IRL in ads. You have lost touch with women and what had made you a great store decades ago. Luxury left your store in the 1980's. The feeling that VS was something special left long ago as well as line after line, that women loved, was discontinued by those who were clueless as to what we loved to shop for.
Getting rid of bigoted, short sighted, narrow minded Ed Razek is the first step as his vision is one women do NOT embrace. He had his day and contributed a lot but dinosaurs such as him are extinct. Or should be. John, good luck. Make VS what it once was or watch it fail."[/c]
Alexis
[c=#BF0000]Ps.. By the way John, do you remember when VS used to openly market to women AND MEN? I'll remind you. This, from the inside cover of a 1982 magazine with Geena Davis on the cover.
Thank You[/c]
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@LyricalOne The CEO, on IG, sent VS a letter detailing how they could save themselves. Much as I did. Theirs was a reply to Ed Razek who attacked them.
Third love is gaining so much ground on VS L brands(the owner of VS) sees them and Aerie as serious competitors.
This is Nikita Dragon I spoke of, a transwomen. Watch her short show and how she proved VS wrong.
Razek had said :We are no one's third love, we are their first!."
He got this reply from Heidi. Text as I cannot reproduce IG posts.
Dear Victoria’s Secret,
I was appalled when I saw the demeaning comments about women your Chief Marketing Officer, Ed Razek, made to Vogue last week. As hard as it is to believe, he said the following: “We attempted to do a television special for plus-sizes [in 2000]. No one had any interest in it, still don’t.” “It’s like, why doesn’t your show do this? Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy.” I’ve read and re-read the interview at least 20 times, and each time I read it I’m even angrier. How in 2018 can the CMO of any public company — let alone one that claims to be for women — make such shocking, derogatory statements?
You market to men and sell a male fantasy to women. But at ThirdLove, we think beyond, as you said, a “42-minute entertainment special.” Your show may be a “fantasy” but we live in reality. Our reality is that women wear bras in real life as they go to work, breastfeed their children, play sports, care for ailing parents, and serve their country. Haven’t we moved beyond outdated ideas of femininity and gender roles? It’s time to stop telling women what makes them sexy — let us decide. We’re done with pretending certain sizes don’t exist or aren’t important enough to serve. And please stop insisting that inclusivity is a trend.
I founded ThirdLove five years ago because it was time to create a better option. ThirdLove is the antithesis of Victoria’s Secret. We believe the future is building a brand for every woman, regardless of her shape, size, age, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation. This shouldn’t be seen as groundbreaking, it should be the norm. Let’s listen to women. Let’s respect their intelligence. Let’s exceed their expectations. Let women define themselves. As you said Ed, “We’re nobody’s ThirdLove, we’re their first love.” We are flattered for the mention, but let me be clear: we may not have been a woman’s first love but we will be her last. To all women everywhere, we see you, and we hear you. Your reality is enough. To each, her own. -Heidi @heidi
As you can see some of the inspiration for my post came from this.
@LyricalOne She says that so well!!!! I can def support her and her company. Reallove may have been trademarked by another company for some reason although I did not research it. But great idea!
She schooled Ed in this and he has been around VS for 25 year or so!
And there in is the problem. The vision Ed wants as CMO is not the vision that is one women are willing to embrace anymore. As i said, he is a dinosaur.
