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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Excellent post. I rarely step foot into VS anymore, although the stuff fits me. I agree the PINK line has taken over, like sweats are so much better when they scream brand or “I’m a teenager”. Last time I went in looking for lingerie I was so disappointed with their few choices. I mean, it’s supposed to be a lingerie store right? One (huge) full room of pink. One full room of scents, one full room of bras, and only one room also with bras, panties, and a few lingerie choices. If they want to bring back the LINGERIE store I may shop there more again, but it’s not looking likely they will.
@HeavenBesideYou I still have their panties but I don't wear them much. Remember the "pink" pants my niece bought me for Christmas one year. Lol I didn't realize anything was written on the butt until after I went out in public. I wore them once more when she was visiting and they are in a drawer where they will remain.
@HeavenBesideYou Thanks for the reply and for reading this. I still have an unopened bottle of laundry detergent that I for in a store as it was leaving. That is part of the disconnect with women I am speaking of. Little things like that that a special shopping experience a so-so shopping experience. I am glad you can wear what is sold but my local stores are just like the one you described. Their focus on scents is meant to deter women and perhaps assuage them as they cam't wear their lingerie.
PINK is 1/3 my store and scent almost another third. Panties are giver more attention and room than bras and if I want a baby doll or merry widow, good luck to me.
Last week john had sent an internal memo out to manager and employees says (and I paraphrase) "Why do we sell do much casual? That is not what our business model was built on. Where have we strayed and what do we need to reconnect with the comsimer who is leaving empty handed?"
So what you will see this summer (providing a women can wear it!)is a secy, edgy, racy, and provocative line that mirror the "La Femme Victorian" line that we loved in the late 1990's and early 2000's. It's a start but John needs to get more done and Ed Razek is his worst enemy. Old school thinking them will inhibit them from moving forward. That will impact the bottom line for investors as they anaylse L Brands
@Elandra77 I want to see more actual lingerie as opposed to ANOTHER bra and panties line. I can get those anywhere. What happened to the garder belts, the babydolls, the sexy chemises?
Apparently you can sell that bottle of laundry detergent for $200 on eBay. Lol. They would sell out so fast once they got it in stock, seems like a poor business decision to discontinue it, especially because we were willing to pay top dollar for the stuff. You’d think they’d make more... 🤔
@HeavenBesideYou I want the same as i have enough bras and panties. Remember I used to work there and we got stuff, "buy ins" they were called, very cheap and long before the consumer had them. I agree about the garters-and stockings. Ever IF we find stockings they are hose and not thigh highs to wear with a garter!
Lingerie needs to be their focus. Not casual wear or even bra and panty lines.
In their zeal to cater to teens they lost the elegance they once had.
Luxury left-as did the feeling of sexiness.
The bottom line is that their corporate focus is totally wrong.
Go back to being a nice lingerie store for grown ass women, and have sizes that can accommodate them.
And it’s ironic that the bras they stock wouldn’t even fit their models. My stepdaughter is a 34EE and there wasn’t a single one in the place that fit her.
