Narrator: These are the wings that flew high
over the fashion industry for years.
Victoria's Secret, with its Angels
and over-the-top fashion shows, captivated audiences
and cornered the market.
But the brand lost sense of what women really wanted.
Over-sexualized ads and flashy runway shows
lost their sparkle
as women began to seek more body-positive brands.
There was also scandal.
Victoria's Secret then faced a challenge and
found itself wrapped up in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Narrator: But how did the high flyer of fashion fall so low?
And can it spread its wings once again?
Photographer: One, two, three.
(crowd cheering)
Narrator: This was the moment Victoria's Secret had it all.
The Angels were some of the most famous celebrities
in the world, walking down the runway with 60-pound wings
and million-dollar bras.
You were considered to be the best of the best
if you worked for this brand,
if you were designing for this brand.
Narrator: But the glamor and glitz were miles away from what first
made the brand so successful.
Back in the day, it wasn't about women at all,
and there was never a Victoria.
It all began in 1977 after Roy Raymond
had an awkward experience buying underwear for his wife.
So he decided to open a store in San Francisco
where men could feel comfortable shopping for their wives.
Mary: Roy Raymond's thing was actually described
by somebody as more kind of almost brothel-like.
Like it was kind of boudoir-ish.
Narrator: Which is a fancy word for a Victorian-era dressing room.
And the "secret" hinted to what was hidden
beneath the women's underwear.
Raymond went on to open five more stores
and launched Victoria's Secret's now famous catalog.
But by the early '80s, his venture
was on the verge of bankruptcy.
So he sold it for $1 million
to the man that would transform the brand.
This is Les Wexner.
He was the millionaire owner of L Brands,
the parent company of
The Limited and Express.
He thought the stores should be less about
what men wanted to see and more about what women
wanted to wear.
By 1992, there were more than 500 stores nationwide.
Gabriella: If you were a young woman and you were going out
to buy your lingerie, I mean,
it's not that exciting to go to a department store.
So it was always great to go into Victoria's Secret.
And it was an experience.
Narrator: Wexner oversaw Victoria's Secret as CEO of L Brands
for years to come. As for Raymond, he died by suicide
in 1993 and would never see his creation flourish.
By 1995, Victoria's Secret had more than 600 stores
in the US, and sales had grown to nearly $2 billion.
That same year, Wexner and his head of marketing, Ed Razek,
launched the brand's first fashion show.
Lingerie's fashion, and Victoria's Secret,
I think, is the first business to really acknowledge that.
Narrator: The show was modest by today's standards.
Mary: It then became this enormous kind of
part of the fashion calendar. And it was a spectacle, really.
Narrator: Ed Razek embarked on bigger and bolder shows.
His team handpicked the models and hired some
of the world's most famous photographers
and television directors.
He was responsible for launching the careers of
some of the biggest models today. Gisele, Heidi Klum,
they all ran in the show.
Heidi: Victoria's Secret in general and the show really
gave a boom to my career.
Narrator: They were called Angels after a 1997 collection.
The line itself was eventually discontinued,
but the Angels became iconic, and they were paid millions.
It is a tough job.
Someone has to do it. So I'm doing it.
Narrator: The show was streamed online for the first time in 1999.
More people will see this show tonight
than all other fashion shows in history combined.
Narrator: More than a million people tried to tune in,
and the site crashed. By 2000, Victoria's Secret
had more than 800 stores across the country,
and had generated almost $3 billion in sales.
And then came Pink, a line that targeted teens.
The fashion shows became even more extravagant,
and even featured the most expensive bra ever created.
It was described as like, the Super Bowl of fashion, essentially.
Every year it's something new.
So that's what makes the Victoria's Secret fashion show
the most beautiful, excitement event of the year.
Narrator: It was also huge for employees like Casey Crowe Taylor.
Casey: Which was one of the most memorable, exciting days of
my life. I mean, it was incredible. It was amazing.
Narrator: The shows were a massive investment.
Mary: Victoria's Secret has always being quite guarded on
how much the shows actually cost.
But in the past, it's been estimated
to be around $12 million to $20 million.
Narrator: In 2015, the show paid for itself five times over.
Under CEO Sharen Jester Turney,
sales soared more than 70%, and L Brands' stock price
reached an all-time high. That's why it came as a shock
when Turney chose this moment to step down,
and Wexner, once again, picked up the reins of the company.
This would be a pivotal moment for Victoria's Secret.
The people that I spoke to in my reporting
who were working at the company said
this is when everything really started to go wrong.
This was the beginning of the end for Victoria's Secret.
Narrator: With Wexner and Razek calling all the shots,
the brand failed to notice that trends were changing.
They missed out on key trends like bralettes
because, you know, they just wanted the push-up styles.
Women were looking at Victoria's Secret like,
"Hey, wait, what's going on?"
They were perpetuating this push-up bra
and this very unnatural look.
I spoke to one executive that said,
"We need to get into sports bras.
This is a huge market there."
And that Wexner had said,
"Sweaty's not sexy unless you're having sex."
Narrator: By the end of 2016, about 200 employees were laid off,
and the share price began to fall.
Victoria's Secret still went ahead
with its most expensive fashion show ever.
It cost more than $20 million to feature Lady Gaga,
Bruno Mars, and The Weeknd. Meanwhile, competitors
were featuring more body-positive images of women.
You know, women were looking, thinking, wow, you know,
this feels much more relatable.
I can see myself in these ad campaigns.
I can't see myself in Victoria's Secret.
Narrator: Then came the #MeToo movement,
and women turned away from over-sexualized brands.
There was also controversy. In a 2018 interview with Vogue,
Razek said the company shouldn't have transgender models
in the show.
A cascade of criticism
and resignations followed.
Razek apologized for his comments and said the company would
absolutely hire a transgender model,
which they did a year later.
That same day, Razek's resignation was announced,
and that year's fashion show was canceled.
And then Wexner also got caught up in scandal.
Mary: Jeffrey Epstein was at one point considered
to be a close friend of Les Wexner
and managed his money for several years.
Epstein reportedly tried to offer input on which women
should be Victoria's Secret models.
Mary: Police reports came out from the late '90s
from models that say they were
assaulted by Epstein and that
he was basically masquerading
as a Victoria's Secret model scout,
and had invited them,
sort of lured them to hotel rooms
saying that this would be an audition,
and then assaulted them.
Narrator: Wexner described Epstein as "depraved," and said
that he was "embarrassed" to have been close to him.
In February of 2020, The New York Times
said in an investigation that Razek and Wexner led a
"culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment."
The tricky thing about Ed is that
he is an extremely charismatic human.
You can be in his energy and feel so welcomed.
But obviously there was a dark side to that, too.
Narrator: Crowe Taylor worked in the PR department
from 2012 to 2015, and she claims that Razek
berated her about her weight at a work event.
Casey: He said things like,
"Do you really think you need more bread?"
One of the things that sticks out the most for me
is he made this comment of like,
"Do you even look at yourself in the mirror
before you get dressed?"
Narrator: Razek did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
As for Wexner, he stepped down in February 2020.
The company said in a statement to Insider that its new team
is focused on "creating an inclusive environment"
to "celebrate, uplift, and champion all women."
By 2020, Victoria's Secret's share of the market
had dropped, and business was already bad
when COVID hit.
The company shut down more than 200 stores in the US,
but COVID turned out to be a blessing for Victoria's Secret.
I think for them,
the pandemic was almost like the perfect excuse.
So they were like, "Oh, OK,
you know, we'll take this opportunity.
We're going to close these stores."
Narrator: And as the world bounced back, so did Victoria's Secret.
They had a new design team, and it just
worked very well for them.
They pulled back on inventory,
and then they were just very strategic
about what they released on a monthly basis.
Narrator: The stores got a makeover.
Mary: The lights have been turned up.
The music's turned down.
Pictures of Angels that would have been all over the walls
in these stores have been taken down.
Narrator: And even the Angels have been replaced.
They've got a new group of spokeswomen for the brand,
which includes activists and entrepreneurs
who will essentially take on the role of the Angels.
Narrator: Victoria's Secret has turned a corner,
but it's yet to be seen if the brand's Angels will ever fly
as far or as high again.