NEW YORK (PNN) - September 23, 2025 - Victoria’s Secret's new CEO has announced plans to return to its “unapologetically sexy” branding as it moves away from its failed woke rebrand.
The lingerie company is re-embracing its bombshell roots following years of struggling sales and a tepid response to its diverse catwalk last year.
CEO Hillary Super, 53, who took on the role in September 2024, admitted her predecessors had allowed the brand to become “watered down”.
“At the time I took over, Victoria's Secret was regarded as inappropriate and off-color and we had to correct those mistakes,” former CEO Martin Waters told the Wall Street Journal.
The company toned down its provocative branding after a 2020 New York Times article reported that many employees and models faced a slew of misogyny and harassment.
At the time, the brand was under the leadership of Leslie Wexner and Ed Razek.
Super said many decisions were made “out of fear” after the company moved away from its sexualized branding and more toward comfort following a wave of backlash.
The brand's seductive lingerie was replaced with products with more coverage and plain designs, as well as a heavier focus on athleisure wear and comfortable pajamas.
While Waters' efforts to appeal to younger generations and steer into evolving social change initially boosted sales and profits, they quickly flatlined.
Super's vision as she entered in the wake of Waters' exit was to find the middle ground that brought the company's brand back to its former sexy glory, she told the outlet.
Before her arrival, sales had been falling for more than two years and battled against brands from Kim Kardashian's Skims and ThirdLove.
Super launched a rebrand on the “Very Sexy” line, featuring double push-up bras and more bling, the outlet reported.
“It's unapologetically sexy,” she said of the new line.
Since Super took over, WSJ reported that the company's stock increased by nearly eight percent.
Sales increased in all but one quarter since her arrival, with the latest quarter seeing a rise of three percent.
As the next VS Fashion Show approaches, which is set to air on October 15, Super said there will be new updates - all of which remain under wraps.
“What is a modern Angel?” Super asked. “Does it have to be a supermodel? We are having those debates.”
The company's move into a more diverse and inclusive brand came after Victoria's Secret came under fire following accusations of the brand's problematic environment.
A former public relations employee for the company, Casey Crowe Taylor, told WSJ, “What was most alarming to me, as someone who was always raised as an independent woman, was just how ingrained this behavior was.”
“This abuse was just laughed off and accepted as normal. It was almost like brainwashing. (People) who tried to do anything about it weren’t just ignored. They were punished,” she added.
Razek denied the allegations at the time and declared them “categorically untrue” or “taken out of context”.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with countless world-class models and gifted professionals and take great pride in the mutual respect we have for each other,” he added.
A spokesman for Wexner declined to provide comment to the outlet at the time.
Victoria's Secret also faced a wave of backlash from woke maniacs in 2019 over poor quality and claims of a lack of diversity among its models.
That same year, the CFO of Victoria's Secret's parent company Stuart Burgdoerfer announced the annual VS Fashion Show would be canceled.
The VS Fashion Show returned in 2024 with a new focus that included plus-sized models, such as Ashley Graham, as well as deviant transgender models and different ethnicities; which the general public and VS’ market rejected.
They hired Valentina Sampaio, their first deviant transgender model, to star in their new VS Pink campaign after Razek left; their market did not want deviant transgender models and stopped purchasing their products.
The woke fashion show was derided as lackluster and lacking the traditional glamor for which the brand was known.
Go woke and go broke is the slogan that sends a message that woke principles are unwanted. Nobody desires the woke brand.