Victoria's Secret is moving back to its sexy, push-up bra roots. The multibillion-dollar lingerie industry has been headed in a different direction of late. But with sales down at Victoria's Secret, the underwear label is doubling down on its push-up staples in a bid to lure women back into its lace-filled stores.
Chief Executive Officer Jan Singer, who formerly headed Spanx but moved to Victoria's Secret last year, outlined her plan to revive the brand for parent L Brands Inc.
Victoria's Secret faces increased competition as more clothing retailers get into the lingerie business. Stores, ranging from hipster staple Urban Outfitters to fast-fashion powerhouse Forever 21, are currently trying to cash in on a craze for airy, less-fortified bras called "bralettes."
Earlier this year, Victoria's Secret joined the pack and pivoted to pitching bralettes, billed as lightweight and more comfortable versions of structured bras. Victoria's Secret proclaimed that bralettes were sexy, calling them "sexy little things."
But, earlier this month, shares of L Brands fell to a six-year low on weak profit forecasts, and reports on same-store sales for Victoria's Secret showed a drop of 14 percent in the latest quarter.
So, Singer has announced that the brand will go back to its more sexy roots. We are "in the business of fashion and sexy," the CEO said in a conference call. She wants to know what her customers expect from products that "speak sexy" to them. She wants to provide "choices of sexy" for customers. In sports bras, she wants to show women that "sexy is strong."
Push-up bras, the signature style of Victoria's Secret, harken back to the busty bombshell image that the brand embraced for decades. Indeed, the label has a push-up bra collection (and a perfume scent) dubbed "Bombshell."
The 40-year-old brand once revolutionized how women bought lingerie. Victoria's Secret removed much of the taboo around unmentionables by upending the old lingerie boutique model when modesty ruled and fitters sized up customers and matched them with typically white, black or beige bras.
Victoria's Secret was anything but modest, positioning itself as a fashion brand. It employed supermodels and sold bold styles. The push-up bra was central to its glory days.
Now, with its venture into bralettes not working, bralettes will make up less than 5 percent of the brand's bra assortment.
"I think anybody can make a bralette, and that was a moment that will come and go, and it will come again," said Singer. "But for us, we make constructed bras best. And when we do, even in our bralette business, bralettes that have more construction in them, we get paid for that work."
Victoria's Secret's return to its push-up roots is a curious move, in part because push-up bras haven't had a great run of late. Officials at Aerie, American Eagle's lingerie chain, said last week that bra sales were down in the lackluster push-up category.
However, the Aerie brand president, Jennifer Foyle, conceded that bralettes have saturated the market.
Cora Harrington, who runs the Lingerie Addict website, said the bralette trend has matured. Women attracted to that style have already switched to them. Victoria's Secret entered the bralette cycle late, and its customers didn't seem to want the airier designs from the brand. People go to Victoria's Secret for the sexy push-up, she said.
"Customers have already found their favorite bralette brand," said Harrington. "They're not just going to change it again."
As Harrington sees it, Victoria's Secret's core issue isn't the style of bras it sells. Rather, the sexy image it cultivated for so long has grown stale because of the brand's unwillingness to broaden how it defines beauty, she said.
Aerie, for instance, seeks to challenge beauty standards by casting a range of body types in its campaigns. Victoria's Secret continues to stick with its airbrushed supermodel look. By de-emphasizing bralettes, the company is arguably stepping farther back in time, analysts say.
SundayMonday Business on 08/27/2017