Name: How Victoria's Secret Is Redefining 'Sexy' | Behind The Business
Uploaded: 2026-02-04
Duration: 8 min 57 s

Victoria’s Secret and its iconic Angels are back, but this time with a new definition of "sexy". In an era where consumers value comfort, inclusivity, and authenticity, the brand is fighting its way back into the cultural zeitgeist — with a reimagined Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and tapping into K-pop stardom to win over Gen Z. In this episode of Behind the Business, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women editor Emma Hinchliffe sits down with CEO Hilary Super to explore how to make a legacy intimates brand relevant once again.

How Victoria's Secret Is Redefining "Sexy" | Behind The Business

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Victoria's Secret was and still is the largest intimate brand in the world. For most of the past decade, Victoria's Secret has been treated as a cautionary tale, a once dominant brand that failed to evolve as culture and consumers moved on. It was sexy, that was very narrow and defined by someone else. And yet in recent months, the story has changed again. So sometimes this is sexy, glamorous, and envelope pushing, and sometimes this is sexy because you're feeling great about yourself. Customer growth has returned. Cultural relevance has re-emerged. Everyone on TikTok is losing their minds. Victoria's Secret. This is the bra you've all been going crazy for, right? The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is back, and for the first time in years, it's driving sales. And after a bruising period for the stock, momentum has followed. There were a lot of reasons you could have said no to this job. So why did you say yes? Because I thought it was the transformation opportunity of the industry of a lifetime. For most of its history, Victoria's Secret didn't just sell lingerie. It sold an aspirational, carefully curated definition of sexy. And for years, that formula worked, turning a mall-based intimate store into one of the most influential global retail brands. As consumer preferences shifted toward comfort, inclusivity, and authenticity, competitors moved quickly to embrace body positivity and digital first strategies. Victoria's Secret, meanwhile, amid a series of scandals, faced growing criticism that it was increasingly out of step with consumers, particularly younger women. You say Victoria's Secret represented a narrow point of view for a long time. If you had to put that into words, what was the narrow point of view? I think that point of view was sexy, and it's sexy is still at the heart of who we are and what we do, but it was sexy that was very narrow and defined by someone else. Victoria's Secret CEO Hillary Super joined the company in 2024 from a disruptive competitor and inherited a business that still generated. Billions in revenue but no longer define the conversation. I mean this brand has incredible global reach. It's the world's 1 intimates brand, #1 bra brand, world's sexiest brand in the world. There's incredible DNA, incredible reach, and cultural relevance, and it just needed to be brought into this next chapter, needed to be repolished, needed to be modernized, and the two brands needed to be made more distinct. And I just wanted to get my hands on that. Amid new competition from celebrity founded brands and digital newcomers, I can't wait for you guys to try this bra. Super's strategy is focused on a return to product expertise and building a brand that resonates with younger generations. There are 4 pillars in our strategy. It's called the path to Potential. The first one is about supercharging bras. The second is recommitting to pink. I believe that we can grow this business back and capture this. Next generation. 3rd, really maximizing beauty. The 4th pillar is really around evolving our go to market strategy. We have an opportunity to make sure that the creative DNA associated with each brand is distinct and compelling, and that we're using our full funnel and all modern marketing tools to really reach segmented groups of customers and to focus especially on customer acquisition. You've defined this new era of sexy. What is sexy? Sexy is what you want it to be. I think sexy means something for every woman, and it means something at different moments in her life. So sometimes this is sexy, glamorous, and envelope pushing, and sometimes this is sexy because you're feeling great about yourself. Over the past year, this strategy has started to pay off, and Wall Street is responding positively. In the third quarter of 2025, net sales rose more than 9% year over year. I'm on the corner of 51st Street and 5th Avenue. This is one of Victoria's Secret's flagship stores, and I'm about to chat with Elizabeth Price, the new CEO. It's a Tuesday afternoon right now and we are still surrounded by people getting their Victoria's Secret fix. There are very few times that the store is not busy at some level. Wow. So how do you get the store ready for Valentine's Day? Oh my gosh, well, the team that goes into this is pretty extraordinary. We have about 35,000 associates across all of our stores. Many of them are full time. We do have some seasonal associates as well. And just a fun fact, every single one of them is trained to be a bro fitter. So it's something we take very seriously, um, but the team is just passionate about the customer, passionate about bringing the customer and bringing that love of Victoria's Secret to life. If bras represent authority, the company's second brand, Pink, represents the future and another key pillar of the new strategy. The thing about Pink, which is a little bit different than Victoria's Secret, is that it's a much more balanced lifestyle, you know, truly a much broader range of apparel for this customer. You said you're laser focused on the 20 year old. Why her specifically? You know, we realize and acknowledge that our customer has grown up with us, and it's really time to introduce ourselves, both brands, to the next generation. Uh, and there are many ways we're doing that. Um, first and foremost with the Victoria's Secret fashion show this year we were really proud that we were able to showcase both brands and to really in real time show the, the living, breathing difference between those two brands, um, and the response was overwhelming. The Victoria's Secret fashion show reached peak cultural relevance in the 2000s as a highly anticipated annual show, but by 2019, shifting consumer expectations and falling ratings made the show feel out of step, leading to its cancellation. Its return in 2024 and evolution in 2025 marked a turning point for the brand, with returning angels and even K-pop stars reflecting the company's updated focus. It's been a few months since the fashion show. What are your biggest takeaways and what has the tangible impact been on the business so far? The tangible impact has been significant growth in customer file, growth in the business as we reported in Q3 earnings, and then buzz and just relevant. Scores, we, we owned the algorithm. We truly owned the algorithm on TikTok for weeks after the show, and I think that organic virality has, has really made a measurable impact on our business. It was really interesting to see your international business grow in your most recent earnings, and you included K-pop in the Victoria's Secret fashion show recently. Where are the biggest opportunities? You internationally and what are they? We will continue to open new stores in our existing regions. We have a few new countries that we're looking to get into and then I would add that social commerce is emerging as a big opportunity for us. It's a huge driver of our China business at the moment, and we're looking to take that learning and apply it globally. You're executing this turnaround, but at the same time facing some major headwinds like a net impact of $90 million from your tariff bill. Will tariffs impact the progress you're making here? I don't think so. I think something that we've learned over the last several years is every time a challenge comes to us, um, whether it's the challenge of COVID-19 or tariffs, we come out on the other side stronger. Has it been challenging? Has it been something we've had to really bond together as a team and figure out how to mitigate? Absolutely. Um, did it come on faster and stronger than any of us expected? Absolutely. Have we, has the team done an incredible job mitigating those impacts? Yes, they have, and I think we are really setting ourselves up to be stronger than ever as we enter 2026. Victoria's Secret has regained momentum and is on the way to a promising comeback. We are not going to be for everyone. A brand has to stand for something. Victoria's Secret stands for sexy, glamorous, accessible luxury, and that is who we are and our job is to connect those attributes to culture today. And while that may not be for everyone, it's for many, many millions of women. We have 25 million plus active customers in North America alone. We have hundreds of millions of women around the world who love Victoria's Secret, and I hope that customers who haven't engaged with. Us yet or maybe haven't engaged with us in a while, we'll give it a chance. We'll come and see what we have to offer because we really do offer a lot more than one point of view. While leadership and Wall Street are both optimistic, the real measure of success will be whether this momentum can be sustained. I think Victoria's Secret is the sexiest brand in the world, and there's, there's just a lot to love about thinking about what that looks and feels like in this next chapter.