"Victoria's Secret had tried everything. It killed the famous runway show. It rolled out a splashy campaign of accomplished celebrity women advisors to promote female empowerment-which was widely derided as "woke-washing." As the singer Jax put it in her popular 2022 song "Victoria's Secret," the mall-staple lingerie store was "made up by a dude," and it has been widely seen as "Cashin' in on body issues/Sellin' skin and bones with big boobs.""
"Enter CEO Hillary Super. She joined the company in 2024 after successful stints running Anthropologie and Savage X Fenty, which became an edgy lingerie competitor to Victoria's Secret. Super, 53, remembers that when she got the call, she was "keenly aware of what the perceptions of the brand were, positive and negative." But her "first reaction was, 'That's the biggest transformation opportunity in retail,'" she says. "That was really appealing to me.""
Victoria's Secret pursued multiple changes, including ending the runway show and launching a celebrity-advisor campaign that critics derided as woke-washing. Cultural critiques painted the brand as male-created and selling unrealistic body ideals. Hillary Super became CEO in 2024 after leading Anthropologie and Savage X Fenty and saw the role as a major retail transformation opportunity. Super brought renewed merchant focus, self-assurance, and authentic communication aimed at women. She is the first female CEO of Victoria's Secret & Co. since the spinoff and emphasizes reclaiming glamour and spectacle without body-shaming while pursuing genuine, nonperformative diversity.
Read at Fortune
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