Selling Sexy: Victoria's Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon takes you on a deep dive into the company's history. I was fascinated reading about Victoria's Secret over the years and its influence on pop culture. I also really enjoyed learning about the overall history of undergarments. Thank goodness we're not in the age of wearing corsets, lol. I appreciate the research and work that the authors, Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez, put into the book.

Thank you, NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read and review Selling Sexy as an e-ARC.

Sometimes all you want is a push-up bra with lace trim and a bow in the middle wrapped up with tissue in a pink striped bag. Affordable, dependable, easily accessible–brought to you by your neighborhood mall. Lingerie is a gift you give yourself, and for the gold standard you need look no further than Victoria’s Secret–elegant, glamorous, feminine, and, of course, sexy.

People who know the story of Victoria’s Secret think of the men: retail empire builder Les Wexner, Hugh Hefner wannabe Ed Razek, or criminal predator/brand tarnisher Jeffrey Epstein. But Victoria started with the billion-dollar brain-child of a woman Gaye Raymond, the vessel for Victoria’s story and co-founder of the business with her husband Roy in 1977.

Gaye was first in a genealogy of women whose tireless labor constructed the entrepreneurial empire. Cynthia Fedus-Fields, the Victoria’s Secret catalog expert, Laura Berkman, the marketer from the Limited, and Sarah Gallagher, a lingerie buyer from Lord & Taylor, formed a feminine triumvirate, a powerful paragon of empowered women with ambition and autonomy.

These generations of women, individually impressive and remarkable in her own right, established and evolved their vision with one question: “What is sexy now?” They wanted to empower women to understand that sexy was more than a performance for their partners, it was defined and embodied–quite literally–by themselves. They created a company that would afford women the opportunity to express their individuality and their sexuality through the most fundamental clothing in their closets and transform the mundane into lingerie. In Selling Sexy, they forged a multibillion dollar industry that defined a generation.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Henry Holt for the opportunity to read this as an ARC. This is an extremely well researched and well written book. It goes back to the earliest days of Victoria's Secret and continues up to present time. It is a bit dry at times, and sometimes I wish I had a chart of people's names and positions in the company, as it got a complex. It is unvarnished and unsparing , in its descriptions of the the people at the top of the corporate ladder. It was interesting and thought provoking. I am glad I read it.

Thank you to the author Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez, publishers Holt Publishing, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of SELLING SEXY. All views are mine.

Sometimes you just want a lace-trimmed push-up bra, with a tiny bow on the center bridge, wrapped up in a shiny pink-striped bag. Cheap, reliable, accessible thrills— brought to you by your local mall. p312

Victoria's secret was an iconic company when I was a girl and young woman. I watched the Angels on TV, measured myself up against the catalog models, and even bought one or two ill-fitting bras. Victoria's Secret and I were both based in Ohio, and even though I lived in a small town, we had a VS in our little mall. In Ohio, all the malls had a Victoria's Secret. The cheap little not-quite-lingerie boutiques that told 90s women what sexy was, were ubiquitous.

I requested a copy of this book from NetGalley because I love good history book and I love fashion. I thought this text would want to make a point about VS's role in the state of white feminism in the 90's. But it did no more than survey the history, which I found to be very dry. With the notable exception of chapter 14, the authors didn't organize the material to maximize the naturally occurring conflict in the history. It all felt a bit flat.

I recommend SELLING SEXY to 80' and 90's girls, fashion history buffs, readers who want a little more tea on Epstein.

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. From the beginning, most of the decision makers at Victoria’s Secret were women, and their mission was to make other women feel good. To embrace their sexuality, to lead more satisfying sex lives and have healthier relationships. To experience their gender as an asset, not a liability. To feel powerful. p10 Not exactly my brand of feminism, but it's a worthy goal and a spectacular concept for a women's intimates company in the 90's.

2. An interesting, unattainable image–at the time: The first “Victoria,” the one Roy and Gaye Raymond had conjured up one evening at home in San Francisco, was a glamorous British woman the couple imagined meeting while traveling on the Orient Express. 129 She was a confident businesswoman, they decided, alone on the train— presumably with a man in her life but unburdened by him. She was fabulous and mysterious. The “secret” to her appeal, she told them, was great lingerie. Over a decade later, the image of Victoria had evolved. Vogue described her as a mix of “the sexy and the sensible,” appealing to both men and women by subverting Sigmund Freud’s Madonna/ whore dichotomy. 130 “The Victoria’s Secret woman is not a fashion model, nor is she the girl next door,” wrote the magazine’s art and fashion writer Dodie Kazanjian. “If she’s a wife, she’s somebody else’s wife. But she’s more likely a wife-mistress, with her loose, slightly disheveled hair and one shoulder strap falling down.” p102

3. This makes me want to puke. But it's also an astute observation about the social environment that ever let s company like Victoria’s Secret thrive. Feminism was still a loaded term, rejected as a label by Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. Instead, it was a time of “good girls” (Taylor Swift), “good girls gone bad” (Rihanna and Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester), “the sexiest bad girl” (Megan Fox), “very bad girls” (Rosario Dawson and Rose McGowan), Bad Girls Club (the reality show), and soon, just Girls (the HBO series lambasting a generation raised in Pink sweatpants while watching Sex and the City reruns). p201

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez clearly know their material, buy I'm not really that into history reports. For 70 pages, it's been nothing but dry business history. It doesn't appear the authors have a point to make or an opinion to share. If I'm wrong, they've waited too long to make or share it. *edit Now that I know this book contains a dirty scoop on Jeffrey Epstein, I suspect that was the purpose of this book.

2. Weller sabotaged his own business *more than once* by cutting his best selling lines, like Body By Victoria, because *he* didn't think they were sexy enough. Forget what women want, he said! We'll make them wear what I want! No he didn't really say that, I was paraphrasing his decades of ridiculous business decisions. In her 2005 book, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, Levy identified young women’s Y2K-era exhibitionist turn as a reaction against the austerity of their mothers’ generation. The attitude also reflected an “if you can’t beat them, join them” mentality, she argued, a way to cope with the sexism that continued to pervade culture. p163

Rating: 👙👙 /5 bra-and-panty sets
Recommend? Meh
Finished: Sep 1 '24
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
👢 fashion history
💄 sexism in fashion
🫖 Jeffrey Epstein tea

I really wanted to like this book, but ultimately I struggled with it. I give major props to the writers for doing their research because there is a TON of info here. Consequently, the book feels more like a textbook. It took me a long time to get through it and sadly, I just didn’t really enjoy it. That sad, I did learn a lot and it would be a good read for someone who has interest in the brand or even the history of retail.

Victoria’s Secret is a name I grew up with. For all of us young girls, this was the place to purchase underwear (someday) and the secrets of being desirable, to being sexy were captured inside the mall stores. When the beauty myth of VS popped, it was 40 years later! This is the tale of the most powerful brand to focus directly on woman and their image. Sherman and Fernandez include the history of lingerie as far back as Egypt and Rome and 2000BC. The story they tell is mesmerizing, much like the VS catalog used to be.

The rise and fall of billionaires and companies is not very interesting as a whole unless it's a brand that defined your childhood. While the book catalogs the VS history it also forces the reader to reflect on the marketed image of woman, white CIS woman especially. Including stories of Gigi Hadid, Jeffrey Epstein and the very complicated man Les Wexner, Selling Sexy is a must read for any Gen X woman.
#henryholt #sellingsexy #vicotiassecret #laurensherman #chantalfernandez

(3.5/5, rounded up)

First, I want to give Lauren Sherman credit for how much time and effort must have gone into this book. I feel like I could give a presentation recapping VS history right this second and no one would know I didn't work there.

Such an all-encompassing narrative backfired about 65% into the book though, when I couldn't tell if I was in history class or reading a book. At first I thought "Eh, that's on me for not knowing what I was getting myself into"... But many readers won't know what they're getting themselves into either, so here I am, with a fair warning.

I still do recommend this book. There was so much back and forth around VS in the media, and this book cleared all of that up. Just be ready for a VERY dense retelling.

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Lauren Sherman, and publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!}

Fascinating story about Victorias Secret a brand that soared to the top .Their fashion shows were iconic models galore. So well written so interesting really enjoyed getting an inside look at this label.#netgalley #henryholt

It is a fascinating story about the Victoria's Secret company and its brand and leadership. I remember the models, the stores, and the catalogs so well. It was a treat to read this book, which is well-researched and written in easy-to-understand language. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I really liked this book. The research is clear, and the examination of Victoria's Secret, its influence on the fashion industry, and the pressures on women is fascinating. I found this book to be educational and also showed so much of the underlying issues in the fashion industry

Selling Sexy by Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez is a well researched, well written book on the origins of retail sales in the US to the start of Victoria’s Secret to the current state of the business. This book delves deeply into the lives of the leaders of the organization with particular emphasis on Les Wexner the long time CEO.

The authors are journalists and experts in the fashion industry. I really appreciated the vast amount of research that went into writing this book as well as the authors’ ability to share the information in an informative and unbiased way. The book covers the way Victoria Secret’s models were treated, the relationship between Wexner and Henry Epstein as well as how Victoria’s Secret impacted millennials throughout their coming of age. I learned a lot reading this book and highly recommend the book. After reading this book I will not shop at Victoria’s Secret but I invite readers to come to their own educated view by reading this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.