Victoria Secret is an American company best known for its lingerie and beauty clothing. Victoria Secret is most popular among women of high fashion and celebrities.
Even though most of the clothings are invisible to the public as they are mostly worn under other clothings, the brand carved a niche for itself.
Even clothings that only share a similarity with the brand have been referenced using this name. The brand was once the largest lingerie retailer in the United States until 2016 when it began to experience hard times.
Most of the downturn has been due to growing changes in the needs of consumers and inner disputes over corporate practices.
Victoria Secret Leggings Brand: A Brief History
Victoria Secret leggings brand was produced under the Victoria Sport category of clothes which was launched in 2016. This branch of the brand is focused on athleisure clothings like leggings and yoga pants.
The company divides its product in its website thus: Victoria’s Secret which sells lingerie, bra, and other underwear; Victoria Pink which also sells bras and targets younger women, panties, swimwear, and other apparel utilizing a predominant color pink; and Victoria Sport with focus on sports bras.
It doesn’t only make bras in this category but also leggings. This category was created to meet the changing terrain of consumer needs.
More women are taking their physical health seriously and are picking up fitness and exercise hobbies. This has created a growing market for sportswear for ladies.
What happened to the Victoria Secret leggings brand?
Shifting customer tastes is what happened to the brand. Even in business, change is inevitable. Customer taste and needs shift periodically and when it does, sadly it seldom goes back to where it came from. The issues can be broken down into:
- Changes in customer needs
- Internal corporate problems
Change in customer needs
In the past, Victoria Secret used a singular type of females as models for their products; slim, pretty, and tall ones.
Whereas other brands in the same line of business have long begun to include different body shapes as part of their image projection, Victoria Secret continued to stick to this “authentic” body type.
It soon became outmoded. The more time passed, the less authentic and realistic this marketing strategy was.
Sadly, everyone except the brand itself could see this.
Many contemporary lingerie brands moved on to inclusive marketing strategies that feature plus-size people, medium heights, and everything in-between.
The horde of customers who have been left without something offered in their taste quickly moved to these newer brands, and they soon began to take with them, Victoria Secret’s loyalists.
Victoria Secret lacked the desire to change, and this is a grievous sin every business tries to avoid. The use of Victoria Secret Angels, their models, to project the perfect woman’s body also took a toll on the brand.
In 2014 the brand came under fire when a petition signed by 30,000 signees exposed how the brand’s advert of the Body by Victoria collection was a bad influence on young women who didn’t have the perfect body.
So clearly, even until recently, the brand was still struggling to get out of the rut of this antiquated view of beauty and how customer perception had changed.
Internal corporate problems
Around 2019 the brand came under fire for allegations of harassment and abuse of models. There were also accusations of misogyny in the leadership which led to the intervention of nonprofit advocacy groups.
In 2019 a top-ranking executive at the brand who was verbally abused was once locked out of her office after she reported the incident.
This and more allegations and internal disputes, settlements, and apologies have affected the image of the brand.
What is the future of the Victoria Secret Leggings Brand?
The future of the brand can be viewed from two angles: the company and women. As of late, the brand has been making efforts to rebrand itself, trying to salvage what’s remaining of its prestige and acquire what’s left of the market.
What Victoria Secret is doing
Victoria secret began its efforts to rebrand by breaking from under the parent company L Brand. The split happened in 2021. The brand changed its name to Victoria’s Secret & Co and was listed as a separate entity from the parent company.
A vow was made by the CEO at the board meeting that it would do its best to become relevant again with women. It has stopped using rail-thin women as models and moved to feature women of more diverse body shapes.
It waits to be seen how the brand will do in coming years as the market for women apparel is awash with fine competition like Lululemon and American Eagle.
What women think
We slid into an age when women preferred comfortable, empowering, and inclusive underwear. It took Victoria Secret a long time to catch up.
By the time they did, the general population of women around the world had developed a grudge for the brand. It had made them feel like they could never amount to as much as the angels the brand advertised.
Another reason women stopped buying the brand was that they now wanted functional and affordable lingerie.
The idea of “sexy” changed, women rewrote that part of the script and directed the movie by themselves. It was liberating.
Victoria Secret now has to convince these women that the brand can be trusted. If the brand drops the sexually charged image of women in their marketing strategy, maybe more women would come back to it.
Four great Victoria Secret’s Leggings you should have in your closet
Victoria Secret still sells some of the best leggings. Below I have made a compilation of 4 leggings that I consider the best picks from their online collection.
Love Cloud Crossover Legging
These leggings are one of the most functional ones I found on the brand’s website. It features a composition of 80% recycled polyester and 20% spandex.
It is a legging that is made to keep your skin cool and dry all through your exercise routine.
Leggings aren’t for exercises only, this one can be styled with crop tops, and blouses of all sizes. Because it stretches, women of varying sizes and shapes can wear it.
Caring for your legging is simple, just machine wash. It comes with hidden pockets for your phone, and those little bits you don’t want to lose.
This legging is made for power lounges and everyday movements, guaranteed to stay strong at $20.
Essential Pocket Legging
What makes great leggings? How about a waistband that stays in place no matter how you bend your body?
That’s what this legging up there offers. The four-way stretch offers a super soft texture that caresses your skin.
It features side pockets you can keep your essentials in while doing your daily chores, taking a walk, or doing your stretches. This is made possible by the 87% polyester and 13% elastane.
The styling allows for casual wear too. As you can see, this legging can be worn with any footwear from sneakers to slides because of the high rise. Throw it in the machine wash among other clothes of the same color.
All of this beauty for $20.
Sweat On Point Pocket Legging
If you are already working on that figure, or simply just trying to improve your health overall, then you should add this legging to your closet.
This one comes in runaway teal and black colors, it features 62% polyamide and 38% elastane, just the right composition to give you the sweat-wicking fabric feeling you need.
The compressed waistband stays on no matter the routine you are doing. The body-hugging fit does not only enhance your looks, it also enables you to enjoy a non cumbersome exercise session.
It has a hidden pocket at the back of the waist where you can keep essential stuff. The absorbent fabric dries in a flash, so sweat away. All this beauty is $20.
Love Cloud Ruched Legging
It’s the small details that matter sometimes with clothing. This legging offers an alluring design, its simplicity is why many women love it. You don’t have to have a special figure to wear these leggings.
The ruched crossover waist detail and the highrise design are guaranteed to give you a fit that looks good and is also functional.
The four-way stretch allows a wide range of movement, the interior waistband pocket keeps your stuff while you do your thing.
The fabric is 80% recycled polyester and 20% elastane. Make this breathable legging your next purchase at $20.
Final thoughts
I personally don’t think Victoria’s Secret is completely going out of fashion. Especially now that the brand is making great efforts to win the hearts of women again.
The clothing market is such that women have a wide variety to choose from, which is a good thing.
Victoria’s Secret is one of the best brands still in existence. Hopefully, the brand will make a complete comeback and women everywhere can be proud of the quaint name again.
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