The flagship brands owned by the company L Brands are Victoria’s Secret along with Bath and Body Works. However, one is apparently having issues connecting to their consumers. Even though L Brands is currently 234 on Forbes top 500 list, Victoria’s Secret is having a problem connecting with the modern consumer. In fact, Victoria’s Secret had a dip in sales this past December despite having over 6.65 million people watch their annual December Fashion Show The logistical reason for the slow in sales is due to the company’s focus on in-store sales as opposed to online or through their own mobile app. Furthermore, their stores have the connotation with being more opulent as opposed to practical with the overarching theme of beauty as opposed to reality. Victoria’s Secret presents a beautiful fantasy, which is not what the average person is drawn to anymore.
Personally, speaking I will say I do not want the presentation of average when shopping for something as intimate and consistently worn as lingerie and undergarments, however with the increased presence of AdoreMe and American Eagle’s Aerie I may begin to become the minority. It is obvious why consumers would want to see themselves in the models of clothing so intimate, however, why are Victoria’s Secret models treated as those they are not real humans? Their moniker may have always been Victoria’s Secret Angels but they are still real women, their bodies may be unrealistic to some but they are in fact, real women. Therefore, my question where does the disconnect between the “real women” of Aerie and the Victoria’s Secret Angels begin? All models involved are human women, no one was drawn or generated by a computer, even with Photoshop there was still a human that had to be present for the picture itself.
It should be noted that the current average sized woman in the US, is a size 16, which one could argue is unhealthy but the downside of an average is that, mathematically, is that it does include both extremes, i.e. those who are very small and those who are large. For context, a size 16 woman is someone who has a 37.5-inch waist, which doctors do not recommend having; to be female and have a waist larger than 35 inches increases the risk of disease. It should also be noted that the Aerie models and AdoreMe models are not size 16 either, so there is still a segment of the population that is being actively ignored. But my ending questions are, when does the average consumer matter, when the average consumer is not being presented by any fashion brand across the board? But furthermore, what role does fashion play in the overall scheme that is “average” when the point of a model is to be a physical hanger for the consumer to imagine said garment on themselves?
References:
Borchardt, D. (2017, January 6). Victoria’s Secret December Sales Drop As Angels Lose Their Wings. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/debraborchardt/2017/01/06/victorias-secret-december-sales-drop-as-angels-lose-their-wings/#5f6703ea584a
Fortune. (2016, January 31). L Brands. Retrieved from Fortune 500: http://beta.fortune.com/fortune500/l-brands-234
Fratello , J. (2016, September 29). What’s ‘average’? Size 16 is the new normal for US women. Retrieved from Today: http://www.today.com/style/what-s-average-size-16-new-normal-us-women-t103315
Harrington , R. (2017, May 4). We went to a Victoria’s Secret store in NYC and saw why the brand is ‘getting weaker by the day’. Retrieved from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/victorias-secret-overpriced-l-brands-weak-struggling-2017-5/#security-tags-attached-to-the-bra-clasp-make-it-nearly-impossible-to-try-on-bras-i-get-that-victorias-secret-wants-to-prevent-you-from-stealing-its-bras-but-it-could-probably-find-a-better-place-to-attach-them-17
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (2017, May 1). Obesity Prevention Source. Retrieved from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/abdominal-obesity/
Schwindt, O. (2016, December 6). TV Ratings: ‘Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show’ Dips Again, NBC Wins Slow Night. Retrieved from Variety: http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/victorias-secret-fashion-show-ratings-1201934728/