Part one of "Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons" establishes the origins of CEO Les Wexner, a small-town boy from Ohio whose father was also an entrepreneur in the clothing and fashion industry. Growing up, Wexner strongly admired the aesthetics, lifestyle, and success of fashion designer Ralph Lauren.
When Wexner decided to pursue women's lingerie as a business in the early '80s, his father doubted his success. But in 1982, Wexner bought the original five Victoria's Secret stores from Roy and Gaye Raymond. He rapidly expanded the store into American shopping malls, making it the largest lingerie retailer in the US by the '90s, and founded L Brands, which included stores like Abercrombie & Fitch and Bath and Body Works at the time.
In those early days, former Victoria's Secret executives interviewed in the docuseries said Wexner went to great lengths to keep the brand at the top, and archival interviews with Wexner featured in the doc revealed he always insisted running a business was like "making a movie." He invented a fake story about "Victoria" as the original creator of the brand, used beautiful models in luxurious photo shoots as a marketing tactic for their shopping catalogue, created a sense of female empowerment around the brand that millions of women bought into, and conceptualised the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show to further lure women (and men) into the façade.
Wexner declined multiple requests for an on-camera interview in "Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons."
Image Source: Getty / Nicholas Hunt