Victoria's Secret

From Freepedia

Victoria's Secret is a retail marketer of women's clothing and beauty products, but is most most recognizable as a marketer of lingerie . The company was founded in San Francisco, California, USA in 1977 by Roy Raymond, who sold it in 1982 to The Limited Inc., and it is now owned by the successor Limited Brands company. Since the takeover the company has been based in Columbus, Ohio though it has at times sought to foster an image of being British. Raymond eventually committed suicide in 1993, jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Victoria's Secret had sales of more than US$2.4 billion through their 900 retail stores in the United States in 2005. All stores of Limited Brands are corporately owned. Victoria's Secret products are also available through the catalogue business, Victoria's Secret Direct, with sales of approximately US$870 million. The company gained notoriety in the 1990's after it began to use supermodels in their advertising and fashion shows; prominent supermodels featured by Victoria's Secret include Alessandra Ambrosio, Tyra Banks, Gisele Bündchen, Laetitia Casta, Adriana Lima, Karolina Kurkova, Petra Nemcova, Frederique van der Wal, Heidi Klum and Tricia Helfer. Victoria's Secret has a flag-ship store in New York City's Herald Square.

The brand has been heavily criticized by religious groups such as the American Decency Association and feminist groups such as whatisvictoriassecret.com for their alleged use of "soft porn" advertising. The brand has also come under attack by various environmental groups, such as Victoria's Dirty Secret, who claim that most of Victoria's Secret's mail order catalogues, which are not made of recycled paper, are never read and contribute to deforestation.