Extended Essay

Part 1: Victoria Secret’s Story

In mid-1970 Ray Raymond wanted to buy some underwear for his wife, but when he entered to the shop he felt deviant, and he discovered many men felt this way when they had to go to shop underwear for a women. This emotion was the one, which motivated Raymond to create a new store where men didn’t felt this way. That was when in 1977 his wife and him opened the first store at Palo Alto, California, United States with $80,000 of saving and loans from his family. The style of this store would be like Victorian era, that’s why the store was named “Victoria. The second part of the business name was “secret” because it would have a secret that no one would ever know. Victoria’s secret’s was starting to grow because of the revealing underwear they had because before women’s underwear aim was of practically and durability but not at 1970 women wanted more sensual underwear and Victoria’s Secret’s gave that. In 1982 Raymond had opened more stores in San Francisco and the annual sales had grow to 4 million, but although this Victoria’s Secret was near of bankrupt. That was when Leslie Wexner appears. That in 1963 opened a sportswear store called “limited” and within 1977 has 188 stores. In 1980’s she mas looking for new brands and that was when in San Francisco she found that small Victorian store called “Victoria’s Secret’s” that was a different lingerie store of what she normally saw “more sexier”. And she knew the reason why this business had fail, because women felt uncomfortable when they went to this shop. But finally she bought the catalogue and the stores for $1 million. What they first did was study the European lingerie boutiques because European use at daily basis all the sexy lingerie, so they though that if American has access to this they will also use it all days. Also they were thinking of putting new