Victoria’s Secret (VS&Co.) doesn’t want the only memory women have of the brand to be their first bra fitting.
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Lydia Smith, VS&Co. chief diversity officer, and Alix Bazelais, VS&Co. technical designer for intimates, took to the stage at the 2024 Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans on Saturday to share how by listening to employees and customers, the lingerie retailer is creating retail environments where consumers feel more valued and how that translates into significant product improvements.
“We want to be a brand that women can relate to at every stage in their lives,” Smith said.
The brand has been on a path of reinvention and reconnecting with customers since it split from L Brands in 2021. Following the separation, Smith said the company began to actively consume customer feedback through wear tests, online reviews and comments on social media.
Frequent feedback for panties was that they were too short and the gussets too narrow. That led Bazelais and her team to pioneer changes for panties to ensure that “customers of color are getting the fit that they need and want and have been asking for years,” she said. “Now the panty will sit when you need it to sit there. The crotch or gusset area is wider, so it gives more coverage. We’ve also reshaped that leg line.”
“We will continue to look at the product and how we can make it better…whatever I can do myself, especially as a person of color to improve our product,” Bazelais said. “I’m constantly bringing up the different shapes, the different sizes, the different ethnicities, and how can we make sure that our customers feel heard seen and empowered.”
Despite conversations about the future of DEI, if it’s needed and what it should look like, Smith said the panty makeover is a simple example of how it applies to products and why it’s good for business .
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“We’re talking about size and shape inclusion. We’re talking about women of color wanting to be able to go to the store and purchase a new bra that matches their skin tone,” she said. “When we think about inclusion from our perspective of how we can better serve our customers, it helps our bottom line. There’s a business case for it. It’s not just something we’re doing because people think we should. We’re doing it because customers are asking for these products.”
Revamped products that fit a diverse range of body types is one of the ways Victoria’s Secret is showing women it’s not the brand it was 10 or 15 years ago. Last year the company launched an adaptive line of bras and panties for its VS and Pink brands, which Bazelais said she’s now working on to expand with more silhouettes and shapes.
Smith added that VS&Co. is also very close to launching its VSX sports line. “I know that it’s going to be fashionable, but also comfortable and very size inclusive and shape inclusive for our body styles, she said.
VS&Co. has also been intentional about how diversity shows up in its staff. For the first time, the brand has two black women leading its sport and swim design teams. “We know that teams that are more diverse empower people to speak up to share their minds,” Smith said. “Empowered women empower women so we’re seeing women stepping up into roles, creating spaces and speaking their minds. Then it gives others the safe space to do that around them.”
“We had a culture where I think those ideas kind of got shut down,” Smith added. “And so, what we’re seeing is more and more ideas being able to make it into those rooms with senior leaders to be discussed. It starts at the bottom, but also our leaders are willing to listen.”
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