Selling Sexy

Morbidly interesting history of the white male definition of “sexy” as evidenced by the many iterations of Victoria's Secret starting with its origin as a lingerie mail-order catalog in 1977. Selling Sexy focuses on Les Wexner, the billionaire businessman who bought VS for a song, adding it to his empire of shopping mall staples such as The Limited, Bath & Body Works, and Abercrombie & Fitch. The authors profile the few women who had positions of power during Victoria Secret's reign, but it's obvious that Wexner really called the shots. In 2018, near the end of his long tenure as CEO, he dismissed customers over 35 as “old and fat” and therefore not worthy of VS attention. Sherman and Fernandez, experienced fashion and business reporters, mostly maintain a journalistic distance, but they gleefully end the book with Kim Kardashian's Skims shapewear more or less putting the nail in Victoria Secret's coffin.