SOLD OUT

The conversation portion of this event is sold out! Email events@mcnallyjackson.com to be added to the waitlist and we'll be in touch if a spot opens up.

Alternatively all are welcome at the signing portion, starting at 7:45. Drop by to buy a copy of the book at chat with the authors! 

 

The story of how Victoria’s Secret skyrocketed from a tiny chain of boutiques to a retail phenomenon with more than $8 billion in annual sales at its peak—all while defining an impossible beauty standard for generations of American women—before the brand’s tight grip on the industry finally slipped.

Victoria’s Secret is one of the most influential and polarizing brands to ever infiltrate the psyche of the American consumer. Almost right at its start in the late 1970s, the company developed a cult following for its glamorous catalogs. Back then, shoppers had few alternatives to the stodgy department stores that sold most of the nation’s intimate apparel. By 1982, the founders of Victoria’s Secret avoided bankruptcy by selling to Les Wexner, the fast-fashion pioneer behind the Limited, whose empire of mall brands would go on to dominate American retail for forty years.

Wexner turned Victoria’s Secret into a multibillion-dollar business, and the brand’s cultural influence soared thanks to its airbrushed advertisements and annual televised fashion show, which drew millions of viewers each year. Its supermodel spokeswomen, the sweet but sultry Angels, personified a new American beauty standard.

But as our definition of beauty expanded, Victoria’s Secret failed to evolve and reached a crisis point. Meanwhile, Wexner became increasingly known for his complicated relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, his former financial adviser and confidant.

Selling Sexy expertly draws from sources within Victoria’s Secret and across the industry to examine the unprecedented rise of one of the most innovative brands in retail history—a brand that today, under new ownership, is desperately trying to seduce shoppers again.

“In elegant, tasteful prose, Selling Sexy tells the incredible story of the rise and fall of Les Wexner’s retail juggernaut. Thanks to Sherman and Fernandez’s encyclopedic knowledge of the business of fashion, it’s placed in highly readable and essential context. You won’t be able to put the book down.”
—William D. Cohan, New York Times bestselling author of House of Cards

“A must-read for anyone who has ever been fascinated and disturbed by the rise of a company that promised women so much—and sold us so little. Sherman and Fernandez reveal all of Victoria’s secrets in riveting detail.”
—Amy Odell, New York Times bestselling author of Anna: The Biography

“A fully engrossing history that reveals how business and commerce shape our aesthetics, norms, and libido.”
—W. David Marx, author of Ametora

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Lauren Sherman has been reporting from inside the fashion industry for more than fifteen years. Now a special correspondent at Puck, she was the Business of Fashion’s chief correspondent, and before that a staff reporter at Forbes. She has contributed to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, as well as Fast Company, Women’s Health, and the Gentlewoman. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son. 

 

 

Chantal Fernandez is a writer covering fashion, retail, luxury, and beauty with a focus on business and culture. She is currently a features writer for The Cut at New York magazine. A former senior reporter at the Business of Fashion, her work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

 

 

 

Marisa Meltzer is a writer based in New York City. Her latest book is Glossy, the inside story of Emily Weiss's Glossier. She writes for the New York Times, the Guardian, Vanity Fair, New York magazine, and Vogue among many other places.

 

 

 

 

 

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