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Sunday, January 22, 2012

( The Victoria's Secret News Report ) Patcnews: Jan 22, 2012 The Patriot Conservative News Tea Party Network Reports Celebrity Bra Sizes, Models, Stars, Actresses Cup Size And Breast Size List,: Laura Acuna Bra Size: Profile, Biography And Photo...© All copyrights reserved By Patcnews



Victoria's Secret Supermodels - Candice Swanepoel, Miranda Kerr, Doutzen Kroes, Alessandra Ambrosio, Lily Aldridge, Lindsay Ellingson and Erin Heatherton have fun decking the halls and putting their own spin on a Christmas classic in this adorable video for Holiday
   



  Celebrity Bra Sizes, Models, Stars, Actresses Cup Size And Breast Size List,: Laura Acuna Bra Size: Profile, Biography And Photo...: | Laura Acuna Bra Size |  Measurements Profile  Biography |

Victoria's Secret to Stop Selling Most of Its Clothing Items: Let's Mourn by Looking at Models in Sexy Lingerie!

Adriana Lima, Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Sorry, Victoria's Secret shoppers. The popular women's apparel retailer has announced they will stop selling a sizeable portion of its clothing items.
According to WWD, Leslie H. Wexner, the chairman and CEO of parent company L. Brands Inc., has decided to trim the apparel collections currently offered at Victoria's Secret. Items set to be cut include wovens, outerwear, denim and some dresses. The brand's Pink collection will not be affected.
Despite the cutback, all of the Victoria's Secret intimates and lingerie will still be made available.
While Victoria's Secret fans mourn the trimming, let's cheer up by looking back at some sexy Victoria's Secret models strutting their stuff in barely there panties and bras!

Angels in Britain! 2014 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show to take place in London


Victoria's Secret Angels Candice Swanepoel and Adriana Lima were in London to announce the switch. The glitzy event has been filmed at New York City's Lexington Ave. Armory in recent years.


London was calling, and the Victoria's Secret Angels answered.
The American lingerie line is shooting its annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show across the pond in December in a surprise move announced by the brand Wednesday morning.
Angels Adriana Lima and Candice Swanepoel were there for the announcement at a newly opened Victoria's Secret store on London's Bond Street.
“We’re very proud to announce that we’re heading to London this year,” Lima said.
“The Victoria’s Secret Show is the biggest fashion show in the world, for sure, so it will be amazing to bring the show to London.”
The Brazilian beauty added that she harbors a special love of the British city, “especially the shopping!”
The 2013 runway show turned panty party was filmed at New York City's Lexington Ave. Armory, and included a star-studded night of opulent lingere modeled by some of the industry's biggest names, including Swanepoel, Lima, Karlie Kloss and Behati Prinsloo.











Victoria's Secret Angels Candice Swanepoel, left, and Adriana Lima pose at the lingerie fashion show's new Bond St. location in London on Tuesday. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




      















































    Victoria secret Videos


     

    Though a Victoria's Secret rep told the Daily News that casting hasn't begun for the highl -anticipated event, the lingerie brand told this year's It Girl Cara Delevegne to mark her calendar.
    Last year's buxom broadcast — which cost a reported $16 million to produce — scored huge numbers for CBS, beating out every other broadcast network to be the number one show that night.
    But there were no $2 million bras or elaborate 30-pound wings worn on the runway during the brand's first fashion show in 1995 — just lingerie models strutting their stuff in the event, then held at the Plaza Hotel.
    The brand eventually brought in some of the biggest names in the biz, like Tyra Banks and Gisele Bundchen, and by 2000, the fashion show included the now-signature wings, glitter,and glam.
    The show will air in December on CBS.
    bstebner@nydailynews.com




    Victoria's Secret Draws Parental Ire Over 'Bright Young Things'

    Victoria's Secret is known for its risque fashions, but some parents think the brand has crossed the line with items in their "Bright Young Things" campaign. A father wrote an open letter, parents started a petition and a Facebook page was created alleging that the provocative underwear was targeted at teen and tween girls.

    Items in the PINK campaign with the slogan "Bright Young Things" reportedly include underwear with words and phrases like "dare you," "feeling lucky" and "call me" on the front and back. PINK is the line of items at Victoria's Secret targeted at younger women.

    Links that appear to be to the products are re-directing to the Victoria's Secrets homepage so it is unclear if the company has removed the products. Representatives for the company did not wish to comment beyond a statement that was posted on their Facebook page insisting that "Bright Young Things" was simply a slogan.

    A Texas father of a 3-year-old girl wrote and open letter to the company that has gone viral.

    "I don't want my daughter to ever think that her self-worth and acceptance by others is based on the choice of her undergarments," Evan Dolive wrote. "I don't want my daughter to ever think that to be popular or even attractive she has to have emblazon words on her bottom."

    "I want my daughter (and every girl) to be faced with tough decisions in her formative years of adolescence," he wrote. "Decisions like should I be a doctor or a lawyer? Should I take calculus as a junior or a senior? Do I want to go to Texas A&M or University of Texas or some Ivy League school? Should I raise awareness for slave trafficking or lack of water in developing nations? There are many, many more questions that all young women should be asking themselves…not will a boy (or girl) like me if I wear a 'call me' thong?"

    Victoria's Secret insists that the "Bright Young Things" was just a slogan used to coincide with spring break and not a new collection targeted at younger girls.

    "In response to questions we recently received, Victoria's Secret PINK is a brand for college-aged women. Despite recent rumors, we have no plans to introduce a collection for younger women. 'Bright Young Things' was a slogan used in conjunction with the college spring break tradition," the company posted on their Facebook page.

    Their post received 1,300 comments and 1,000 shares on Facebook so far, continuing the debate for and against the ads.

    "OK honestly who cares if they are wanting to reach out to a younger crowd? Isn't that the point of business, to expand their fields and make money? Besides, anyone who has shopped VS knows their PINK line is no where near considered sexy," one woman wrote defending the brand.

    "Disgusted. Just own up to your mistakes instead of denying them. I will never shop at Victoria's secret again. You really think 'I dare you' undies are aimed at college aged women? I think not," another commenter wrote.

    Comments made by Victoria's Secret chief financial officer Stuart Burgdoerfer in January are also drawing fire.

    "When somebody's 15 or 16 years old, what do they want to be?" Burgdoerfer said at a conference, according to Bloomberg. "They want to be older, and they want to be cool like the girl in college, and that's part of the magic of what we do at Pink."

    Additionally, there is a "Dear Victoria's Secret: Pull 'Bright Young Things'" Facebook page and a Change.org petition penned by a mother of three in Washington that has more than 1,000 supporters.





    Angels’ in Hell: The Culture of Misogyny Inside Victoria’s Secret

    A Times investigation found widespread bullying and harassment of employees and models. The company expresses “regret.

     

    Victoria’s Secret defined femininity for millions of women. Its catalog and fashion shows were popular touchstones. For models, landing a spot as an “Angel” all but guaranteed international stardom.

    But inside the company, two powerful men presided over an entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment, according to interviews with more than 30 current and former executives, employees, contractors and models, as well as court filings and other documents.

    Ed Razek, for decades one of the top executives at L Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, was the subject of repeated complaints about inappropriate conduct. He tried to kiss models. He asked them to sit on his lap. He touched one’s crotch ahead of the 2018 Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

    Executives said they had alerted Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder and chief executive of L Brands, about his deputy’s pattern of behavior. Some women who complained faced retaliation. One model, Andi Muise, said Victoria’s Secret had stopped hiring her for its fashion shows after she rebuffed Mr. Razek’s advances.

     

    A number of the brand’s models agreed to pose nude, often without being paid, for a prominent Victoria’s Secret photographer who later used some pictures in an expensive coffee-table book — an arrangement that made L Brands executives uncomfortable about women feeling pressured to take their clothes off.

    The atmosphere was set at the top. Mr. Razek, the chief marketing officer, was perceived as Mr. Wexner’s proxy, leaving many employees with the impression he was invincible, according to current and former employees. On multiple occasions, Mr. Wexner himself was heard demeaning women.

     



    “What was most alarming to me, as someone who was always raised as an independent woman, was just how ingrained this behavior was,” said Casey Crowe Taylor, a former public relations employee at Victoria’s Secret who said she had witnessed Mr. Razek’s conduct. “This abuse was just laughed off and accepted as normal. It was almost like brainwashing. And anyone who tried to do anything about it wasn’t just ignored. They were punished.”

    The interviews with the models and employees add to a picture of Victoria’s Secret as a troubled organization, an image that was already coming into focus last year when Mr. Wexner’s ties to the sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein became public. Mr. Epstein, who managed Mr. Wexner’s multibillion-dollar fortune, lured some young women by posing as a recruiter for Victoria’s Secret models.

     

    L Brands, the publicly traded company that also owns Bath & Body Works, is on the brink of a high-stakes transition. The annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show has been canceled after nearly two decades on network TV. Mr. Razek, 71, stepped down from L Brands in August. And Mr. Wexner, 82, is exploring plans to retire and to sell the lingerie company, people familiar with the matter said.

    As those plans progress, L Brands’ treatment of women is likely to come under even closer scrutiny.

    In response to detailed questions from The New York Times, Tammy Roberts Myers, a spokeswoman for L Brands, provided a statement on behalf of the board’s independent directors. She said that the company “is intensely focused” on corporate governance, workplace and compliance practices and that it had “made significant strides.”

    “We regret any instance where we did not achieve this objective and are fully committed to continuous improvement and complete accountability,” she said. The statement did not dispute any of The Times’s reporting.

    Mr. Razek said in an email: “The accusations in this reporting are categorically untrue, misconstrued or taken out of context. I’ve been fortunate to work with countless, world-class models and gifted professionals and take great pride in the mutual respect we have for each other.” He declined to comment on a detailed list of allegations.

     

    Thomas Davies, a spokesman for Mr. Wexner, declined to comment.

    Victoria’s Secret, which Mr. Wexner bought for $1 million in 1982 and turned into a lingerie powerhouse, is struggling.

    The societal norms defining beauty and sexiness have been changing for years, with a greater value on a wide range of body types, skin colors and gender identities. Victoria’s Secret hasn’t kept pace. Some of its ad campaigns, for example, seem more like a stereotypical male fantasy — the director Michael Bay filmed a TV spot in which scantily clad models strutted in front of helicopters, motorcycles and fiery explosions — than a realistic encapsulation of what women want.

    With its sales declining, Victoria’s Secret has been closing stores. Shares of L Brands have fallen more than 75 percent from their 2015 peak.

    Six current and former executives said in interviews that when they tried to steer the company away from what one called its “porny” image, they were rebuffed. Three said they had been driven out of the company.

    Criticism of Victoria’s Secret’s anachronistic marketing went viral in 2018 when Mr. Razek expressed no interest in casting plus-size and “transsexual” models in the fashion show.

     

    Then, last summer, Mr. Epstein was charged with sex trafficking, and the festering business problems at Victoria’s Secret escalated into a public crisis.

    Mr. Wexner and Mr. Epstein had been tight. The retail tycoon gave the financier carte blanche to manage his billions, elevating Mr. Epstein’s stature and affording him an opulent lifestyle. Mr. Wexner has said he and Mr. Epstein parted ways around 2007, the year after Florida prosecutors charged him with a sex crime.

    On multiple occasions from 1995 through 2006, Mr. Epstein lied to aspiring models that he worked for Victoria’s Secret and could help them land gigs. He invited them for auditions, which at least twice ended with Mr. Epstein assaulting them, according to the women and court filings.

     


     

     


     

     

     

     

     I had spent all of my savings getting Victoria’s Secret lingerie to prepare for what I thought would be my audition,” a woman identified as Jane Doe said in a statement read aloud last summer in a federal court hearing in the Epstein case. “But instead it seemed like a casting call for prostitution. I felt like I was in hell.”
     
     

    Three L Brands executives said Mr. Wexner was alerted in the mid-1990s about Mr. Epstein’s attempts to recruit women. The executives said there was no sign that Mr. Wexner had acted on the complaints.

    After Mr. Epstein’s arrest last summer, L Brands said, it hired the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell to conduct “a thorough review” of the matter at the request of its board of directors. The exact focus of the review is unclear. Mr. Epstein committed suicide in jail in August while he awaited trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

    Davis Polk has worked for L Brands for years. Mr. Wexner’s wife, Abigail, previously worked at the firm. Dennis S. Hersch, a former L Brands board member and a financial adviser to the Wexners, was a longtime partner at Davis Polk. The law firm also has contributed money to Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts.

    Employees interviewed for this article said Davis Polk had not contacted them.

    A Davis Polk spokeswoman didn’t respond to requests for comment.

     

    Then, last summer, Mr. Epstein was charged with sex trafficking, and the festering business problems at Victoria’s Secret escalated into a public crisis.

    Mr. Wexner and Mr. Epstein had been tight. The retail tycoon gave the financier carte blanche to manage his billions, elevating Mr. Epstein’s stature and affording him an opulent lifestyle. Mr. Wexner has said he and Mr. Epstein parted ways around 2007, the year after Florida prosecutors charged him with a sex crime.

    On multiple occasions from 1995 through 2006, Mr. Epstein lied to aspiring models that he worked for Victoria’s Secret and could help them land gigs. He invited them for auditions, which at least twice ended with Mr. Epstein assaulting them, according to the women and court filings.

     “With the exception of Les, I’ve been with L Brands longer than anyone,” Mr. Razek wrote to employees in August when he announced he was leaving the company he had joined in 1983.

    Mr. Razek was instrumental in selecting the brand’s supermodels — known as “Angels” and bestowed with enormous, feathery wings — and in creating the company’s macho TV ads.

    But his biggest legacy was the annual fashion show, which became a global cultural phenomenon.

    “That’s really where he sunk his teeth into the business,” said Cynthia Fedus-Fields, the former chief executive of the Victoria’s Secret division responsible for its catalog. By 2000, she said, Mr. Razek had grown so powerful that “he spoke for Les.”

    Sometimes Mr. Wexner spoke for himself.

    In March, at a meeting at Victoria’s Secret headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, an employee asked Mr. Wexner what he thought about the retail industry’s embrace of different body types. He was dismissive.

    “Nobody goes to a plastic surgeon and says, ‘Make me fat,’” Mr. Wexner replied, according to two attendees.


    Mr. Razek often reminded models that their careers were in his hands, according to models and current and former executives who heard his remarks.

    Alyssa Miller, who had been an occasional Victoria’s Secret model, described Mr. Razek as someone who exuded “toxic masculinity.” She summed up his attitude as: “I am the holder of the power. I can make you or break you.”
    Image
    Andi Muise in 2007. After rebuffing Mr. Razek’s advances, she said, she was left out of the 2008 Victoria’s Secret show.


    At castings, Mr. Razek sometimes asked models in their bras and underwear for their phone numbers, according to three people who witnessed his advances. He urged others to sit on his lap. Two models said he had asked them to have private dinners with him.

    One was Ms. Muise. In 2007, after two years of wearing the coveted angel wings in the Victoria’s Secret runway show, the 19-year-old was invited to dinner with Mr. Razek. She was excited to cultivate a professional relationship with one of the fashion industry’s most powerful men, she said.


    Mr. Razek picked her up in a chauffeured car. On the way to the restaurant, he tried to kiss her, she said. Ms. Muise rebuffed him; Mr. Razek persisted.

    For months, he sent her intimate emails, which The Times reviewed. At one point he suggested they move in together in his house in Turks and Caicos. Another time, he urged Ms. Muise to help him find a home in the Dominican Republic for them to share.

    “I need someplace sexy to take you!” he wrote.

    Ms. Muise maintained a polite tone in her emails, trying to protect her career. When Mr. Razek asked her to come to his New York home for dinner, Ms. Muise said the prospect of dining alone with Mr. Razek made her uneasy; she skipped the dinner.

    She soon learned that for the first time in four years, Victoria’s Secret had not picked her for its 2008 fashion show.
    ‘Forget the Panties’

    The 2017 fashion show. Mr. Razek’s behavior at a fitting a year later led to a complaint to human resources.

    In 2018, at a fitting ahead of the fashion show, the supermodel Bella Hadid was being measured for underwear that would meet broadcast standards. Mr. Razek sat on a couch, watching.

    “Forget the panties,” he declared, according to three people who were there and a fourth who was told about it. The bigger question, he said, was whether the TV network would let Ms. Hadid walk “down the runway with those perfect titties.” (One witness remembered Mr. Razek using the word “breasts,” not “titties.”)

    At the same fitting, Mr. Razek placed his hand on another model’s underwear-clad crotch, three people said.

    An employee complained to the human resources department about Mr. Razek’s behavior, according to three people. The employee presented H.R. with a document last summer listing more than a dozen allegations about Mr. Razek, including his demeaning comments and inappropriate touching of women, according to a copy of the document reviewed by The Times.

    It wasn’t the first H.R. complaint about him.

    At a photo shoot in June 2015, the company put out a buffet lunch for staff. Ms. Crowe Taylor, the public relations employee, went to get seconds. Mr. Razek intercepted her, she said. He blocked her path and looked her up and down. Then, with dozens of people watching and Ms. Crowe Taylor holding her empty plate, he tore into her, berating her about her weight and telling her to lay off the pasta and bread.


    Ms. Crowe Taylor, who was 5-foot-10 and 140 pounds, fled to a bathroom and burst into tears. She said that she had complained to H.R. but that as far as she could tell, nothing happened. She quit weeks later.

    In October, shortly after Mr. Razek had left the company, Monica Mitro, a top public-relations executive at Victoria’s Secret, lodged a harassment complaint against him with a former member of the L Brands board of directors, according to five people familiar with the matter. She told colleagues that she had gone to the former director because she didn’t trust the H.R. department.

    The next day, the head of H.R. told Ms. Mitro that she was being placed on administrative leave, the people said. She recently reached a financial settlement with the company, they said.

    Mr. Razek’s son, Scott, also worked at Victoria’s Secret. Sometime after the H.R. department was told about his mistreatment of a female colleague, he was transferred to Bath & Body Works, according to four people familiar with the matter. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    The woman he mistreated later received a settlement from Victoria’s Secret, according to several current and former employees.


    Mr. Wexner was seldom in New York, where much of the fashion show’s staff was based, leaving employees with the impression that Mr. Razek was his proxy. Mr. Razek flaunted that power, invoking Mr. Wexner’s name to get his way.

    Even as complaints piled up, the elder Mr. Razek maintained Mr. Wexner’s support. In 2013, Mr. Wexner helped raise a $1.2 million fund in Mr. Razek’s name at Ohio State University’s cancer center.
    ‘A Voyeuristic Journey’
    Image
    Russell James collected his nude photographs of Victoria’s Secret models in a book that sells for $1,800 and $3,600.Credit...Julie Glassberg for The New York Times

    Russell James was one of Victoria’s Secret’s go-to photographers. The company at times paid him tens of thousands of dollars a day, according to draft contracts reviewed by The Times.

    At the end of sessions with models, Mr. James sometimes asked if they would be photographed nude, according to models and L Brands executives. Mr. James was popular; he had a knack for making women feel comfortable. He also had a close relationship with Mr. Razek. The women often consented.



    The nude photo shoots weren’t covered under the models’ contracts with Victoria’s Secret, which meant they weren’t paid for the extra work.

    In the industry, “everyone is using their influence to get something,” said Ms. Miller, the model. “With Russell, it was getting girls to pose for his books or portrait series nude.”

    In 2014, Mr. James published a glossy collectors’ book, “Angels,” which featured some of the nude photos. The women agreed to have their photos included in the book, according to Martin Singer, a lawyer for Mr. James.

    Two versions of the books currently sell on Mr. James’s website for $1,800 and $3,600. Victoria’s Secret hosted a launch event for “Angels” during New York fashion week in 2014. Attendees included supermodels and the company’s chief executive at the time, Sharen Turney.

    “This ample volume offers an unprecedented and personal view into James’s most intimate portrait sittings,” the book’s jacket says, noting that Mr. James met many of the women during his 15 years working for Victoria’s Secret. “Readers will be taken on a voyeuristic journey into a world of subtle provocation.”



    At one point, a poster-size version of one of the book’s photos was displayed in a Victoria’s Secret store in Las Vegas. The model’s agent complained to Victoria’s Secret that his client’s photo was being used in the store without her consent. Mr. James also complained about it and asked for it to be removed, according to Mr. Singer. The company took down the photo.

    In 2010, Alison Nix, a 22-year-old model who had worked occasionally with Victoria’s Secret, was invited to attend a weekend event to raise money for the nonprofit foundation run by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. The venue was Mr. Branson’s private Necker Island in the Caribbean.

    The live-streamed event, hosted by Mr. Branson and Mr. James, was billed as featuring “some of the world’s most stunning supermodels.”


    Mr. James with Richard Branson, the Virgin Group billionaire, at an event promoting Mr. James’s book “Angels” in 2014.Credit...Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret

    Ms. Nix said her agent had told her that if she chose to go on the all-expenses-paid trip, she’d be expected to pose for nude beach photos shot by Mr. James. She said that was fine. She was left with the impression, she said, that “if Russell likes you, you could start working with Victoria’s Secret.”


    Mr. Singer, the lawyer for Mr. James, said his client had no influence over whom Victoria’s Secret selected as models. He said models were not required to pose for photos, nude or otherwise. He said Mr. James had agreed to shoot the nude photos at Necker Island at the request of the models and their agents “as a favor and professional courtesy.”

    Ms. Nix called Mr. Singer’s comments “absurd.”

    She said that she and other models who attended the event were provided with copious amounts of alcohol and were expected to mingle with men, including Mr. Branson.

    “We were shipped out there, and all these rich men were flirting with us,” she recalled. She said the models were asking themselves, “Are we here as high-end prostitutes or for charity?”

    The last day on the island, Ms. Nix said, she and at least three other models lined up to have their nude photos shot by Mr. James.

    A spokeswoman for Mr. Branson said he had “no knowledge of anyone being invited to the event for any reason” beside the charity fund-raiser.


    Two photos of Ms. Nix from that weekend — one, in profile, with her breasts obscured but her bare bottom exposed — appeared near the middle of Mr. James’s “Angels” book, with her consent.

    Ms. Nix never landed another modeling gig with Victoria’s Secret. Was she disappointed?

    “To be honest, I didn’t expect much after the trip,” she said. “I could tell I wasn’t right for the brand.”

    Emily Steel and Mike Baker contributed reporting. Susan Beachy contributed research.
    Editors’ Note: Oct. 21, 2020

    This article referred imprecisely to the activities of Russell James, a prominent fashion photographer. Mr. James was one of several photographers used regularly by Victoria’s Secret, which oversaw the casting and styling for the shoots. Mr. James had no connection to the incidents of harassment involving Victoria's Secret executives that were reported at the company's offices and events. While Mr. James photographed certain models nude, including for his book "Angels,"  no model interviewed claimed he coerced her to do so, and at times women requested to be photographed by Mr. James. The Necker Island event, where some of the nude shots were taken, was organized as a charity event for a women’s health initiative.


     



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