How Victoria’s Secret is turning nostalgia into a growth strategy
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Victoria’s Secret has discovered that sometimes the fastest way to generate new attention is to bring back something old.
The lingerie retailer recently returned to its archives for a special-edition release of PINK’s square-bottle fragrances. The response was immediate. According to CEO Hillary Super, the collection sold out online in less than a day.
For Victoria’s Secret, that demand offers more than evidence that consumers still remember an old fragrance bottle. It points to the potential value locked inside decades of products, imagery and cultural recognition at a moment when the company is trying to make its brands relevant to a new generation.
Victoria’s Secret is now combining that heritage with product innovation, digital content and entertainment. At the same time, improving sales suggest its wider turnaround is gaining momentum.
The result is a strategy that treats nostalgia not simply as a marketing device, but as one component of a broader attempt to rebuild the Victoria’s Secret brand.
Victoria’s Secret discovers the value of its archive
Fragrance provides an obvious place to start.
Victoria’s Secret has been modifying and expanding established lines including Bombshell and Tease, while using limited archive releases to generate attention around PINK.
The company’s approach reflects a wider trend across retail. Gap, for example, has revived fragrances from the 1990s, including Dream, Grass and Heaven, as brands reconsider products that retain cultural recognition long after leaving shelves.
Victoria’s Secret has an unusually large archive from which to draw.
“We have decades of iconic scents and formats across Victoria’s Secret and Pink, and we are bringing them back in ways that feel relevant today,” Super told analysts while discussing the company’s second-quarter results.
The important part of that strategy is relevance.
Simply returning an old product to stores risks becoming a short-lived exercise in nostalgia. Reintroducing familiar products through limited releases, updated formulations and contemporary marketing can serve a different purpose. It gives existing customers an emotional reason to return while allowing younger consumers to discover the same products without needing to remember them the first time around.
In that sense, Victoria’s Secret is treating its archive almost like intellectual property. Familiar products become assets that can be revived, reinterpreted and marketed repeatedly.
From lingerie retailer to entertainment brand
The more ambitious part of the strategy extends beyond products.
Super has described Victoria’s Secret as an “entertainment brand,” a notable choice of language for a company still principally known for selling lingerie, beauty products and apparel.
Its fashion show provides the clearest explanation.
For years, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show operated as both runway event and global marketing spectacle. The company is now attempting to extend that attention beyond a single night.
This month, Victoria’s Secret is launching “Angels Among Us,” a YouTube documentary series following the search for a new Victoria’s Secret Angel. The company said more than 100,000 people responded to its casting initiative.
The series is scheduled to premiere Sept. 27, with episodes released twice weekly before culminating around the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Los Angeles on Oct. 18.
That changes the role of the runway.
Rather than asking consumers to pay attention to one annual event, Victoria’s Secret can create a longer content cycle around casting, personalities, products and the show itself. The fashion show becomes the finale to a narrative rather than the entire narrative.
It also reflects a wider convergence between retail and entertainment. Brands are increasingly competing for attention not only with other retailers, but with streaming platforms, creators and social media.
For Victoria’s Secret, few assets are more recognizable than the Angel. Turning that identity into episodic entertainment allows the company to use an established piece of its heritage in a format designed for contemporary audiences.
The comeback increasingly has numbers behind it
The strategy would be less convincing without an improvement in the underlying business.
Victoria’s Secret reported second-quarter net sales of $1.61 billion, up 10 percent from a year earlier. Comparable sales increased 9 percent, including 7 percent growth at physical stores.
Adjusted operating income reached $124 million, more than double the $55 million recorded in the year-earlier period.
The improvement was also relatively broad. Victoria’s Secret, PINK and the beauty business recorded growth, while bras at both Victoria’s Secret and PINK grew in the mid-teens.
Crucially, the company is attracting new customers while retaining existing ones. That reverses what GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders described as a long period of erosion in Victoria’s Secret’s customer base.
Management has responded by raising its outlook. Victoria’s Secret now expects fiscal 2026 net sales of between $7.1 billion and $7.18 billion, compared with $6.6 billion last year. Its adjusted operating income forecast has also increased to between $560 million and $590 million.
Nostalgia cannot take all the credit. Product innovation, fewer promotions, stronger merchandise margins and improved execution are contributing to the recovery.
But Victoria’s Secret appears to be finding a productive relationship between its past and its future.
Its fragrances and Angels offer recognition. Entertainment gives consumers another reason to engage with them. Better products provide a reason to stay.
For a brand with decades of cultural history, the archive can get people’s attention again. The harder and more valuable task is making sure what they find next feels new.
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