Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Emma Walmsley's GSK is settling its Zantac lawsuits for $2.2 billion, a space startup hits a milestone, and two authors share an excerpt of their new book, Selling Sexy: Victoria's Secret and the unraveling of an American icon.
- Scaling sexy. The rise and fall of Victoria's Secret—from a failure to keep up with a changing culture to retail titan Les Wexner’s association with Jeffrey Epstein—have been written about for years. But in their new book Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American icon, authors Lauren Sherman and Chantal Fernandez weave together the tale of the lingerie-maker’s downfall with its broader business story. Below, in an excerpt from their new book, the authors trace the company's relative outperformance during the Great Recession—a period where much went right but the seeds of trouble to come in the 2010s were planted.
In 2008, the national consumer mood was gloomy and apprehensive. The United States was officially in a recession, seeing its sharpest downturn since the 1940s. Yet at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, with its pop stars and models in lace, leather, and feathers, there was no evidence of that. As Victoria’s Secret angel Adriana Lima said backstage: “What are we supposed to do—wear cotton?”
