Victoria's Secret just pulled off the most predictable corporate turnaround in American history: they stopped lecturing women about body positivity, brought back the supermodels, and watched the money printer go brrrrr. The lingerie giant's stock exploded 47% in a single trading session — the largest one-day gain in the company's history as a public company — after posting first-quarter earnings that obliterated Wall Street expectations.
Who could have possibly seen this coming? Oh, right. Literally everyone with functioning eyeballs and a basic understanding of supply and demand.
Let's rewind. Back in 2021, Victoria's Secret spun off from L Brands and immediately decided the best business strategy was to abandon everything that made them a household name. Out went the Angels. Out went the Fashion Show. In came "body positive" campaigns and a roster of celebrity women advisors meant to promote "female empowerment." They even brought on Megan Rapinoe — yes, that Megan Rapinoe — as a brand ambassador, because nothing says "buy our lingerie" like a political activist who spends her free time kneeling during the national anthem.
The result? The stock cratered from $57 to $20 per share. By 2023, shares were trading below $15. Customers fled. Revenue tanked. The brand became a punchline.
Shocking absolutely nobody except the geniuses in corporate boardrooms who thought swapping supermodels for sociology lectures was a winning formula.
Then in August 2024, the company hired Hillary Super as CEO — their first female CEO since going public, by the way — and she did something revolutionary. She went back to what worked. Super ditched the performative nonsense and returned Victoria's Secret to its core identity. As she put it herself: "We're owning who we are, and we're proud of it."
The October 2025 Fashion Show was the unveiling of Super's vision, featuring actual models like Jasmine Tookes and Adriana Lima instead of whatever focus-grouped committee the previous leadership had assembled. She was blunt about the old approach, saying she wanted to move forward "without being performative, where we have to check every box... because to me that lacks authenticity."
Now look at the scoreboard. First-quarter net sales jumped 15% to $1.56 billion. Earnings per share came in at $0.60, absolutely demolishing the Wall Street forecast of $0.32 — an 87.5% beat. Comparable sales surged 13%. The company has now posted four consecutive quarters of positive comparable sales with double-digit growth in new customer acquisition.
The company even changed its stock ticker from the boring VSCO to VSXY. Subtle? No. Effective? The stock hit an all-time high of $80 per share.
Management raised its full-year revenue outlook to $7.03 billion to $7.13 billion, up from the prior guidance of $6.85 billion to $6.95 billion. They bumped operating income guidance to $550 million to $580 million — over $100 million higher than previous estimates. And they did all this while absorbing a $90 million tariff headwind. Goldman Sachs analyst Brooke Roach is among those watching the turnaround with what we can only assume is a mix of admiration and embarrassment for everyone who cheered the woke rebrand.
On the earnings call, Super explained the philosophy: "We are reducing promotions and markdowns and replacing promotional offers with compelling emotional messaging." Translation: we stopped begging people to buy discounted merchandise and started giving them what they actually wanted.
This is the story corporate America keeps refusing to learn. Bud Light tried going woke and lost billions. Target shoved Pride merchandise in everyone's face and watched its stock crater. Disney lectured parents about "inclusion" while their box office numbers circled the drain.
And now Victoria's Secret has proven the reverse is just as true. Go woke, go broke. Go back, go rich.
The free market doesn't care about your DEI consultant's PowerPoint presentation. It doesn't care about your advisory board of "change-makers." It cares about whether customers want what you're selling. Victoria's Secret tried selling feminism. Nobody bought it. They went back to selling what made them famous, and the stock hit an all-time high in a single day.
They literally just went back to being hot and the money printer turned on. Capitalism remains undefeated.
