The popular lingerie store known for helping to usher many girls into womanhood is closing 53 of its 1,143 Victoria’s Secret and PINK stores. Source say the rise of other fashion giants such as Savage X Fenty, Fashion Nova  and Aerie have made completion tough.  Others believe comments made concerning transgender caused an outrage in the LGBTQ community causing a decrease in sales.

In an interview published by Vogue, chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret, Ed Razek was asked about diversity in their infamous Fashion show.

Visit streaming.thesource.com for more information

“Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy,” he told the publication. “It’s a 42-minute entertainment special. That’s what it is…If you’re asking if we’ve considered putting a transgender model in the show or looked at putting a plus-size model in the show, we have,” he continued. “We invented the plus-size model show in what was our sister division, Lane Bryant. Lane Bryant still sells plus-size lingerie, but it sells a specific range, just like every specialty retailer in the world sells a range of clothing. As do we. We market to who we sell to, and we don’t market to the whole world. We attempted to do a television special for plus-sizes [in 2000]. No one had any interest in it, still don’t.”

Following backlash from the LGBTQ community, Victoria’s Secrets issued this statement on Razek’s behalf.

Advertisement

The Victoria’s Secret store closures is just one of the many retail giants that announced plans of closure this year. Payless ShoeSource, Charlotte Russe, and Gymboree, and Janie and Jack have all withered announced closings or that they would scale back on their operations.