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Victoria's Secret cancels annual fashion show

Victoria's Secret store
Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret, announced this week that the retailer will not hold its annual fashion show this year, the New York Times reports.

The big picture: Victoria's Secret "has struggled to find its footing through multiple challenges. Consumers have come to see the brand as anachronistic, out of place in the #MeToo era as offering an objectifying view of female beauty," the Times writes.

  • The company's chief marketing officer came under fire last year when he said transgender women shouldn't be featured in the fashion show.
  • Meanwhile, L Brands' chief executive, Leslie H. Wexner has been criticized for his relationship with the Jeffrey Epstein, the Times notes.

Where it stands: The company has posted consistently declining sales revenues over the last year, CNN reports, dropping about 7% in the last quarter.

  • The fashion show also lost its luster in television ratings: An audience of more than 12 million people tuned into the first show in 2001. That number hovered around 9.7 million in 2013, and shrunk to about 3.3 million in 2018.

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