For three decades, Victoria's Secret has been in the business of spectacle — wings, supermodels, prime-time ratings, the whole apparatus of aspirational lingerie theater. What it had not quite figured out, until now, was how to sell lipstick while doing it.

"We have this unbelievable cultural event, really the biggest show on earth, all about fantasy and glamour and aspiration, but we didn't have anything to give her in beauty," said Amy Kocourek, president of Victoria's Secret & PINK beauty. Ms. Kocourek, who joined the company in March 2024 after executive roles at Kendra Scott, Kohl's and Gap, has spent the last year building what she calls an integration strategy — which is to say, a plan to make the fashion show sell things beyond bras.

The results will be visible on Sunday, when the annual runway production returns to YouTube with its usual complement of models (22 this year), musical guests (Megan Thee Stallion, Tate McRae and others) and angel wings. But this time, the company has developed an entire beauty collection timed to the broadcast, including a shimmer product called Diva Dust — a reformulated version of a discontinued favorite that Ms. Kocourek's team identified through what she described as "social listening" on Reddit, TikTok and the company's own app.

(One does not typically think of Reddit as a focus group, but then again, one did not typically think of lingerie companies as beauty conglomerates.)

The collection also includes eye patches created through a licensing partnership with Patchology, a body luminizer, glitter hair spray and high-shine lip gloss. Both the patches and the Diva Dust have already sold out, a development Ms. Kocourek described approvingly. "I'm always of the mind of 'sell out and celebrate,' and then you can chase," she said.

Victoria's Secret, which operates 1,430 stores across 70 countries and reported net sales of $1.6 billion in its most recent quarter, has been broadcasting its fashion show since 2001, with a hiatus from 2019 to 2022. The company says its fragrance Bombshell is the top-selling scent in the United States, though it has historically had less to offer customers who wanted something they could actually see.

"You can't see scent," Ms. Kocourek observed, accurately.

Original story published in Glossy: "Victoria’s Secret to use fashion show to promote beauty expansion", by Lexy Lebsack