Perhaps given a boost by the openness of the Sexual Revolution, the Victoria's Secret retail chain almost single-handedly redefined America's conception of lingerie beginning in the early 1980s. Despite the secrecy promised in the franchise's moniker, each of its stores replaced the modest, tucked-away, department-store displays of women's underwear with an openly luxurious atmosphere that recreated a nineteenth-century boudoir. At the same time, Victoria's Secret decidedly built its image with a fairly conservative, middle-class shopper in mind and avoided any connotations of sleaziness which lingerie might carry. While some critics have contested the sometimes reactionary portrait of femininity developed in the store's designs and advertising campaigns, Victoria's Secret helped women of all shapes and sizes, if not tax brackets, feel that sensuality need not be limited to models and celebrities.

Models display the latest fashions from Victoria's Secret, 1997.

Victoria's Secret was launched...