Chapter 47

The Panty King

Roy Raymond—San Francisco

Roy Raymond was a smart man. You do not receive a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business for not being one of the best and the brightest in the business world. In 1977, Raymond founded Victoria’s Secret with loans from banks and friends, and he opened one store at the Stanford Shopping Center.

Raymond’s idea was to sell lingerie in a setting that made men not feel like they are cross-dressers, by making them feel comfortable by employing sexy and friendly saleswomen who were there to help men pick out the right silk slips, lacy brassieres, and underwear. Business was so good that he opened three more stores and started a mail-order catalog with beautiful models tooling around in their underwear. The Victoria Secret catalog was a welcome parcel to receive in the mail, particularly for men who had their wonder years in the 1980s.

In 1982, Raymond sold Victoria’s Secret, which included six stores and the catalog, to Les Wexner for between one and four million dollars. The sale was an amazingly bad deal, as the business was earning six million dollars a year. Yet Raymond was proclaimed as a business genius by the media for basically selling a catalog for millions of dollars.

Wexner, who founded The Limited clothing stores, took Victoria’s Secret to new heights by expanding the stores into shopping malls throughout the world, creating name recognition that has cemented its place in pop culture. The company grew to over one thousand stores and the catalog ships 400 million copies annually. Victoria’s Secret fashion shows are aired internationally and seen as an event in the world of fashion.

Raymond bought a big house in San Francisco and sent his children to expensive private schools. He enjoyed his newfound wealth and fame. Believing that he had the golden touch, Raymond started his next venture in 1984, a children’s software retail store and catalog called My Child’s Destiny.

By 1986, his new business was bankrupt. During the next few years, things got worse for Raymond when his wife divorced him and he had to face public shame when he could no longer afford his children’s private academy tuition. For a guy with an MBA from Stanford, it was more than Raymond could handle.

On August 26, 1993, Ray Raymond walked halfway across San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and leaped over its side to his death. His body was pulled from the water a few hours later.