For most of the last few decades, intimates advertising had a clear and consistent message: if you don't look like this, lingerie is not for you. The target market was a specific woman: tall, thin, and seductive in a very particular way. Everything else was a begrudged size extension— until a handful of brands decided that lingerie is for every body and inclusivity in fashion should be the norm.

Victoria’s Secret launched in the late 1970s as a lingerie brand, originally designed to sell products in a male-friendly environment. By the 1990s, it had evolved into a cultural phenomenon. The brand no longer sold just underwear. It began selling an idea of who lingerie was for and what kind of body was meant to wear it.