Style Jury: Victoria’s Secret Show HBCUs Love

I usually by my “night clothes” and High School Musical lounge wear straight off the clearance rack at Wal-Mart but I have plenty of friends who shop religiously at Victor’s Lies for gear.

The popular lingerie store rolled out its nationwide collegiate collection in June, featuring the names and logos of some 33 universities on sweats, hoodies, football tees, and totes, the promotion didn’t include any historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). This fall, the brand plans to include five HBCUs in the second phase of its collegiate collection.

According to Dent, the first HBCU schools that will roll off the Pink line will be Howard University, Florida A&M University, Hampton University, North Carolina A&T University, and Southern University. “We have agreements with the licensees who handle collegiate apparel for those schools, and this has been in the works for some time,” he says. Dent adds that the company plans to include students from the schools in internships at Victoria’s Secret, and feature promotions at their homecoming events.

Pink, a collection of loungewear geared toward young, college-aged women, first appeared in Victoria’s Secret stores in 2004. Since then, the brand has solidified its success within the parent company, Limited Brands, a retailing behemoth that includes Bath & Body Works and Henri Bendel. Dent says he didn’t view Reid’s Facebook group negatively. “We encourage people to be vocal [about our product],” he says. “Victoria’s Secret and Pink’s mission is to have relationships with our customers.” [SOURCE]