Jan Singer

Jan Singer is an American apparel executive who ran Spanx from 2014 and then served as chief executive at Victoria's Secret from 2016 until she resigned in late 2018, during a long slide in the lingerie brand's sales. Her time there is short, but it sits exactly where the Angel era began to come apart.

From Nike apparel to shapewear

Before lingerie, Singer worked at Nike, where she was head of apparel. In 2014 Spanx, the Atlanta shapewear company founded by Sara Blakely, appointed her chief executive, bringing in a sportswear operator to run a business built on control briefs and smoothing bodysuits.

Arriving at Victoria's Secret in 2016

Singer joined a brand already changing course. In February 2016 Sharen Turney stepped down as chief executive of Victoria's Secret after a decade in the business. That May the company dropped its printed catalog, which had cost $125 million to $150 million a year to produce, and in 2016 it also confirmed that it was leaving swimwear, apparel, shoes and accessories to concentrate on bras, underwear and beauty.

Bralettes over push-ups

The product mix moved under her. In 2017 the company put more weight on bralettes and sports bras under the Victoria Sport label, a shift away from the padded push-up styles that had defined it since the 1990s. The pressure was visible in the numbers. Direct sales grew only 1.6 percent in 2016 and fell 7.4 percent in the last quarter of that year, and by 2016 the brand's market share had started to shrink as rivals offered wider size ranges.

The show loses its audience

The annual fashion show, still the brand's biggest marketing event, was losing viewers. Its audience fell from 9.2 million in 2014 to 3.2 million in 2018.

Resignation in November 2018

Singer announced her resignation in late 2018, amid declining sales. The announcement came one week after the company's chief marketing officer, Ed Razek, said in an interview that the show did not cast transgender or plus-size models because "the show is a fantasy," a remark that drew wide criticism.

John Mehas took over as chief executive in 2019 and stepped down in November 2020, when Martin Waters replaced him. In November 2019, a year after Singer left, Victoria's Secret announced that it would no longer hold the annual show.

Last updated October 7, 2026