The Victoria's Secret Insider Who Built the Anti-Victoria's Secret
Michelle Cordeiro Grant spent years inside the machine. As a senior executive at Victoria's Secret, she understood the brand's strengths — and its blind spots — better than almost anyone. In 2016, she left to build Lively, a brand designed around everything VS wasn't: comfort, community, and a new category she called "leisuree."
The Insider's Perspective
Born in 1980, Cordeiro Grant had a career that gave her a front-row seat to the American lingerie industry:
- Worked at Victoria's Secret on brand strategy and product development
- Also held positions at Conde Nast and other fashion companies
- Understood the data: what women bought, what they returned, what they complained about, and — critically — what they wished existed
What she saw was a growing disconnect. Victoria's Secret was selling fantasy — push-up bras, padded cups, the Angels aesthetic. But the data showed women increasingly wanted comfort, versatility, and authenticity. The push-up bra market was declining. The bralette and wireless bra market was exploding.
The Leisuree Concept
Cordeiro Grant coined the term "leisuree" — a blend of leisure and lingerie — to describe what Lively offered:
- Bralettes and wireless bras designed to be worn as outerwear or underwear
- Seamless construction that worked under clothes or visible at the gym
- Pieces that transitioned from yoga class to coffee shop to dinner without changing
- Price points that were accessible ($35-$45 for bras) but didn't feel cheap
The concept reflected a real shift in how women dressed. The line between underwear, activewear, and casualwear was blurring. Lively was designed to live in that blur.
The Community Model
Lively's most innovative element was not its products but its community strategy:
- Built an ambassador program of real women (not models or influencers)
- Created "Lively Crews" — local groups that met for fitness classes, brunches, and events
- The brand was built on word-of-mouth rather than traditional advertising
- Treated customers as members of a community rather than consumers of a product
The Wacoal Acquisition
In 2019, Japanese lingerie giant Wacoal acquired Lively for a reported $85 million — just three years after launch. The acquisition validated Cordeiro Grant's thesis: there was a massive market between Victoria's Secret glamour and basic cotton basics.
Why She Matters
Cordeiro Grant represented a new kind of lingerie founder: someone who understood the old industry deeply enough to see exactly where it was failing, and who built a new brand specifically to fill those gaps. She proved that the future of lingerie was not about selling fantasy but about serving reality — comfortable, versatile, community-driven intimates for women who had outgrown the Angels.
She learned everything Victoria's Secret had to teach. Then she built the brand Victoria's Secret couldn't.