Vice President and  
General Merchandising Manager, 
Victoria’s Secret Catalogue 
 

hen Louise Chazen Banon, B.S.’77, enrolled at the University at Albany, she was thinking about a career in law or social work. The University’s legislative internships and its strong program in social welfare, in fact, were two of the reasons she came to Albany after graduating from Ramapo High School in Rockland County. 

But by her senior year in college, Chazen had decided against law school in favor of an entry-level executive training program at Macy’s Herald Square flagship store in New York City. Today, she is vice president and general merchandising manager of Victoria’s Secret Catalogue, which mailed over 426 million catalogues internationally and reached net sales of $734 million in 1997. The direct-mail company, a sister division to Victoria’s Secret Stores, markets its own line of clothing through its catalogues. The private-label catalogue includes not only intimate apparel, but also dresses, suits, coordinated sportswear, outerwear, eveningwear, shoes and accessories, and swimwear. Both Victoria’s Secret Catalogue and Victoria’s Secret Stores are divisions of Intimate Brands, Inc. 

Chazen says her change of heart about a career wasn’t really all that surprising. “From the time I was 16, I had always worked in sales in stores in the fashion business, but I had made a conscious decision not to pursue that at the undergraduate level,” says Chazen, whose father is Jerome Chazen, chairman emeritus of Liz Claiborne, Inc. “My father advised me not to get a retail degree. 

He didn’t necessarily believe that was an advantage...or the best way to round myself out. He was very much in favor of my exploring other options.” 

At Albany, Chazen says, she learned how to juggle many responsibilities at once. Her classes in social welfare helped her understand how to relate to different people and motivate them. (“This business, in particular, is very much a business of relationships and trust,” she says.) Chazen, now 43, also met her husband, Sidney R. Banon, B.S.’78, at Albany. He is now owner of a toy manufacturing company called Good Stuff. They have three boys: Ross, 12, Jeremy, 7, and Alexander, 6. She puts in long hours during the week, but reserves the weekend for her family. They live in Manhattan. 
 
After graduating from Albany with a major in social welfare, Chazen moved up rapidly through the Macy’s ranks, then moved in 1981 to Saks Fifth Avenue, where she started as a sportswear buyer and became a vice president and divisional merchandising manager in four years. In 1994, she was recruited by Victoria’s Secret Catalogue. 

“My job is deciding from the ground up what the Victoria’s Secret product will look like,” Chazen explains. “My responsibilities are to financially plan and conceptualize, from the merchandising point of view, what the product will be and how much in sales we think it will generate.” 

Chazen says that working in the apparel industry can be rewarding and exciting, but it’s not nearly as glamorous as most people think. 

“It’s a real business with a real bottom line every week,” she said recently in a telephone interview from her office at 1114 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan. “But it’s also very creative. The nature of this business is to never stand still, and to be always looking towards tomorrow. I love that: the challenge of always trying to figure out what’s next.”