Started as an MBA project by Stanford graduate Roy Raymond, Victoria's Secret attracted Wexner's interest due to the unique, high quality merchandise and Victorian-era decor of the shop which featured red-velvet sofas. In 1982, Wexner acquired the lingerie business Victoria's Secret. In the 1980s, Wexner doubled his retail holdings by purchasing a number of companies and became known as a major retail owner at malls in America. He took on significant debt in 1978 to purchase the importer and manufacturer Mast Industries, which later was regarded to have provided him with essential business advantages over competitors. Wexner expanded the Limited considerably in the 1970s, having opened the 100th store in 1976. Alfred Taubman reportedly served as a mentor for Wexner, starting in the mid 1960s, and the two partnered on many deals involving Taubman's shopping malls over the years. He took Limited Brands public in 1969, listed as LTD on the NYSE. He opened the second Limited store in August 1964. One year later, Wexner's parents closed their store and joined their son in running The Limited. Wexner opened the first store on August 10, 1963, in the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. The store took its name due to its limited focus on moderately priced merchandise, such as skirts, sweaters and shirts, that turned over quickly and generated greater revenues. In 1963, Wexner was lent $5,000 from his aunt Ida, which was then matched by a bank in order to start The Limited. When he told his father this, his father was uninterested in changing his inventory. jackets) had a higher margin per item, they sold less frequently than blouses and were therefore less profitable as a line. He found that although higher-priced clothing (e.g.

While they were away on vacation, he analyzed the profit and loss margins on the women's clothing they sold. After he decided to leave law school, his parents asked him to take care of the store when they went on their first vacation in ten years. Wexner began his retail career working in his parents' clothing store 'Leslie's', which had been named in his honor. He briefly attended the Moritz College of Law. While at Ohio State University, he became a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. He attended Ohio State University, and although he had expressed an interest in architecture he graduated in 1959 with a major in business administration. His mother, a first generation American, was born in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn and moved to Columbus, Ohio, as a toddler. His parents were both of Russian-Jewish origin. Leslie Wexner was born in Dayton, Ohio, on September 8, 1937, to parents Bella ( née Cabakoff 1908–2001) and Harry Louis Wexner (1899–1975). Wexner allowed Epstein to run his business out of a house he owned and resided in while CEO of Victoria's Secret. Wexner was once the “main client” of Epstein’s money-management firm, according to Bloomberg. Wexner had a very close relationship with Epstein that began in the 1980s and continued until Epstein's death. Wexner hired Jeffrey Epstein as his financial manager beginning sometime in the 1980s and continuing until 2007. In February 2020, Wexner announced that he was transitioning from CEO of L Brands into the role of chairman emeritus. Wexner grew a business empire after starting The Limited, a clothing retailer with a restricted selection of profitable items, and later expanded his holdings to include Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, Express, Inc., and Bath & Body Works.

Leslie Herbert Wexner (born September 8, 1937) is an American billionaire businessman, the founder and chairman emeritus of Bath & Body Works, Inc.

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