Secret hits campus

For some people Florida A&M University is known as the Fashion and Modeling University, said President James Ammons at the Victoria’s Secret PINK press conference Oct. 1, 2008.

Indeed some students are on campus wearing what is in style, while typical college students sometimes wear sweat pants and hoodies. The PINK collection is known for its vibrant sweat pants with PINK written on the back of them. The line is geared toward trendy college women. 

The PINK collection has expanded and now includes college names and logos on the apparel. The initial 33 schools chosen are predominantly white colleges and FAMU is one of the first Historically Black Universities to be included in the line.

Kamika Barrett, a fourth year elementary education student, said that she is “not surprised” that students at FAMU were targeted first because “Tallahassee’s Victoria’s Secret store is on everyone’s favorite list.”

Barrett also said that people are more prone to shop there now that their school’s name is stitched on the brand.  

The FAMU VS PINK collection was placed in stores mid- December 2008.

Sales were expected to go well because of the large turnout at the VS pop up store that was temporarily opened on campus.

“For all colleges it has generated a lot of excitement,” said Tallahassee Mall’s Victoria’s Secret store manager ,Kimberly Garin. “It’s always fun to have. The women on campus were so excited that the VS associates had to return to their stores to get more clothing because they were running out.”

Garin also said so far sales have been going well and FAMU receives 7 to 8 percent of sales.

Like many of the other colleges, the line has nine items: bling sweat pants, yoga pants, a bling tee, drawstring fleece board shorts, jersey shirts, flip-flops, pullover hoodies, bling zip hoodies and football dresses.

The main difference of all the colleges apparel is the school colors. The design is the same.

Some students like Gloria Mason are ecstatic that FAMU is one of the first HBCU’s to be featured.

“I do like the flip-flops and I am anticipating the release of the tote bag,” said Mason, a third year professional MBA student from Alexandria, Va.

Employees with the VS Pink Collection are also thrilled and want students to continue exploring the web site.

“Victoria’s Secret PINK is excited to explore new possibilities with FAMU, as well as all the other schools in the collection,” Sarah Hoekzema, from the VS Public Relations department said. “We encourage students to check into vspink.com every now and then to see what’s going on with the collection.”

Eventually, a variety of items like panties, totes, additional tees and pullover hoodies will be featured in the line, Garin said.

She added that VS has been receiving a lot of positive feedback about the line.

Garin said FAMU students are happy with the launch and are anticipating the release of future items.