Phi Beta Pink?
 

I was in Victoria's Secret today and saw bags from the PINK collection with the words "Phi Beta Pink" on them with some silly crest. It was obviously meant to mimic sorority bags. I thought it was pretty stupid... and if I was in a group with those letters in it (like Gamma Phi Beta, etc.) I might have been kind of annoyed. I don't know, it just doesn't seem right for just anyone to have "mock letters", plus it's a company that basically sells itself on sex appeal - not a great Greek image.

I don't know, what do you guys think? Has anyone else seen this? I know there are a lot of threads on the fact that no one needs to be "the letter police", but it seems really odd that a store is selling this stuff.

EDIT: I just searched it, and they've got shirts with the greek letters Phi Beta Pi on them. According to one website, the designer of the whole line is a Pi Phi?

You're taking this wayyyyy too seriously.

Not a great Greek image = sorority girls lifting their shirts up on Girls Gone Wild and then broadcasting their sorority affiliation. Victoria's Secret mocking sorority letters? Not that bad.

It's not worth getting your panties in a bunch. Tee hee har har har.

I think it is meant to be a play on "Phi Beta Kappa" more than anything else. I think it is all in good fun, so am not offended. I don't think anyone who knows anything about NPCs is going to confuse it with Gamma Phi Beta - and those who don't are more than likely to have positive associations. If it were liquor, or something more negative, it would be a different story.

I just think the whole "PINK" thing is kinda silly to begin with.

I actually didn't think VS made the Phi Beta Pink line anymore. I remember it first came out in Fall 06, because it was around the same time a good friend of mine got a bid to Pi Phi, and since she's absolutely crazy about VS, she thought it was the coolest thing that Phi Beta Pink sounded like Pi Beta Phi. (Well in her opinion at least).

I personally don't mind it. But that may just be because I'm biased since worked there for about a year, and became a giant Victoria's Secret tool. (Hence my username....):o

But I can understand why people might be put off by the collection because of what the store sells. The same thing happened this past summer when VS obtained permission to use official college logos and use them to make their own Pink Collegiate Collection. Some of the schools, such as University of Minnesota and I believe Boston College, ended up pulling the plug on letting VS use their logos on merchandise because the schools did not want to associate their name with Victoria's Secret.

Personally, I LOVE the Collegiate Collection certainly don't mind seeing Phi Beta Pink either. Especially because all of the Phi Beta Pink and college stuff only has the Pink logo, which many people might not even recognize as a Victoria's Secret brand. And those who do identify it as a Victoria's Secret brand understand that what Pink is offers very different from the other lines at Victoria's Secret such as Very Sexy or Sexy Little Things. In fact, I think that many VS customers would consider Pink more of a lounge-wear clothing line than a lingerie line.

So, no, I personally don't mind it, but I understand why people are hesitant about it. In fact, and I realized I may get critized for this, but I think I would like to see some kind of agreement made between Panhellenic and VS to come out with a line for sororities...I mean I know that will NEVER happen, lol, but I think they could come out with some pretty cute things...Just my opinion! :)

ETA: Ok, I thought of an instance where I would NOT want to see real sorority letters. With the Collegiate Collection, they made panties with the college logos which I thought was kinda strange. I would definitely not want my letters on underwear... lol But other than that, I still think there could be some really cute sweats, hoodies, bags, etc.......Although I suppose thats what all of those Internet Greek stores are for....

Okay, I may be totally wrong, and a pi phi needs to set us straight either way, but I was under the impression that the originator/owner of Victoria's Secret IS a Pi Phi, hence the play on words, the angel symbol, etc.

Calling a Pi Phi!

ETA - I am mistaken about the founder of VS being involved with pi phi. It seems to be the head designer as noted above.

I'm not 100% sure but at our pi phi chapter we wear the stuff all the time (during recruitment too). We are under the impression that the creator of the pink line is a pi phi.

however, i did a quick google and couldnt find anything.

Okay, I just looked at the Pi Phi website and it isn't mentioned, but the Arkansas pi phis note it on their website.

http://uagreeks.uark.edu/104.htm

The owner of Victoria's Secret is Leslie Wexner. Leslie is a dude. Leslie bought the VS concept from another dude named Roy Raymond. The original concept had nothing to do with angels - that is relatively recent and I'm sure has more to do with angels being more around the culture in general than anything with Pi Beta Phi.

Phi Beta Pink is definitely a play on Phi Beta Kappa - the only "Greek" organization that a lot of people recognize by name. It has nothing to do with Gamma Phi Beta. As to a Pi Phi "creating" it, this is a huge corporation with many levels of structure. It's likely that any idea anyone had, "lead designer" or not, was tweaked hundreds of times before it made it into the stores.

The whole Pink line IMO is made to appeal to tweens thru high schoolers, anyway, not college age girls.

I like the pink undies because I think they're comfy and fun colors, but I don't like the bras or the loungewear.

I mostly don't like the loungewear because the only appropriate saying to be spelled across my ass would be "Wide load."

Woah, woah, woah... I never said I was "seriously upset" or anything like that! A lot of you on this thread are jumping down my throat and accusing my "panties of being in a twist" when they are perfectly, um, untwisted? I just thought it was kind of a silly thing and wanted to know what other people thought.

Geez. Talk about people who "need to get a hobby" :rolleyes:

My guess is that these bags will be mainly bought by A) Hs girls that think they are sooo cool because it looks like they are in a sorority B) Really desperate girls who did not get a bid

Down here they are popular and worn by high school & college (sometimes older). If they only appealed to high schoolers, then they wouldn't bother with a college line and having us vote online to have our schools added. If they added my school I'd be sure to get some pieces. Our school can't be found at any major store so it'd be nice.

Phi Beta Pink, as stated before, is very old. Nothing new. And I've never seen them make "letters" out of it. It's always been written out, so no big deal. I have a Pink shirt & a lounge pants. I also have a few of the undies. They are comfy and cute, but I don't have all that money to drop on lounge clothes.

Look I know I'm a little slow on the draw, but I managed to score the immovable Friday 8 am final. So if I misunderstood this, don't take it personally.
But you guys wear that tacky crap during rush?!
If I got that right, then go ahead, take it personally.

As to the OP, I agree with KSUViolet- it's clothing. With words. It's PEOPLE who give greek life a bad name, not what they're wearing.

no we had shirts made with the peace sign and pink dog logo that actually say pi beta pink.

so no we don't wear the sweatpants, with PINK on the butt and all that crap--we just use the logo because someone in the chapter was/is under the impression that the designer for the pink line is a pi phi.

ETA: just to clarify when i say we wear the stuff all the time. i really mean to say that there are sisters in my chapter who choose to wear this line and do not find the line offensive to greek women (as the OP was saying)

I didn't say college girls didn't wear them. I said it is made for younger girls - to draw them into VS stores. I mean, there are people in college that still wear high school letter jackets too.

Just because high school girls like the VS collections doesn't mean that VS makes collections with high school girls in mind. At least I would hope not since VS is an ADULT store. And yes, I know that they make more than just lingerie but since they do specialize in lingerie, nothing coming out of there should be targeted to children. If they are doing this, then we should be upset about that and write to the company.

plus, looking at the website, they don't even use the "phi beta pink" theme anymore. Everything says Univ. of Pink, Peace Love Pink, etc. i looked through both the all tops and all bottoms sections and didn't see one reference to phi beta pink.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister...cle_916729.php

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/1...ger-consumers/

I don't think they're necessarily "targeting" those girls who are between the age of 13 and 19, but they'd have to be extremely naive to think that these "tweens" aren't going to be interested in the clothing they're selling. As the one article that 33girl posted pointed out, younger girls are going in the stores, not necessarily looking for skimpy underwear, but searching for the comfy sweats that they wear to school.

When I was in high school, I would see more girls wearing pajamas/sweatpants to class than anything else. In college, it was a bit different. First of all, you could always spot the freshman on campus, because they'd take 3 hours to get ready in the morning and come to class in skirts and Stilletos. After that, some resorted back to their old ways, but for the most part, they'd wear Penn State sweatpants, or ones that didn't have logos across the butt.

If Victoria's Secret thinks that these younger girls aren't going to see this clothing and think, "That's cute, I want it!" they're kidding themselves.

On the other hand, is it really that bad? If a girl really wants to buy lingerie, she's going to.. whether it's from VS or not. But if she saw a friend with a really cute pair of sweatpants on and she wanted them, she'll probably only buy those. And their underwear is displayed in windows in the mall for everyone to see, not to mention on tv in the fashion show. I highly doubt that simply walking into the store is going to lure a girl into buying underwear you can floss with.

LOL!

I've been wearing their undies and bras since 8th grade. Mostly the cotton and satin lines when I was younger. The Pink line did not exist. At that age I had no use for lace, thongs, etc. I dont see anything wrong with some of the lines being worn by or marketed to younger girls--they wear bras and undies too! I would however question a parent who thinks it is appropriate to buy or allow their young girls to wear thongs or v-strings. Maybe it's just me but I just dont think young girls should be wearing clothing that would "require" a thong or a v-string (young girls meaning middle school through high school). MAYBE a formal dress to an upper classman formal might call for a thong, but for the most part I dont think so.

gotcha. i was picturing a bunch of girls lined up at the door wearing matching sweatsuits.

oh goodness no. but i can see how you would think that from how i said it. we had fitted tees made and wore them with dress pants and heels.

I used to work for Victoria's Secret and the Pink line is TOTALLY targeted for younger girls. Yes, most of the VS merch is for adults, but what are the adults years before? Teens. The Pink line is so that young girls get the Victoria's Secret brand stuck in their head at an early age so that when they are ready to want more grown up undies and such they stick with what they know. This is something that was told to us in our training.

totally agree.
and then i ask to the ones who are opposed to the Pink line, is that really so bad? plenty of brands market to younger girls--Abercrombie for example-- just so that they have it in their head that they need to shop there when they get older. i think it is pretty common and unlike abercrombie who would have most of their shirts with sexual innuendos that were highly inappropriate, I don't see anything inappropriate about the VS PINK line.

Just an FYI, a little while back, Gamma Phi Beta IH put an announcement on our InCircle community that they had been contacted about participating in some type of VS contest for sororities, and that the sorority, after reading about the contest, decided it was not in the sorority's best interests to participate.

I've heard from a VS manager that they're going to come out with all schools next year...so, I'm not really seeing the point of the contest.

I doubt they will come out with every school.

I totally agree! Yes, the Pink line is a way to get younger girls and teens to start shopping at Victoria's Secret, but hey, thats retail for you. Get the customer and build that brand loyalty! And really, these young girls who are shopping at VS go straight to Pink, and no where else. It's not like they're buying lingerie... They're just there for the sweats, hoodies, tees, bags, flip flops, etc. Sure, Pink has panties and bras, but like someone had already mentioned, hey, girls need these things too!

I think Victoria's Secret gets a little bit of unfair judgement at times. My dad was not at all pleased when I started working there. I guess understand why, he assumed Victoria's Secret = only lingerie = sex like many people do. Yes, Victoria's Secrets main products are bras and panties, but people forget that they also sell lounge wear, like what is sold in the Pink line, make up, perfume, hair care, regular pajamas, and now even sports wear. And heck, if you look at the catalogue, they have all kinds of clothes.

And for anyone who didn't believe me when I said I had become a giant VS tool after working there, this little speech show serve as even more proof. I'm not ashamed.:D

Aw...I had a feeling I wasn't the first to think of it...and I also had a feeling that it would never happen

Oh well, at least I have my Pink U of I stuff...along with half of the school lol

She meant the ones that have VS in the towns of the schools.

thank you!
i just feel like people are over analyzing what this brand "says" about the women who wear it. I don't think of VS as raunchy, trashy lingerie. I think of VS as classy, sexy, and feminine (this isn't Hustler people...)--and if that is what wearing the Pink line says about me...I'm completely fine with that.

personally, I wouldn't wear the line. I kind of looked over it a lot. it came out when I was in high school and I saw it as "impersonating" sorority girls... which I would have never done. now that I'm in a sorority, it seems to sort of mock another groups letters. since my letters are Alpha Sigma Tau... not Phi or Beta... then I wouldn't wear anything from the line. but I love most of the other stuff from the Pink line. it's a personal choice kind of thing.

I think I want a pair from the Bob Jones line.

Phi Beta Pink IS Pi Beta Phi backwards. Yes the founder of Victoria's Secret is a guy, his daughter was a Pi Phi and it was obviously made for her. I am a Pi Phi and have heard about this many times at nationals and through all of my pi phi sisters.

This is why people with two post should be careful of posting.

The GUY that founded Victoria Secrets hasn't had anything to do with Victoria's Secret for ( like since 1982)years.

He committed suicide after realizing he sold a multi-billion dollar idea for millions.

I really doubt the Leslie Wexler and the Limited Company would care about his daughter.

Andddd this is a three year old thread.