Justine Harmon

The guy who got American women to wear his lingerie, his emotional content.

Last episode, we gave you a taste of what we're talking about in this series.

But this episode, we're going to start telling the story chronologically.

That means we'll get back to Bridget, Casey, and Ed later in the series.

But to understand Victoria's Secret's first baby steps, the rise of the brand, you need to understand the man who was at the head of it for so long, Les Wexner.

Now, you just heard him giving a speech to the American Academy of Achievement, where President Clinton and Ruth Bader Ginsburg have had talks, and Wexner too, even though he's just a guy from the rag trade.

But Wexner didn't speak with us.

We sent him a list of questions through Victoria's Secret, but they declined to participate.

They used to call Les the Merlin of the mall.

He was famous for his fluency in the behavioral patterns that turned into capital D dollar signs for brands.

The guy is also a huge philanthropist.

He has given away chunks of his wealth to causes he believes in.

And he happens to be the richest man in Ohio, where he has lived and worked forever.

Les is sort of an unassuming, elfin-looking guy with big, friendly salt-and-pepper eyebrows.

He seems like your friendliest, most even-keeled uncle who just calls once a month to check in.

And yet he's headed up a global lingerie company that changed sex and sexuality in America.

And not only that, he got entangled with the most famous teen predator in America, Jeffrey Epstein.

Before all this happened, though, he was just a kid in Columbus, Ohio.

Leslie Les Wexner was born in 1937 and raised by two Russian Jewish merchants who ran a small clothing store, Leslie's, named after their son.

As the story goes, his parents wanted to go on their first vacation in a while and Les agreed to mind the store.