Hellville
A brand made for teenage girls has finally met its match after HBO documentary Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion was released in April of 2024.
Brandy Melville was founded in the late 1980s by Silvio Marsan and his son Stephan, who is currently CEO. Stephan is also the creative genius behind the fictional story about an Amerian girl named Brandy who falls in love with an Englishman named Melville, thus giving the brand its name.
Stephan Marsan CEO of Brandy Melville. Photo: HBO - Source: People Magazine
In 2009, Brandy Melville opened its first retail location in the Westwood neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The brand found a strong clientele of American Teenagers, and its flirty California girl clothing became a hit. Since then, Brandy Melville has opened 40 stores in the U.S., totaling 97 worldwide.
The concept seems harmless, right?
Now, my understanding of fast fashion is that it is affordable, trendy, and endlessly available. However, the brand known for its “one-size-fits-all” sizing, it has continually moved towards smaller sizes to stay “exclusive” and associated with a specific aesthetic.
Seems counterintuitive to me to own a fast fashion brand but prioritize exclusivity. Why have middle ground prices if you are looking for exclusion?
Brandy Melville wants poor quality, low prices, and limited customers. Makes total sense.
Now, I have no issue with exclusivity. It's a marketing tactic that has endured the test of time, enforced aspiration, and prioritized quality and uniqueness. But can we say that Brandy Melville is doing any of those things?
Allow me to explain:
Most luxury brands go out of their way to be exclusive, but Brandy Melville handles exclusivity vastly differently. They target young, thin women, but by displaying the labels as “one size fits all,” they alienate customers rather than creating desire.
Luxury brands create exclusivity using “value, quality, and experience.” Their target market is individuals who crave success. For example, the idea of a Porsche, most peoples “dream car” or “retirement aspiration”. Why is that? Because it symbolizes success, status, and timeless elegance. Additionally, luxury brands create desire because individuals feel that the item's quality makes them limited in quantity and therefore exclusive. Whereas Brandy Melville has large quantity, low quality, and limited sizing?
However, to me, the most damaging aspect of Brandy Melville's sizing concept is the lying. The film features social media posts from customers complaining that they can’t fit into the brand’s small clothes and expressing plots to lose weight to fit into the store’s tiny outfits.
If you promote “one size fits all,” it better. Because preaching universal sizing to teenage girls when it's not — couldn't be more repulsive.
In addition, former employees in the documentary share that they have struggled with eating disorders and having a healthy body image while working at the stores.
The documentary also reports that the company used discriminatory practices regarding hiring and workplace ethics. The employees said the company was focused on hiring white women and has faced two lawsuits regarding racism.
Additionally, former employees share that white staffers were tasked with working on the sales floor, while non-white employees were assigned to work behind the register or in the stockroom.
But there’s More…
It is no question that the micro-trend disease spurs Brandy Melville's rapid production process. These trends emerge rapidly and fade quickly, often lasting only a few weeks. This practice contributes to overconsumption, waste, and resource depletion. In addition, production is expensive and trying to keep up with trends results in low-quality garments and exploitative labor practices.
In particular, the film shows the human cost of fast fashion by looking into the landfills in Ghana, where textile waste from the West pollutes its bodies of water, which has grown increasingly since fast fashion became the dominant clothing model.
When fashion houses such as Isabel Marant, Annie Bing, and Gianni release seasonal lines, they are influenced by culture and based on enduring and evolved concepts. These practices also reflect the brand’s aesthetic and identity rather than attempting to appeal to a mass audience.
Allowing for slower production encourages quantity control and higher-quality materials, encouraging consumers to invest in brands that value longevity.
“Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere, is paying”
Fast-fashion micro trends may generate excitement and drive sales, but they are short-term, poorly fitting garments that eventually end up in landfills. Quality fashion houses, on the other hand, pride themselves on long developmental cycles, which give them more time to innovate, experiment, and inspire.
Now, not all luxury or non-fast fashion brands ensure the best practices and I’m not asking you to boycott Brandy Melville. Instead, I ask you to recognize that your shopping choices shape your narrative and define your affiliations.
So do yourself a favor — think twice before you buy.