Being a woman who is considered plus size when I heard Brandy Melville had a documentary coming out on Max, I was eager to see what stories would come out and what backlash they would receive. What does being plus-sized have to do with any of this? They are size discriminate. They went from a slogan of “one size fits all” to “one size fits most” By most you mean a small percentage of the population. I’d like to say it all gets better from here, but it doesn’t so let’s unpack this catastrophe.
If you aren’t familiar with the company, Brandy Melville is a clothing company that was established in the 1970s by Italian founders Silvio Marsan and his son Stephan. What started in Italy made waves over to the United States where it became a social media standout. Taking the storm by teenage girls, they instantly became the star demographic for making this clothing brand so popular. Some girls thought Brandy Melville made you feel “cool” and “accepted” and if you didn’t have the clothes, well, something might be wrong with you, and you weren’t considered pretty or cool. The brand is known for having feminine, form-fitting and cropped clothing. Think graphic t-shirts, bows and hearts. When you bought a piece of Brandy Melville you were purchasing not just a product, but the lifestyle. The craze of Brandy Melville in the United States gained so much traction just due to their social media because all the pretty girls who could fit into the clothes made it more known that if you don’t have the clothing what are you doing with your life?
So many parts of this documentary make me feel sick. But let’s first dive into one of the most triggering parts of this brand, sizing. When you go to a store and look at clothes there are usually all varied sizes ranging from extra small to extra large and then sometimes having a plus-sized section with larger sizes beyond. Brandy Melville took it upon themselves to create a single size called one size fits all. Well, that size is small and probably the smallest small you will ever witness in your life. Where it gets twisted past that, was hearing how many of the Brandy Melville workers developed eating disorders just to fit into the clothes and be trendy and cool. When clothes take it to that level, we know that it’s an unhealthy relationship and teach women that the only way to be is the thinnest version of yourself.
I said it gets worse, so let’s get into the stereotypes and racist tendencies that I observed. It was brought up that Brandy Melville was only to draw in a certain type of customer, this customer was the skinny, pretty white girl. Yes, you read that right. This not only applied to the customer but their stores as well. White girls were up at the front of the store, portrayed as the ideal model and if you didn’t fit that type, it was back to the stockroom where you dealt with all the grunt work and punishment for how you didn’t fit the look. How do you get to work for Brandy Melville you wonder? One girl described the application process, and it was inappropriate, to say the least. Girls were to submit full-body photos, social media accounts and were asked where they liked to shop. It wasn’t about work ethic, strengths and weaknesses or even how you deal with a challenging time at work. It was how popular are you and how can you get us gain?
I want to switch gears now to something I wasn’t well versed in until I watched this documentary. The term fast fashion. Fast fashion is clothing that is quickly distributed out to the consumer so that it aligns with trends. These pieces are inexpensive, mass-produced and can be poor quality and not hold up for years to come. This results in clothing being tossed or what others might think they are donating but it begins to build up along coastlines in third-world countries where hundreds of thousands of pounds of textiles are sitting on the beaches and in the waters. This is creating an issue and destroying our planet. One girl mentioned how when they were stocking the store just inserting a price tag into some of their items would create a hole that would start to destroy the clothing already. That’s why clothing like this is worn a handful of times and then tossed away. In terms of fast fashion, there are ways we can help minimize this. Buy second-hand, shop your closet and investing in pieces that will last a lifetime are just a few ways you can make a difference as a consumer.
Overall, this documentary touched on so many different and challenging issues that one clothing brand brought on. The biggest takeaway here is to be your own judge of what is cool and what is not. Don’t make sacrifices for a brand that is willing to put you in dangerous situations and that wouldn’t think twice about you unless you fit their stereotype. Don’t be the person who liked the brand just because everyone else did.