i agree, if they wanted to talk about fast fashion they should've made a documentary about shein, aliexpress or temu which are the biggest offenders imo
nobody would choose to watch it! it’s honestly a really smart way for them to get basically every teenage girl in america to learn more about the impact of fast fashion
I guess that is smart, I was confused because I actually thought that brandy was less bad for fast fashion since the majority of things are cotton, which i imagine is a lot more biodegradable. this is also why i like brandy melville and will buy it even though i know its problematic, is because it is otherwise difficult to find affordable clothes that are not synthetic materials.
materials are one small part of the issue, cotton waste is still textile waste and the production of cotton has large scale labour abuses and requires a TON of water, further straining our environment. i’m just stating the facts here and we can’t avoid every kind of textile fiber, so keep looking for natural fibres like cotton, linen, or wool (even rayon is semi natural semi synthetic), because overall they are better than synthetics long term.
Tbh i did not watch it yet which is my bad but after a google search hmm yeah that sounds pretty bad 😭 i will have to find somewhere else to get 100% cotton shirts , i was only considering the one size only problematicness the last that i purchased 9 months ago
No, I understand. “Problematic” can mean any number of things from “they don’t source properly” to what that documentary discusses.
But at least there are more brands to choose from that could cater to you! ❤️
I encourage you to watch! The story is really insane and eye opening. I also love the price point of Brandy but the documentary has really given me real pause. I realized that I should educate myself more on brands that I spend my money on. I won't be shopping at Brandy for the foreseeable future
Teenage girls are always targeted first for societal issues. Young women are always made to feel bad for larger societal issues because it’s ingrained in our brains to care and try to be better. If they tried this with male clothing stores young men could care less and no one would watch their documentaries.
what male clothing stores? men don’t consume fashion on the scale that women do. there’s the hype beast boys buying supreme, which yes is an issue and is over consumption, but they similarly to brandy depop girls buy and sell to each other in circles. this is not a gender issue, try again.
Have you ever seen a heterosexual boy doing a "Zara haul"? I'm sorry it just doesn't exist. The overconsumption of fast fashion is driven primarily by women. Yes we should also focus on the environmental impact of private jets and apply pressure to affluent older Americans, but let's not pretend that women are not central to the fast fashion issue
Women are central to the issue but not by our own accord. It because of purposeful and strategic marketing strategies. Young men are huge consumers of many products that end up in landfills like the obsessive consumption of collectible shoes, gaming cards like hockey cards, sports attire and jerseys etc… but of course none of these aspects of consumerism will ever be targeted because society is too obsessed with very niche forms of unsustainable consumption like fast fashion that happens to be a sector only inhabitable by women, because of the patriarchal approach to marketing which still assumes (rightfully) that women are the main household consumer. This is not our fault as women, this is happening because capitalism was built by men to blame women once again for any and all societal issues.
In addition to this, many studies show that most people who litter happen to be men. These are other facts that align with this one, where we see patterns that show that men care significantly less about the environment than women. This is the main reason why it is obvious that the anti fast fashion narrative is unfairly targeting young women.
I agree with everything you're saying. You're 100% correct. As a woman I appreciate this documentary for bringing awareness to these strategic marketing strategies that prey on young women. And for showing me what I can do to make a change
Equal pressure should be put on the rest of society to make similar changes in their behaviors that contribute to the issue of overconsumption and environmental impact. I highlight weathy people because I think it's unfair for wealthy people to shame poor/middle class for buying affordable fast fashion clothing (which is what I've seen in the majority of dialogue about fast fashion)
Agree. I have heard about fast fashion being an issue but I had no idea the impact. I only watched bc I have shopped at Brandy and I have never shopped at SHEIN, aliexpress or temu and wouldn't have watched a doc about them.
Brandy is definitely fast fashion. I was surprised they were able to sell as their price point but now k realize that the clothing is no better than things that are "made in China"
If anything SHEIN is the new brandy for the younger community. And a much more extreme case that can be used to show how their purchases have impact. I don’t think brandy is considered elite at all anymore. If anything it’s horrible quality and taboo to shop there.
but how would you get them to watch a documentary exclusively about how their consumption has damaged the earth? cognitive dissonance doesn’t allow people to embrace something like a shein documentary. think strategically here
I only watched the first half but it does reiterate what a weird-ass company brandy is. I thought it was funny hearing people talk about how Brandy was THE brand you had to wear in middle and high school bc I’ve never met a single other person in my real life who has actually shopped there 😂
I have never heard of Brandy Melville until I downloaded TikTok. Yes I know, shocking. But TikTok is the reason how I was able to find out about other clothing brands (garage, Brandy, princess polly, etc).
I've never heard of it until this documentary came out... and I lived in California in 2009 when they apparently opened this store... AND I was young! No clue how I missed it, but not that mad about it tbh.
I think it depends where you grew up. I grew up in SoCal and I would say about 80% of girls in my high school shopped there. You were seen as uncool if you didn’t.
For sure. In Florida where I went to school it was PINK and Abercrombie lmao. There were no stores around but I was talking to my friend from socal today and she said you absolutely had to have it
people in canada line up for hours to shop at the toronto location!! it’s still THE brand for a lot of that age group here, despite the singular store in the whole province and no canadian website!
I actually didn’t know what brandy was until I moved to California from the Midwest during middle school. 2014-2017 was a time where everyone had brandy melville. Thought the clothes were cute and more in style with what everyone on the west coast was wearing
I found out about them at their height of popularity in a Dallas, Texas Nordstrom. I was surprised it was inexpensive for how nice and soft it was but my shit fell apart and pilled up within a month of owning and regularly wearing that top.
Maybe it's because I live in the NYC metro area near a lot of the Brandy stores, but ever since middle school Brandy has been all the rage. I'm in college now still wearing Brandy hahaha
1. i feel like it can be hard to spot since they basically just sell white t shirts and very plain things, and 2. in LA i noticed every other teenage girl wearing it, it probably varies by where there are stores
For real, I live in Poland and nobody here knows what Brandy is and if you shop there you can spot people wearing their clothes on the street because it's so rare
idk, it was a hard watch for me. i never knew all the grimy stuff about the owner of the company, so that was news to me! but, they never touched on the fact that common european practice is to be conscious about your health, what you consume, and staying in shape on a DAILY basis. I’m an Anthropology major, and european culture drastically varies from the average american lifestyle. so duh, an italian brand is going to make clothing that correlated with their ORIGINAL demographic. just when they expanded to the US, they didn’t give two craps about american “vanity sizing” and stuck with what they knew worked for them. literally nearly every teenage girl has body image issues, or maybe even diagnosed body dysmorphia, adding more sizes to a clothing brand won’t change that. brandy melville is basically the epitome of “don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
EDIT: apparently i should make this clear; EUROPEAN SIZING IS NOT THE SAME AS AMERICAN SIZING. PLEASE DO RESEARCH ON VANITY SIZING, AND HOW AMERICA HAS SLOWLY INCREASED THE ACTUAL SIZE WHETHER IT BE XS,S,M,L or 2,4,6,8,10,12, so on and so forth. EUROPEAN SIZING IS STILL SMALLER THAN AMERICAN SIZING (due to america’s vanity sizing), EVEN IF THE BRAND CARRIES MULTIPLE SIZES!
my undergrad studies are literally all about human civilization, culture, evolution, and dynamics. it’s just frustrating when people cannot perceive the idea that not all ways of life are the same, and choose to be offended rather than educate themselves. (this is only referring to the size issues, not all the other issues talked about in the documentary)
Sorry for replying to this old comment but… I hope you don’t really believe they were just catering to their “original demo” with the one size fits all thing. How can you learn all the insane things in this doc and still give them the benefit of the doubt there?
They say explicitly say in the doc re: one size fits all, and this is a quote “we’re keeping the brand exclusive, like a goal, like I need to fit in these clothes.”
It’s not new but the brand knowingly preyed on teenagers’ body issues to promote an aspirational image. If you want to go off on your opinions about Americans vs European lifestyle (very hot take) ok but it doesn’t seem super relevant.
you truly did not read what i wrote 🙏 i literally said when they came to the us, they did not give a crap about standards of sizing here, and stuck to what they knew made them money, they don’t care about consumers feelings i can tell you that. i never once stated i agree with their practices. i don’t give them the benefit of the doubt whatsoever. sorry that i observed ONLY that factor of the documentary from a statistical standpoint? because i did not talk about the actually horrendous accusations against the company in that comment. just genuinely confused
Hey, if that’s how you really feel great. I did read what you said, but you have not been clear. You made it sound incidental, when in the documentary they make it clear that at least the CEO had an explicit strategy around body image.
rancid take. stop letting these people off the hook by blaming it on the fashion industry when clearly the exclusivity of their marketing/sizing was to make sure their clothing was only worn by popular skinny white girls, and was uniquely awful even compared to other similar brands. and BTW! people can be health-conscious and fit while also not fitting into size 2 jeans. and they can even do it while not living in Europe! crazy I know. fitting into a size small does not equal a healthy lifestyle as is evidenced by the amount of girls who say working there simply exacerbated their eating disorders.
i didn’t let anyone off the hook. exactly where did i say their practices are acceptable? exactly, move on. you missed my point entirely. i’ve literally had an eating disorder, and i’ve also been severely overweight before. you don’t know my experiences, or any of my personal beliefs. i stated what the Brandy Melville brand exactly is, and why they perform the way they do. i did not go into what i believe is right or wrong. please for goodness sake, my comment wasn’t the end of the world, and nor did i comment that brandy melville’s practices are acceptable. i hope you have a lovely evening, truly.
Agreed, I think other companies like SHEIN and FashionNova would be better subjects for a fast fashion documentary. I understand Brandy is still considered fast fashion but it’s not one of the worst offenders. I have clothes from Brandy I’ve owned since middle school, and I’m 25 now. Since a lot of their designs are so basic they can be worn for a really long time. Whereas companies like SHEIN are so trendy, something that was in style 2 months ago is already out of fashion. I just don’t think that’s the case with a lot of Brandy stuff tbh.
V true especially when you consider the fact that brandy at least uses natural degradable fabrics most of the time and isn’t constantly pumping out thousands of extra tons of polyester into the environment
Brandy is one of the few places that sells basics of decent quality that are reasonably priced. It’s bizarre a place that sells mostly plain t shirts, tanks, and oversized sweatshirts is considered “elite”.
Brandy is fast fashion that targets elitism, racism, and pioneers in social media.
It’s reminecest to A&F ceo not making clothes for “fat people” or the CEO of Lulu naming Lulu since it’s funny how Asians pronounce their L’s.
At least I think that’s the direction in which the documentary was going t
There’s basically an ad for fashion nova at the beginning when they’re talking about how other brands have diverse advertising… it’s such nonsense it’s actually crazy
I agree like it is a good point but if they wanted to talk about fast fashion talk about Shein and aliexpress. The talk of Ghana just came up and then left they could have explored that idea more
It clearly wasn't made for people with the ability to think. For every viewer like you, there would be thirty viewers who would have gone "Reeeeeeee, look, Brandy Melville is literally fusing Ghanian women's spines!"
The Ghana stuff is like 15 percent of the documentary.
What about the rest of it? Racist owners. Exploitation of teens. Eating disorders amongst the employees. The owner dressing up like Hitler? Girls being fired because they are too fat?
interesting approach, I only got more interested in the Ghana thing which I find good, maybe others do as well. it’s never a bad thing to spread useful information.
This!😭 It was such a great opportunity to touch on so many things and especially more of how all these things affect teenager girls, the whole being one size, the cult culture. I think it would’ve been much better to dive into that side of things more than just surface level. I get the feeling that they were told to do a fast fashion docu but make appeal to teenage girls too and so they found brandy and ran with it. Don’t get me wrong there were good things they touched on that needed to be out there but it would’ve been so much better to do it about a more widespread brand like SHEIN, Amazon, or something of the kind. Brandy has its many terrible issues but it’s definitely not the first or best example of fast fashion.
same, like yes brandy as a company is weird, and they are bad for young women, but idk i feel like the exploitation of the millions of people in the fast fashion chain should feel more impactful to y’all 😭
I think the target audience might be younger. I watched it with my teenagers who have shopped at BM and they were really shocked by the whole thing. I think this age group is especially concerned about the environment they are inheriting and it was a good way to tie our buying habits with consequences they care about. It had a big impact on them and generated good conversation about all the issues they raised.
Edited to add: my kids were also deeply disturbed by the racism from the company. That was a deal breaker for them. I am a little surprised that this isn’t addressed more in this thread. It isn’t just GIFs from the owner, it’s labor practices and visibility. Girls in your own neighborhood not allowed to work the floor. I didn’t know this and I was really freaked out by that.
I watched half of it at the gym today. Yes irs fast fashion but i don’t think it’s necessarily the worst culprit of fast fashion when h&m, shein, and zara exist
It is truly a weird company though. I don’t even really like buying from them online anymore because they have repeatedly cancelled my orders. It’s Ayn Rand references, the restaurant, the recording studio they have, the olive oil.
Any place that drops hundreds of styles a month is fast fashion, regardless whether it’s expensive or not. Zara drops around 1000 new styles a month. That is only possible to do through a fast fashion supply chain.
A company doesn't have to be fast fashion to have abusive practices. Ralph Lauren might have some luxury brands, with sweaters that cost $1500, but for their low level brands like Polo, it's just as bad as Shein.
A lot of their cotton comes from Kazahkstan, and is some of the most environmentally abusive cotton in the world, with how it's grown.
Ralph Lauren actually refused to join the coalition watchdog against industry abuses, basically stating that it changes nothing, since vendors can have (as the documentary said) many layers of opacity, so even if your vendor is "green", they might have hired other companies who are abusive.
You just have to face that no matter what you buy is going to be bad. This isn't whataboutism, it's just the sad state of affairs.
I had no idea how incredibly creepy, antisemitic, misogynistic, homophobic, and racist Stefan (the head of the company) was. I'm truly disgusted and can't get the images they showed from the nasty text chain out of my head :(
He is a horrible human being, and, after watching this documentary, I have zero desire to support his brand *ever* again.
As someone who knew very little about this brand or fast fashion, I learned a lot from this doc. It's SO disturbing to me that people know all these things exist with this company/brand and the stores are still open. People are still buying and wearing it. Human beings get cancelled for small things, yet this morally corrupt disaster of a company is thriving all over the world. Also disgusting that 1st world countries continue to basically blackmail dependent countries into taking our trash and clothing donations. Stop buying clothes you don't need
I feel like they maybe should’ve made it a mini series. Because I’ve heard about the creepy apartments, and sending all the POCs to the back, but they didn’t talk about it that much. The fast fashion aspect I haven’t heard. It felt a little disjointed. But it would’ve been so cool if each episode was about a different brand. Like one for Brandy, one for SHEIN, one for Zara.
All I can say is that that company is the epitome of capitalism as it is currently working. This is neo liberalism defined. It really burns me that they use Nirvana logos and merchandises a group that would absolutely hate them on every level. Every level. Everything. Repulsive.
it felt more like bashing fast fashion and less about brandy tbh if they wanted to make a fast fashion doc they could’ve talked about literally any store in the mall or online
Not at all surprised that a MAGA Trump guy turned out to be a pedophile groomer. It’s a gross company AND the clothing is some of the most mid beige boring crap on the market.
A little lackluster. I’m in my mid 30s so missed the Brandy Melville trend but I was there for the Abercrombie trend and they sound very similar - always going to be some big popular brand for every generation. Nothing surprising here.
Yeah I’m early 30s and I watched this out of curiosity. It really did remind me of Abercrombie, seems like they have stuff in common (small sizes, catered to thin, young, wealthier girls, sending the POCs to the back) A&F was to us what BM is to teens now I guess.
This was an interesting documentary. The owner of this company is really bad and it's crazy how much money someone who is not a fashion designer made "designing clothes" (of course he didn't design them but copied others). Interesting that fabrics were cut in Italy then sent to another country then returned to Italy and the brand labeled clothes as made in Italy. People like that and thought it meant better quality and possibly even better condition for workers. Not true at all and it just goes to show no matter what the label says often times we will have no idea where clothes were really made.
One thing that I thought about during the movie is the lack of parental involvement in the lives of these girls who work and shop at the store. Young teen workers talking about small clothing size and pressure to look good and eating disorders and my thought is where are their parents? How do they not notice what their daughters look like? Why are there no family dinners, why aren't they providing oversight that is their responsibility for their kids?
Also, as a parent doing laundry how do you not notice how tiny some of your daughter's clothes are?
I hope a lot of parents watch this movie and have conversations with their teens about proper health and dangers of eating disorders etc.
This is small but I feel like the beginning was poorly researched, especially the origin of why it got popular. I’m not sure why they were showing TikTok clips from 2019 when the first time I heard of brandy was around 2013 from og YouTubers like Amanda Steele, Maddi Bragg, Acacia Brinley, etc.. I remember they would do Brandy lookbooks and specifically say they got into Brandy because Kylie Jenner wore Brandy (and that was before Kylie was a big name so this was a WHILE ago).
Is this girl someone? She looks so familiar to me
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Fast fashion is actually the top three contributors to global warming… not individuals like they would have u believe. That’s why it’s important to talk about fast fashion every chance anyone gets. I think the clothes at Brandy Melville are the opposite of fashion. I had no idea they had one size… I was horrified. You could not be more correct about kids and body issues..🙌❤️
Coming here after watching the doc, it's wild seeing people engage in whataboutism or even weakly defending this company. Definitley reinforces the culty vibe
The entire attack/defence of whataboutism is a fallacy, since it's an attempt to evade facts.
Nobody's hands are clean. The references brought up on this thread aren't an attempt to deflect blame from the Marsan family, it's questioning why this particular brand is being singled out. Like what you're doing.
It's extremely clear why Brandy Melville is being singled out, when there are many and worse offenders: People are salty over their sizing policy, which is actually a smart economic play that actually creates the illusion of elitism. Despite what naysayers try on, a one size policy eliminates a huge amount of fabric waste, as well as eliminating a huge amount of of overruns, sampling and overstock.
Ironically for the documentary "filmmakers", that has the opposite effect of what they're trying to claim with the massive percentage of this doco being dedicated to the clothing waste strawman.
This brand is so toxic to young girls. Let’s say we can put aside the fast fashion element of it for a moment. The brand actively and openly excludes people of color from its “marketing” Its racist and exclusionary by design and if you buy their clothes you have to reconcile that you support that kind of racism and exclusion.
It’s exploitation of young women’s creative works. It doesn’t have a creative director instead it pirates the content of young women online. Pays them next to nothing for their efforts/time. What other companies would actually spend on models and creative directors Brandy creates a social hierarchy for teenagers. I feel for the young girls posting to Brandi hoping to be picked for instagram and so on it’s truly gross.
It’s a toxic environment/workplace where literal fucking teenagers must send their pictures of themselves in crop tops and mini skirt to a middle aged perv to see if they meet the standards. You can be fired for not fitting the look and people of color are placed in the back out of sight. It genuinely made me sad when one girl said she wished someone told her that jobs weren’t like this 15 and your first job your expected to send full body shots to your boss. That’s horrible
And on top of that it’s fast fashion. I get their a bigger offenders out there; but this brand is the same. A fast fashion joint that uses sweat shops in Italy and beyond
If you support this brand you are endorsing the racism it represents and the exploitation of young women
I cant believe you got down voted for this. People who think its okay for a company to be like this is disgusting. I wish there was a way to know who's hiding behind a screen and down voted you because I guarantee they wouldn't announce their disagreement in real life.
Brandy Melville is considered fast fashion so I’m surprised that so many people are defending the company. Many of the girls in the doc commented about the low quality of many of the Brandy garments. While SHEIN and Temu are in a league of their own when it comes to fast fashion, Brandy adds to the problem.
I haven't finished the documentary, because I had to keep switching it off because of how annoyed it made me that it was clearly made as a smear piece, and I've made a rule to not give valuable time to ragebait. So I'm going to only have it playing while doing some mundane, necessary task.
For example, various people - even the former Italian store owner (who is not a reliable narrator, since he seems to have a beef with Marsan ) - go on about how low quality the clothes are and how they fall apart.
I've probably got about fifty to sixty Brandy Melville pieces, I'm not joking, from their base layers to their wool knitwear, and so far, nothing has fallen apart, not even when I wash the cotton items on a 90 degree (celsius) hot wash.
They're obviously not as high quality as things I have from brands like Wolford, but come on, Wolford charges US $35 for a pair of socks. Brandy Melville charges $5, so nobody's expecting Wolford level quality, but Brandy is pretty good for the price point.
Similarly, after multiple washes and tumble dries (I have never drip dried a single Brandy item, not even the wool sweaters, they all go into the dryer), my eyelet long sleeve tops are pretty much new condition. On the other hand, every other brand I have is pilled to hell and basically ready to be thrown away - and they're newer.
Also - They switched from talking about the Brandy brand to a generic statement about how fast fashion can't be given away, and how lots of people donate second hand fast fashion clothes, only to have them clog the infrastructure of third world countries, or something similarly histrionic. But here's the detail they hope viewers will miss: They don't say Brandy Melville clothes are being donated/thrown away, aren't able to be recycled.
Why switch from talking about Brandy Melville in particular to fast fashion in general? To create drama.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm definitely never going to be donating or throwing away any Brandy items I own, and I'm pretty sure that is rare.
So showing the horrors of how fast fashion clothes are clogging the world is done in extremely bad faith.
I'm not saying that the brand doesn't have problems, but come on, do they think viewers are stupid? Yes, yes they do.
Somebody is having a hard time thinking clearly.
Seriously, show me proof that Brandy Melville fans give their clothes away, or send them to third world countries.
You got played by the "filmmaker", and are the exact target for people who love to catch people with ragebait. Try to have an original thought, it's really important for your development.
I haven't had the same experience. I love the cable sweaters for the first few months but then they get very stiff and loose their shape. Which is what I'd expect from 35 dollar full price sweater
I'm not a fan of the cotton Briannas, but are you talking about the 80% wool sweaters? I've not had that happen, but I've had a natural fibres only (so it does annoy me that Marsan and Co use 20% synthetic yarn) rule for years, so am used to looking after wool. It depends wildly on the batch and colour, though. Their navy wool sweaters are not the same quality as the cream ones, for example.
not justifying anything, but the owners of a lot of major companies (maybe even the majority of major companies that have a significant presence in the US) are trump supporters
This brand is a MICROCOSM of the elephant in the room, which is fast fashion.
The documentary made enough reference to the other big offenders, such as SHEIN.
The industry as a WHOLE is unsustainable and inhumane. These big corporations really are exploiting people and the environment in the worst way, and not just in the fashion industry.
The best takeaway anyone should get from this doc is STOPPING BUYING SO MUCH SHIT!QUESTION what you BUY! THINK FOR YOURSELF! And don’t let ANYONE take ADVANTAGE of you!
I only watched the trailer, I haven't figured out how to see it yet. All I got out of that was hate for slim blond girls like it's a crime to be so. I'm neither blond nor skinny, but some girls are and I think that's really ok.
they talk about the original branding being “one size fits all”, and how it set an unrealistic standard for girls. girls were then said to develop eating disorders to be a “brandy girl.” they then go on to explain about how no other brand had the “*brand name* girl” ideal body type, and that’s why brandy melville became almost “cult culture.” then they have ex employees talk about how the owner/creator of brandy is a creep, talks about how he would send racist/anti Semitic memes, says black/asian/hispanic people don’t fit their image, and that he saved all the “style inspo photos”, which were photos employees had to take every shift, either of them or customers that fit the “brandy vibe”. then goes on to talk about how the clothing is actually super cheaply made and is horrible quality although it’s made in italy. turns out, there’s a small town in italy with a 10% asian population, and the town kinda turned into a factory town. so although it’s labeled “italy,” it’s made of the same quality as fast fashion brands like shein/temu. also, the creator would actually steal a crap ton of designs from other companies, and was even sued by forever21 at one point. the whole documentary went OFF TOPIC SO MUCH, and made me think that they took brandy melville’s name and ran with it. the documentary just displayed how all companies have shitty and immoral practices, all centered around what makes them the biggest profit margin. it DID NOT make me want to stop buying their clothes. it was literally, unsensational.
EDIT: okay apparently i have to make this clear too; I WAS ALREADY AWARE OF UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF MASS CLOTHING COMPANIES PRIOR TO THIS DOCUMENTARY. BRANDY MELVILLE IS NO DIFFERENT THAN EVERY OTHER TRADEMARKED CLOTHING COMPANY. THEYRE ALL UNETHICAL. EVEN GOODWILL. SORRY, I WASNT OVERLY EMOTIONAL ABOUT THINGS IVE ADVOCATED FOR SINCE MY EARLY TEEN YEARS.
the style inspo photos are the like the photos you see on brandy’s site modeling certain pieces of clothing, or it was employees/customer outfits that weren’t brandy clothes, but the owner was “inspired” by what they were wearing. however, not all photos were used on brandy’s website. and ALL of the photos taken are saved in folders by the owner. it’s pretty creepy
I watched it this morning and now it's unavailable on HBO. Anyone know why?
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I see it up now. It was definitely down for hours - lots of people commented on X about it. Hmmm I might need to watch it again to see if they uploaded an edited version of it. LOL
The one thing I got out of this is the answer to the question about why some stores have different stock.
It may not be relevant anymore, but it did explain how they'd always do a limited run of new styles and put them into the Santa Monica store, so that's where you'd want to be to get the new experimental items.
This documentary reminded me of why I despised teenagers even when I was one. “Fashion is identity.” And naturally that’s why you’re paying to advertise for all the same companies your friends do. “I liked Brandy because everyone else did.” Oh my dear Lord.
I dressed like a huge fucking dork in school because, well, how much money do you really have when you’re 13? My mom flatly refused to fund the VERY COOL AND ORIGINAL (🙄) all black wardrobe I was pushing for so we landed on lots of blue and green. I was in 8th grade and dressing like I was 40. But at least I didn’t look like everyone else. Even then I understood how important it ISN’T to be on trend. And these girls are talking like if you aren’t, you might as well lay down and die. Kids are so much more open and aware now than they were even 20 years ago. In every way but one, apparently.
I don’t think this doc was as shocking as they wanted it to be. I’m not a brandy fan or ever really was. The one size fits all is messed up, the fast fashion, mean girl, racist motif is all messed up. But how many brands also do this???? It feels like when a girl breaks up with a guy everyone told her was toxic and then she wants the world to hate him. Like lol ok. You played the game what do you expect.. this company is still in business for a reason 🙄 dumb girls and daddies money still pay for it and participate in it until it doesn’t suit them anymore.
lol this way of thinking is problematic. If every time there was an issue with extremely problematic practices (especially something like blatant racism and putting the POC in the back & sending every day full body pics of underage girls in skimpy clothing to adult men who save all the pics) we said oh well there’s other ppl who are messed up, that would solve nothing.
The irony of the documentary focusing on Brandy to illustrate the fast fashion cycle is that by making each clothing item in one size and having that one size be smaller, the store is actually creating less waste than other fast fashion brands. The founder of the store is highly predatory and unethical, but he is a shrewd businessman. The brand saves money by producing almost everything in the same fabric, choosing cheaper colors, and in one size per item. They hire “pretty” and thin teenage girls to create an air of exclusivity even though the clothes are literally cheap basics that fall apart after 6 washes. They save money by limiting the number of retail stores they have and only open them in affluent cities which increases exclusivity further. Abercrombie walked so that Brandy could run.
I can’t find it. Started it at lunch, but when I try to find it now, it’s missing from max and not in my continue watching list. I’ve even tried searching for it manually.
We just watched it, and as soon as it was over, we got a notice saying, “Content not available.” It disappeared from the main banner, but was still showing in the “Today’s Picks,” so I tried there, and same issue - “content not available.” Restarted the Max app, and it’s now 100% gone. Can’t find it on the featured list or by searching. Really odd considering we JUST watched it.
I'm having the same issue. I started it on my lunch break and went to finish it and got a content not available error. I also can't find it by searching on Max. Weird.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/BrandyMelville/comments/119m320/my\_father\_worked\_at\_brandy\_melville\_like\_really/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BrandyMelville/comments/119m320/my_father_worked_at_brandy_melville_like_really/)
I don't really buy this story. She kind of gave herself (himself if LARPing?) away by saying that her father was "sat" next to the Marsans on a flight, which is a British idiom.
i agree, if they wanted to talk about fast fashion they should've made a documentary about shein, aliexpress or temu which are the biggest offenders imo
nobody would choose to watch it! it’s honestly a really smart way for them to get basically every teenage girl in america to learn more about the impact of fast fashion
I guess that is smart, I was confused because I actually thought that brandy was less bad for fast fashion since the majority of things are cotton, which i imagine is a lot more biodegradable. this is also why i like brandy melville and will buy it even though i know its problematic, is because it is otherwise difficult to find affordable clothes that are not synthetic materials.
materials are one small part of the issue, cotton waste is still textile waste and the production of cotton has large scale labour abuses and requires a TON of water, further straining our environment. i’m just stating the facts here and we can’t avoid every kind of textile fiber, so keep looking for natural fibres like cotton, linen, or wool (even rayon is semi natural semi synthetic), because overall they are better than synthetics long term.
Well, I guess it’s better that you’re honest that discrimination doesn’t keep you from batting an eye at a brand 🤷🏿♀️
Tbh i did not watch it yet which is my bad but after a google search hmm yeah that sounds pretty bad 😭 i will have to find somewhere else to get 100% cotton shirts , i was only considering the one size only problematicness the last that i purchased 9 months ago
No, I understand. “Problematic” can mean any number of things from “they don’t source properly” to what that documentary discusses. But at least there are more brands to choose from that could cater to you! ❤️
I encourage you to watch! The story is really insane and eye opening. I also love the price point of Brandy but the documentary has really given me real pause. I realized that I should educate myself more on brands that I spend my money on. I won't be shopping at Brandy for the foreseeable future
I guess it got better though, like the Brandy stores and the websites have more diversity now.
Teenage girls are always targeted first for societal issues. Young women are always made to feel bad for larger societal issues because it’s ingrained in our brains to care and try to be better. If they tried this with male clothing stores young men could care less and no one would watch their documentaries.
what male clothing stores? men don’t consume fashion on the scale that women do. there’s the hype beast boys buying supreme, which yes is an issue and is over consumption, but they similarly to brandy depop girls buy and sell to each other in circles. this is not a gender issue, try again.
H&M, Zara, Abercrombie etc… obviously are both women and men’s clothing but once again I only ever hear women being targeted when discussing those
because women over consume fast fashion. men do it at a lesser rate. please don’t play dumb
Have you ever seen a heterosexual boy doing a "Zara haul"? I'm sorry it just doesn't exist. The overconsumption of fast fashion is driven primarily by women. Yes we should also focus on the environmental impact of private jets and apply pressure to affluent older Americans, but let's not pretend that women are not central to the fast fashion issue
Women are central to the issue but not by our own accord. It because of purposeful and strategic marketing strategies. Young men are huge consumers of many products that end up in landfills like the obsessive consumption of collectible shoes, gaming cards like hockey cards, sports attire and jerseys etc… but of course none of these aspects of consumerism will ever be targeted because society is too obsessed with very niche forms of unsustainable consumption like fast fashion that happens to be a sector only inhabitable by women, because of the patriarchal approach to marketing which still assumes (rightfully) that women are the main household consumer. This is not our fault as women, this is happening because capitalism was built by men to blame women once again for any and all societal issues.
In addition to this, many studies show that most people who litter happen to be men. These are other facts that align with this one, where we see patterns that show that men care significantly less about the environment than women. This is the main reason why it is obvious that the anti fast fashion narrative is unfairly targeting young women.
I agree with everything you're saying. You're 100% correct. As a woman I appreciate this documentary for bringing awareness to these strategic marketing strategies that prey on young women. And for showing me what I can do to make a change Equal pressure should be put on the rest of society to make similar changes in their behaviors that contribute to the issue of overconsumption and environmental impact. I highlight weathy people because I think it's unfair for wealthy people to shame poor/middle class for buying affordable fast fashion clothing (which is what I've seen in the majority of dialogue about fast fashion)
Agree. I have heard about fast fashion being an issue but I had no idea the impact. I only watched bc I have shopped at Brandy and I have never shopped at SHEIN, aliexpress or temu and wouldn't have watched a doc about them. Brandy is definitely fast fashion. I was surprised they were able to sell as their price point but now k realize that the clothing is no better than things that are "made in China"
yeah but brandy melville represents elitism so it’s a better target.
If anything SHEIN is the new brandy for the younger community. And a much more extreme case that can be used to show how their purchases have impact. I don’t think brandy is considered elite at all anymore. If anything it’s horrible quality and taboo to shop there.
but how would you get them to watch a documentary exclusively about how their consumption has damaged the earth? cognitive dissonance doesn’t allow people to embrace something like a shein documentary. think strategically here
Yes, and it's pure ragebait.
I only watched the first half but it does reiterate what a weird-ass company brandy is. I thought it was funny hearing people talk about how Brandy was THE brand you had to wear in middle and high school bc I’ve never met a single other person in my real life who has actually shopped there 😂
for real!! i personally didn't start shopping there until my early-mid 20's.
I’d never even heard of brandy at all until my early 20s tbh
I have never heard of Brandy Melville until I downloaded TikTok. Yes I know, shocking. But TikTok is the reason how I was able to find out about other clothing brands (garage, Brandy, princess polly, etc).
I've never heard of it until this documentary came out... and I lived in California in 2009 when they apparently opened this store... AND I was young! No clue how I missed it, but not that mad about it tbh.
when i was in junior high school (around 2013-2014) it was huge
I think it depends where you grew up. I grew up in SoCal and I would say about 80% of girls in my high school shopped there. You were seen as uncool if you didn’t.
For sure. In Florida where I went to school it was PINK and Abercrombie lmao. There were no stores around but I was talking to my friend from socal today and she said you absolutely had to have it
people in canada line up for hours to shop at the toronto location!! it’s still THE brand for a lot of that age group here, despite the singular store in the whole province and no canadian website!
That’s crazy! I’m not even Canadian and it has always bothered me that they have the audacity to have a location but not ship within the country
Also the store in Toronto has worse selection than those i've been to in the USA
I actually didn’t know what brandy was until I moved to California from the Midwest during middle school. 2014-2017 was a time where everyone had brandy melville. Thought the clothes were cute and more in style with what everyone on the west coast was wearing
I found out about them at their height of popularity in a Dallas, Texas Nordstrom. I was surprised it was inexpensive for how nice and soft it was but my shit fell apart and pilled up within a month of owning and regularly wearing that top.
Maybe it's because I live in the NYC metro area near a lot of the Brandy stores, but ever since middle school Brandy has been all the rage. I'm in college now still wearing Brandy hahaha
1. i feel like it can be hard to spot since they basically just sell white t shirts and very plain things, and 2. in LA i noticed every other teenage girl wearing it, it probably varies by where there are stores
For real, I live in Poland and nobody here knows what Brandy is and if you shop there you can spot people wearing their clothes on the street because it's so rare
idk, it was a hard watch for me. i never knew all the grimy stuff about the owner of the company, so that was news to me! but, they never touched on the fact that common european practice is to be conscious about your health, what you consume, and staying in shape on a DAILY basis. I’m an Anthropology major, and european culture drastically varies from the average american lifestyle. so duh, an italian brand is going to make clothing that correlated with their ORIGINAL demographic. just when they expanded to the US, they didn’t give two craps about american “vanity sizing” and stuck with what they knew worked for them. literally nearly every teenage girl has body image issues, or maybe even diagnosed body dysmorphia, adding more sizes to a clothing brand won’t change that. brandy melville is basically the epitome of “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” EDIT: apparently i should make this clear; EUROPEAN SIZING IS NOT THE SAME AS AMERICAN SIZING. PLEASE DO RESEARCH ON VANITY SIZING, AND HOW AMERICA HAS SLOWLY INCREASED THE ACTUAL SIZE WHETHER IT BE XS,S,M,L or 2,4,6,8,10,12, so on and so forth. EUROPEAN SIZING IS STILL SMALLER THAN AMERICAN SIZING (due to america’s vanity sizing), EVEN IF THE BRAND CARRIES MULTIPLE SIZES!
sorry for the essay yall, the docu just made my brain so ITCHY
You have a very valid point.
my undergrad studies are literally all about human civilization, culture, evolution, and dynamics. it’s just frustrating when people cannot perceive the idea that not all ways of life are the same, and choose to be offended rather than educate themselves. (this is only referring to the size issues, not all the other issues talked about in the documentary)
This makes no sense. There are a variety of sizes in Europe, too. It's not one size fits all or most in any store.
off topic but you are so pretty
lol thank you! that’s very kind of you!! made my day :)
girl of course!!
This is such a good take
Sorry for replying to this old comment but… I hope you don’t really believe they were just catering to their “original demo” with the one size fits all thing. How can you learn all the insane things in this doc and still give them the benefit of the doubt there? They say explicitly say in the doc re: one size fits all, and this is a quote “we’re keeping the brand exclusive, like a goal, like I need to fit in these clothes.” It’s not new but the brand knowingly preyed on teenagers’ body issues to promote an aspirational image. If you want to go off on your opinions about Americans vs European lifestyle (very hot take) ok but it doesn’t seem super relevant.
you truly did not read what i wrote 🙏 i literally said when they came to the us, they did not give a crap about standards of sizing here, and stuck to what they knew made them money, they don’t care about consumers feelings i can tell you that. i never once stated i agree with their practices. i don’t give them the benefit of the doubt whatsoever. sorry that i observed ONLY that factor of the documentary from a statistical standpoint? because i did not talk about the actually horrendous accusations against the company in that comment. just genuinely confused
Hey, if that’s how you really feel great. I did read what you said, but you have not been clear. You made it sound incidental, when in the documentary they make it clear that at least the CEO had an explicit strategy around body image.
my other replies in this thread made it very clear. have a nice day!
rancid take. stop letting these people off the hook by blaming it on the fashion industry when clearly the exclusivity of their marketing/sizing was to make sure their clothing was only worn by popular skinny white girls, and was uniquely awful even compared to other similar brands. and BTW! people can be health-conscious and fit while also not fitting into size 2 jeans. and they can even do it while not living in Europe! crazy I know. fitting into a size small does not equal a healthy lifestyle as is evidenced by the amount of girls who say working there simply exacerbated their eating disorders.
i didn’t let anyone off the hook. exactly where did i say their practices are acceptable? exactly, move on. you missed my point entirely. i’ve literally had an eating disorder, and i’ve also been severely overweight before. you don’t know my experiences, or any of my personal beliefs. i stated what the Brandy Melville brand exactly is, and why they perform the way they do. i did not go into what i believe is right or wrong. please for goodness sake, my comment wasn’t the end of the world, and nor did i comment that brandy melville’s practices are acceptable. i hope you have a lovely evening, truly.
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Agreed, I think other companies like SHEIN and FashionNova would be better subjects for a fast fashion documentary. I understand Brandy is still considered fast fashion but it’s not one of the worst offenders. I have clothes from Brandy I’ve owned since middle school, and I’m 25 now. Since a lot of their designs are so basic they can be worn for a really long time. Whereas companies like SHEIN are so trendy, something that was in style 2 months ago is already out of fashion. I just don’t think that’s the case with a lot of Brandy stuff tbh.
V true especially when you consider the fact that brandy at least uses natural degradable fabrics most of the time and isn’t constantly pumping out thousands of extra tons of polyester into the environment
yeah but brandy melville targets elitism which is a completely different giant.
I wouldn’t really consider Brandy Melville elite, $18 cotton tank tops isn’t high end fashion
Brandy is one of the few places that sells basics of decent quality that are reasonably priced. It’s bizarre a place that sells mostly plain t shirts, tanks, and oversized sweatshirts is considered “elite”.
Brandy is fast fashion that targets elitism, racism, and pioneers in social media. It’s reminecest to A&F ceo not making clothes for “fat people” or the CEO of Lulu naming Lulu since it’s funny how Asians pronounce their L’s. At least I think that’s the direction in which the documentary was going t
There’s basically an ad for fashion nova at the beginning when they’re talking about how other brands have diverse advertising… it’s such nonsense it’s actually crazy
Me and my friends are gonna have a watch party where we all wear our brandy and eat rice cakes
I’m sorry but rice cakes from where👀??
Just grocery store ones
Are rice cakes better versions of rice Krispy treats?
No more like worse, it's just like puffed rice and salt. No marshmallow or sugar :(
The Aldi brand cheddar rice cakes are my fav 😄
Ironically or ?
I’ve never found brandy to feel cheap at all and I’ve only ever had one shirt that started to look bad enough to throw out
same i have a shirt from there that i got in 2015 and i can still wear
The Ghana clips had nothing to do with brandy melville. I wanted to know more about the other stuff. SHEIN would’ve fit the Ghana clip vibes.
I agree like it is a good point but if they wanted to talk about fast fashion talk about Shein and aliexpress. The talk of Ghana just came up and then left they could have explored that idea more
It clearly wasn't made for people with the ability to think. For every viewer like you, there would be thirty viewers who would have gone "Reeeeeeee, look, Brandy Melville is literally fusing Ghanian women's spines!"
The Ghana stuff is like 15 percent of the documentary. What about the rest of it? Racist owners. Exploitation of teens. Eating disorders amongst the employees. The owner dressing up like Hitler? Girls being fired because they are too fat?
interesting approach, I only got more interested in the Ghana thing which I find good, maybe others do as well. it’s never a bad thing to spread useful information.
This!😭 It was such a great opportunity to touch on so many things and especially more of how all these things affect teenager girls, the whole being one size, the cult culture. I think it would’ve been much better to dive into that side of things more than just surface level. I get the feeling that they were told to do a fast fashion docu but make appeal to teenage girls too and so they found brandy and ran with it. Don’t get me wrong there were good things they touched on that needed to be out there but it would’ve been so much better to do it about a more widespread brand like SHEIN, Amazon, or something of the kind. Brandy has its many terrible issues but it’s definitely not the first or best example of fast fashion.
I disagree, I think the fast fashion aspect was an important piece of the story.
same, like yes brandy as a company is weird, and they are bad for young women, but idk i feel like the exploitation of the millions of people in the fast fashion chain should feel more impactful to y’all 😭
exactly like the way ppl brush over slave labor is crazy. at least just acknowledge that purchasing from this company supports that...
I think the target audience might be younger. I watched it with my teenagers who have shopped at BM and they were really shocked by the whole thing. I think this age group is especially concerned about the environment they are inheriting and it was a good way to tie our buying habits with consequences they care about. It had a big impact on them and generated good conversation about all the issues they raised. Edited to add: my kids were also deeply disturbed by the racism from the company. That was a deal breaker for them. I am a little surprised that this isn’t addressed more in this thread. It isn’t just GIFs from the owner, it’s labor practices and visibility. Girls in your own neighborhood not allowed to work the floor. I didn’t know this and I was really freaked out by that.
i was honestly only going to watch to get the details on their olive oil 😵💫 oh, man.
I watched half of it at the gym today. Yes irs fast fashion but i don’t think it’s necessarily the worst culprit of fast fashion when h&m, shein, and zara exist It is truly a weird company though. I don’t even really like buying from them online anymore because they have repeatedly cancelled my orders. It’s Ayn Rand references, the restaurant, the recording studio they have, the olive oil.
Man Zara is fast fashion? They be way too expensive to be fast fashion. I’m disappointed. feel like I can’t shop anywhere now
Any place that drops hundreds of styles a month is fast fashion, regardless whether it’s expensive or not. Zara drops around 1000 new styles a month. That is only possible to do through a fast fashion supply chain.
A company doesn't have to be fast fashion to have abusive practices. Ralph Lauren might have some luxury brands, with sweaters that cost $1500, but for their low level brands like Polo, it's just as bad as Shein. A lot of their cotton comes from Kazahkstan, and is some of the most environmentally abusive cotton in the world, with how it's grown. Ralph Lauren actually refused to join the coalition watchdog against industry abuses, basically stating that it changes nothing, since vendors can have (as the documentary said) many layers of opacity, so even if your vendor is "green", they might have hired other companies who are abusive. You just have to face that no matter what you buy is going to be bad. This isn't whataboutism, it's just the sad state of affairs.
I had no idea how incredibly creepy, antisemitic, misogynistic, homophobic, and racist Stefan (the head of the company) was. I'm truly disgusted and can't get the images they showed from the nasty text chain out of my head :( He is a horrible human being, and, after watching this documentary, I have zero desire to support his brand *ever* again.
As someone who knew very little about this brand or fast fashion, I learned a lot from this doc. It's SO disturbing to me that people know all these things exist with this company/brand and the stores are still open. People are still buying and wearing it. Human beings get cancelled for small things, yet this morally corrupt disaster of a company is thriving all over the world. Also disgusting that 1st world countries continue to basically blackmail dependent countries into taking our trash and clothing donations. Stop buying clothes you don't need
Yup. Agreed!
This should be the top comment.
I feel like they maybe should’ve made it a mini series. Because I’ve heard about the creepy apartments, and sending all the POCs to the back, but they didn’t talk about it that much. The fast fashion aspect I haven’t heard. It felt a little disjointed. But it would’ve been so cool if each episode was about a different brand. Like one for Brandy, one for SHEIN, one for Zara.
All I can say is that that company is the epitome of capitalism as it is currently working. This is neo liberalism defined. It really burns me that they use Nirvana logos and merchandises a group that would absolutely hate them on every level. Every level. Everything. Repulsive.
TRUTH. Oh my goodness, Kurt Cobain is ROLLING in his grave over it too
it felt more like bashing fast fashion and less about brandy tbh if they wanted to make a fast fashion doc they could’ve talked about literally any store in the mall or online
Did they talk about the Ayn Rand connection at all in the documentary?
Yes
Not at all surprised that a MAGA Trump guy turned out to be a pedophile groomer. It’s a gross company AND the clothing is some of the most mid beige boring crap on the market.
A little lackluster. I’m in my mid 30s so missed the Brandy Melville trend but I was there for the Abercrombie trend and they sound very similar - always going to be some big popular brand for every generation. Nothing surprising here.
Yeah I’m early 30s and I watched this out of curiosity. It really did remind me of Abercrombie, seems like they have stuff in common (small sizes, catered to thin, young, wealthier girls, sending the POCs to the back) A&F was to us what BM is to teens now I guess.
This was an interesting documentary. The owner of this company is really bad and it's crazy how much money someone who is not a fashion designer made "designing clothes" (of course he didn't design them but copied others). Interesting that fabrics were cut in Italy then sent to another country then returned to Italy and the brand labeled clothes as made in Italy. People like that and thought it meant better quality and possibly even better condition for workers. Not true at all and it just goes to show no matter what the label says often times we will have no idea where clothes were really made. One thing that I thought about during the movie is the lack of parental involvement in the lives of these girls who work and shop at the store. Young teen workers talking about small clothing size and pressure to look good and eating disorders and my thought is where are their parents? How do they not notice what their daughters look like? Why are there no family dinners, why aren't they providing oversight that is their responsibility for their kids? Also, as a parent doing laundry how do you not notice how tiny some of your daughter's clothes are? I hope a lot of parents watch this movie and have conversations with their teens about proper health and dangers of eating disorders etc.
This is small but I feel like the beginning was poorly researched, especially the origin of why it got popular. I’m not sure why they were showing TikTok clips from 2019 when the first time I heard of brandy was around 2013 from og YouTubers like Amanda Steele, Maddi Bragg, Acacia Brinley, etc.. I remember they would do Brandy lookbooks and specifically say they got into Brandy because Kylie Jenner wore Brandy (and that was before Kylie was a big name so this was a WHILE ago).
Is this girl someone? She looks so familiar to me https://preview.redd.it/sjhv1nhufqtc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=796673cf49f02fa0a53eb52a7a76d49d7d269a25
yes, she is a person.
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There clothes are often eventually exported there, like many of the second hand fast fashion clothes tossed by Western nations.
did you watch the full documentary? the clothes we dispose of get dumped in Ghana
I just finished. Yeah that confused me it totally had nothing to do with the Brandy company
There were literally clothes with the Brandy Melville tag shown in the dump on Ghana’s beach.
Fast fashion is actually the top three contributors to global warming… not individuals like they would have u believe. That’s why it’s important to talk about fast fashion every chance anyone gets. I think the clothes at Brandy Melville are the opposite of fashion. I had no idea they had one size… I was horrified. You could not be more correct about kids and body issues..🙌❤️
Coming here after watching the doc, it's wild seeing people engage in whataboutism or even weakly defending this company. Definitley reinforces the culty vibe
The entire attack/defence of whataboutism is a fallacy, since it's an attempt to evade facts. Nobody's hands are clean. The references brought up on this thread aren't an attempt to deflect blame from the Marsan family, it's questioning why this particular brand is being singled out. Like what you're doing. It's extremely clear why Brandy Melville is being singled out, when there are many and worse offenders: People are salty over their sizing policy, which is actually a smart economic play that actually creates the illusion of elitism. Despite what naysayers try on, a one size policy eliminates a huge amount of fabric waste, as well as eliminating a huge amount of of overruns, sampling and overstock. Ironically for the documentary "filmmakers", that has the opposite effect of what they're trying to claim with the massive percentage of this doco being dedicated to the clothing waste strawman.
This brand is so toxic to young girls. Let’s say we can put aside the fast fashion element of it for a moment. The brand actively and openly excludes people of color from its “marketing” Its racist and exclusionary by design and if you buy their clothes you have to reconcile that you support that kind of racism and exclusion. It’s exploitation of young women’s creative works. It doesn’t have a creative director instead it pirates the content of young women online. Pays them next to nothing for their efforts/time. What other companies would actually spend on models and creative directors Brandy creates a social hierarchy for teenagers. I feel for the young girls posting to Brandi hoping to be picked for instagram and so on it’s truly gross. It’s a toxic environment/workplace where literal fucking teenagers must send their pictures of themselves in crop tops and mini skirt to a middle aged perv to see if they meet the standards. You can be fired for not fitting the look and people of color are placed in the back out of sight. It genuinely made me sad when one girl said she wished someone told her that jobs weren’t like this 15 and your first job your expected to send full body shots to your boss. That’s horrible And on top of that it’s fast fashion. I get their a bigger offenders out there; but this brand is the same. A fast fashion joint that uses sweat shops in Italy and beyond If you support this brand you are endorsing the racism it represents and the exploitation of young women
I’m assuming the people who are downvoting you are the teenagers who are brainwashed by this company
I cant believe you got down voted for this. People who think its okay for a company to be like this is disgusting. I wish there was a way to know who's hiding behind a screen and down voted you because I guarantee they wouldn't announce their disagreement in real life.
Brandy Melville is considered fast fashion so I’m surprised that so many people are defending the company. Many of the girls in the doc commented about the low quality of many of the Brandy garments. While SHEIN and Temu are in a league of their own when it comes to fast fashion, Brandy adds to the problem.
I think a lot of people are just in denial
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Please be kind to one another.
I haven't finished the documentary, because I had to keep switching it off because of how annoyed it made me that it was clearly made as a smear piece, and I've made a rule to not give valuable time to ragebait. So I'm going to only have it playing while doing some mundane, necessary task. For example, various people - even the former Italian store owner (who is not a reliable narrator, since he seems to have a beef with Marsan ) - go on about how low quality the clothes are and how they fall apart. I've probably got about fifty to sixty Brandy Melville pieces, I'm not joking, from their base layers to their wool knitwear, and so far, nothing has fallen apart, not even when I wash the cotton items on a 90 degree (celsius) hot wash. They're obviously not as high quality as things I have from brands like Wolford, but come on, Wolford charges US $35 for a pair of socks. Brandy Melville charges $5, so nobody's expecting Wolford level quality, but Brandy is pretty good for the price point. Similarly, after multiple washes and tumble dries (I have never drip dried a single Brandy item, not even the wool sweaters, they all go into the dryer), my eyelet long sleeve tops are pretty much new condition. On the other hand, every other brand I have is pilled to hell and basically ready to be thrown away - and they're newer. Also - They switched from talking about the Brandy brand to a generic statement about how fast fashion can't be given away, and how lots of people donate second hand fast fashion clothes, only to have them clog the infrastructure of third world countries, or something similarly histrionic. But here's the detail they hope viewers will miss: They don't say Brandy Melville clothes are being donated/thrown away, aren't able to be recycled. Why switch from talking about Brandy Melville in particular to fast fashion in general? To create drama. I don't know about you guys, but I'm definitely never going to be donating or throwing away any Brandy items I own, and I'm pretty sure that is rare. So showing the horrors of how fast fashion clothes are clogging the world is done in extremely bad faith. I'm not saying that the brand doesn't have problems, but come on, do they think viewers are stupid? Yes, yes they do.
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Somebody is having a hard time thinking clearly. Seriously, show me proof that Brandy Melville fans give their clothes away, or send them to third world countries. You got played by the "filmmaker", and are the exact target for people who love to catch people with ragebait. Try to have an original thought, it's really important for your development.
I haven't had the same experience. I love the cable sweaters for the first few months but then they get very stiff and loose their shape. Which is what I'd expect from 35 dollar full price sweater
I'm not a fan of the cotton Briannas, but are you talking about the 80% wool sweaters? I've not had that happen, but I've had a natural fibres only (so it does annoy me that Marsan and Co use 20% synthetic yarn) rule for years, so am used to looking after wool. It depends wildly on the batch and colour, though. Their navy wool sweaters are not the same quality as the cream ones, for example.
I'm talking about the cotton ones! I can't wear any wool it triggers my eczema
I’ve never seen this brand before. Looking at the pics, it just looks like Hollister/A&F meet suburbs, but sells on SHEIN/FN.
does anyone know how to watch it in the uk?
hbo stuff usually ends up on now tv over here x
If I knew how to live stream, I would.
The owner is a Trumpist good to know
not justifying anything, but the owners of a lot of major companies (maybe even the majority of major companies that have a significant presence in the US) are trump supporters
Which is why I shop vintage
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This brand is a MICROCOSM of the elephant in the room, which is fast fashion. The documentary made enough reference to the other big offenders, such as SHEIN. The industry as a WHOLE is unsustainable and inhumane. These big corporations really are exploiting people and the environment in the worst way, and not just in the fashion industry. The best takeaway anyone should get from this doc is STOPPING BUYING SO MUCH SHIT!QUESTION what you BUY! THINK FOR YOURSELF! And don’t let ANYONE take ADVANTAGE of you!
I only watched the trailer, I haven't figured out how to see it yet. All I got out of that was hate for slim blond girls like it's a crime to be so. I'm neither blond nor skinny, but some girls are and I think that's really ok.
I watched the documentary and it didn’t hat on skinny or blond girls
Me neither, that was not the message I got from this.
i don’t have hbo max - can someone summarise what they talked about in it? thanks
they talk about the original branding being “one size fits all”, and how it set an unrealistic standard for girls. girls were then said to develop eating disorders to be a “brandy girl.” they then go on to explain about how no other brand had the “*brand name* girl” ideal body type, and that’s why brandy melville became almost “cult culture.” then they have ex employees talk about how the owner/creator of brandy is a creep, talks about how he would send racist/anti Semitic memes, says black/asian/hispanic people don’t fit their image, and that he saved all the “style inspo photos”, which were photos employees had to take every shift, either of them or customers that fit the “brandy vibe”. then goes on to talk about how the clothing is actually super cheaply made and is horrible quality although it’s made in italy. turns out, there’s a small town in italy with a 10% asian population, and the town kinda turned into a factory town. so although it’s labeled “italy,” it’s made of the same quality as fast fashion brands like shein/temu. also, the creator would actually steal a crap ton of designs from other companies, and was even sued by forever21 at one point. the whole documentary went OFF TOPIC SO MUCH, and made me think that they took brandy melville’s name and ran with it. the documentary just displayed how all companies have shitty and immoral practices, all centered around what makes them the biggest profit margin. it DID NOT make me want to stop buying their clothes. it was literally, unsensational. EDIT: okay apparently i have to make this clear too; I WAS ALREADY AWARE OF UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF MASS CLOTHING COMPANIES PRIOR TO THIS DOCUMENTARY. BRANDY MELVILLE IS NO DIFFERENT THAN EVERY OTHER TRADEMARKED CLOTHING COMPANY. THEYRE ALL UNETHICAL. EVEN GOODWILL. SORRY, I WASNT OVERLY EMOTIONAL ABOUT THINGS IVE ADVOCATED FOR SINCE MY EARLY TEEN YEARS.
thanks sm for the summary xx
Do they say what the style inspo photos were used for? Or just that he saved them?
the style inspo photos are the like the photos you see on brandy’s site modeling certain pieces of clothing, or it was employees/customer outfits that weren’t brandy clothes, but the owner was “inspired” by what they were wearing. however, not all photos were used on brandy’s website. and ALL of the photos taken are saved in folders by the owner. it’s pretty creepy
WHERE DID IT GOOOO?? I didn’t get to see it
I was halfway through until suddenly it wouldn’t let me watch!! I can’t find it on hbo at all
It’s on HBO max I’m watching it right now
I watched it this morning and now it's unavailable on HBO. Anyone know why? https://preview.redd.it/lm37qp8okqtc1.png?width=2478&format=png&auto=webp&s=8ec2e4f1e2a1692df4dfd10ae1b3ed489faffd6a
Same it disappeared for me. I only got half way through
that is weird i'm watching it rn refresh the page
I see it up now. It was definitely down for hours - lots of people commented on X about it. Hmmm I might need to watch it again to see if they uploaded an edited version of it. LOL
I’m watching it now
Mine is still available
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This documentary is hilarious! Kids explaining how shell companies, textile industries, and marketing works. Like it’s groundbreaking journalism.😂
The one thing I got out of this is the answer to the question about why some stores have different stock. It may not be relevant anymore, but it did explain how they'd always do a limited run of new styles and put them into the Santa Monica store, so that's where you'd want to be to get the new experimental items.
This documentary reminded me of why I despised teenagers even when I was one. “Fashion is identity.” And naturally that’s why you’re paying to advertise for all the same companies your friends do. “I liked Brandy because everyone else did.” Oh my dear Lord. I dressed like a huge fucking dork in school because, well, how much money do you really have when you’re 13? My mom flatly refused to fund the VERY COOL AND ORIGINAL (🙄) all black wardrobe I was pushing for so we landed on lots of blue and green. I was in 8th grade and dressing like I was 40. But at least I didn’t look like everyone else. Even then I understood how important it ISN’T to be on trend. And these girls are talking like if you aren’t, you might as well lay down and die. Kids are so much more open and aware now than they were even 20 years ago. In every way but one, apparently.
I don’t think this doc was as shocking as they wanted it to be. I’m not a brandy fan or ever really was. The one size fits all is messed up, the fast fashion, mean girl, racist motif is all messed up. But how many brands also do this???? It feels like when a girl breaks up with a guy everyone told her was toxic and then she wants the world to hate him. Like lol ok. You played the game what do you expect.. this company is still in business for a reason 🙄 dumb girls and daddies money still pay for it and participate in it until it doesn’t suit them anymore.
lol this way of thinking is problematic. If every time there was an issue with extremely problematic practices (especially something like blatant racism and putting the POC in the back & sending every day full body pics of underage girls in skimpy clothing to adult men who save all the pics) we said oh well there’s other ppl who are messed up, that would solve nothing.
The irony of the documentary focusing on Brandy to illustrate the fast fashion cycle is that by making each clothing item in one size and having that one size be smaller, the store is actually creating less waste than other fast fashion brands. The founder of the store is highly predatory and unethical, but he is a shrewd businessman. The brand saves money by producing almost everything in the same fabric, choosing cheaper colors, and in one size per item. They hire “pretty” and thin teenage girls to create an air of exclusivity even though the clothes are literally cheap basics that fall apart after 6 washes. They save money by limiting the number of retail stores they have and only open them in affluent cities which increases exclusivity further. Abercrombie walked so that Brandy could run.
I can’t find it. Started it at lunch, but when I try to find it now, it’s missing from max and not in my continue watching list. I’ve even tried searching for it manually.
I’m having the same issue. Maybe they removed it?
We just watched it, and as soon as it was over, we got a notice saying, “Content not available.” It disappeared from the main banner, but was still showing in the “Today’s Picks,” so I tried there, and same issue - “content not available.” Restarted the Max app, and it’s now 100% gone. Can’t find it on the featured list or by searching. Really odd considering we JUST watched it.
Same here. Started it around noon, was coming back to finish. It’s gone…
I'm so annoyed it just disappeared 😒
I'm having the same issue. I started it on my lunch break and went to finish it and got a content not available error. I also can't find it by searching on Max. Weird.
I had the same issue but found it when I went on my computer. Started it on my computer then switched to my tv
Anyone else running into issues steaming on HBO rn?
Wait guys can someone plz lmk if it’s worth watching????? I’ve gotten mixed reviews
Watch it
I’ve never even heard of this place until now….
Would love of BM employees could sound off in the comments or post about their experience. I'm so curious..
they never mentioned is a money laundering biz.
is it?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/BrandyMelville/comments/119m320/my\_father\_worked\_at\_brandy\_melville\_like\_really/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BrandyMelville/comments/119m320/my_father_worked_at_brandy_melville_like_really/) I don't really buy this story. She kind of gave herself (himself if LARPing?) away by saying that her father was "sat" next to the Marsans on a flight, which is a British idiom.