Behind the Seams: The Toxic Beauty Standards of Brandy Melville

Uncover how Brandy Melville exploits teen girls and young women's insecurities to conform into today's beauty standards that specifically market the controversial phrase "One size fits most."

What is Brandy Melville?

Brandy Melville USA is an Italian based fast fashion brand that has sparked global recognition over the last few decades with 133 stores located globally along with its sister collection, John Galt, which is sold exclusively at Pac Sun retail stores. Brandy Melville was founded in 1980 by Silvio Marsan and his son Stephen, who is now the current CEO of the brand. Its first store opened up in 2009 in Los Angels, catering to their "Malibu Teen Girl" aesthetic that young teens and women rave for. The brand specifically caters to younger girls ages 15-17 and young women 18-24 who fit into the "petite/small" category of clothing sizes. Brandy Melville exclusively carries "one-size" which is a more aesthetic way for them to market size extra small/small.

Brandy Melville - Wikipedia

Brandy Melville offers the latest trendy clothes with cute, dainty, and simple patterns/designs that you don't see anywhere else, along with a majority of their clothes being 90% or more cotton for better quality.

Brandy Clothes

What products does Brandy Melville sell?

• Tank Tops

• Graphic Tees

• Basic Tops

• Sweatpants

• Pants

• Socks

• Accessories

• Intimates

  
  
  
  

"One-Size" Fits...Most?

Brandy Melville's most famous yet controversial phrase for their clothing sizes.

Brandy Melville Tag: One Size

Brandy Melville has been facing backlash recently over their sizing policy and how they are marketing their clothing to a very specific target audience which has primarily been thin, attractive, young women and teens with a certain "social status" which is to literally "fit" and conform to the next trends, this being Brandy Melville clothes.

While the brand has never claimed to be a petite sized clothing brand, they have done everything to market their brand in that direction with their clothes ranging from size extra small, small, and some hoodies and sweaters being labeled as oversized fit. Brandy Melville has never said if they were to ever broaden their clothing sizes, even though they would have higher sales and a wider set demographic, which they clearly aren't interested in. The brand wants to stay consistent with their branding and gearing towards smaller teens/young women. It is also much more cost-efficient for the brand to only produce a small amount of sizing options. If they label it as one size, they see it as a way to use to their advantage; in their defense, it is a good business strategy.

🛍️Brandy Melville Marketing Tactics

• Free stickers/pins/post cards with purchases

• Simple eco-friendly packaging

• Cute designs

• Store Aesthetic

• Affordable prices

• Cater to "One size-fits most"

Brandy Melville: Product Display

Forced Beauty Standards & Mental Health

With the rise of the body positivity movement, many women see Brandy Melville being damaging to girls' mental health and self-image. The brand almost gives off that vibe of "If you can fit into our clothes, you're the beauty standard." Brandy Melville only uses young, thin women with flat stomachs, clear skin, and thigh gaps as models for their clothes with very little diversity, which the brand had faced backlash for in the 2024 HBO Max documentary Watch Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion | HBO Max, explaining how many of the girls that were interviewed about their past working or modeling for the business shared their own personal negative experiences, with some being quite disturbing, to say the least. Many of the girls said they has developed ED's in order to stay employed at the store and in order to model the clothing. Hearing things like that at a young age can be extremely damaging to a young girls' mind. When you go on the Brandy Melville website, there is little diversity with their models with a majority of them being thin, blonde/brunette, white women.

While Brandy Melville has changed some of that with including more women of color in their photos, they still only show one body type, which isn't necessarily bad; it can just give some girls a very unpleasant mindset about themselves. Showing one body type and using it as a marketing strategy targeting a specific audience in today's setting where there is so much body diversity amongst young girls and women can really set them up with a negative outlook on themselves, which can stick with them for a long time, creating a false and distorted image of themselves which can ultimately lead to body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and depression.

My personal Brandy Melville experience

Brandy Collection

Before I even knew what Brandy Melville was, I remember going into one of their New York City locations for the first time as a fourteen-year-old girl on a family vacation. I walked into the store and bought two scrunchies which, was the only thing that caught my interest at the time, not knowing their clothes were one size. As I got older, the brand became more popular, and the clothes caught my attention. For reference, I have been a size medium in tops and a size 6/8 in pants, so for me, trying to fit into Brandy Melville clothes became sort of a challenge. To my surprise, when I purchased my first clothes from them, the shirts fit me pretty well. The pants and bottoms on the other hand did not fit me in the slightest which I didn't care too much about, at first. For a while, it had consumed my brain that I wasn't the beauty standard that Brandy Melville marketed towards so heavily. Eventually I accepted it and moved on. To this day, I own a handful of Brandy tops that I mostly wear during the summer or as pj's.

Conclusion:

While it is important to express ourselves through fashion, it is also good to keep in mind the manipulation that a brand like Brandy Melville can do to young girls' self-esteem and mindset over their bodies. A clothing brand should never make you feel less valued or pretty just because it's the "beauty standard." It is important to hold companies like this accountable for the damage they have through selling this image that is unattainable for most females.

It is important to celebrate brands who empower diversity and promote healthy imagery through their marketing campaigns and products to showcase to females all over the world, because at the end of the day there is no "one size fits most" your clothes are meant to fit you and for you to be comfortable and confident in them.

Photos/images used taken by Rhea Bohn