| Brandy Melville | |
| Industry: | Fashion |
| Products: | Apparel |
| Founders: | Silvio Marsan |
| Locations: | 133 |
Brandy Melville is a multinational fast-fashion clothing company. Established in Italy by Silvio Marsan, it gained international popularity after switching to a California-based style and reaching American consumers.[1]
The company's products are sold in physical stores in Europe, the United States, Asia, Canada, and Australia, as well as on their website.[2] The stores feature a bleached wood theme and muted color palette.[3]
The retailer has faced controversy for making clothes of only one size, and has faced numerous accusations of reclusive leadership, persistent bigotry, and discrimination.[4] [5] [6]
Silvio Marsan and his son Stephan founded Brandy Melville in Italy in the early 1980s, and opened their first US store in 2009, in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, which borders the UCLA campus.[7] The brand name and logo was inspired by the fictional tale of two people – Brandy, an American girl, and Melville, an Englishman, who met and fell in love.[8] The business grew popular among young girls, in part due to their Malibu teen aesthetic.
Brandy Melville has been described as trend-setting, relevant, cool, and fast fashion, and their most prominent buyers are young teen girls looking for trendy fashion from popular name brands. Girls consider the brand part of the "coquette" category.[9] Brandy Melville has a strong presence on social media platforms, especially Instagram, where they showcase their latest designs and connect with potential customers.[10] The Brandy Melville Instagram page has over 3.1 million followers as of April 2024.[11] The product research team consists of teenage employees, starting at age 14, who attempt to keep the company's styles contemporary and on trend. Kjerstin Skorge, an employee at the company's Santa Monica store, said, "There are all kinds of things that we get asked, and we give our honest opinion". The company relies on the opinions and advice of their employees as they are a part of their target market.[12]
The company does not use traditional advertising and instead depends heavily on social media marketing and partnerships. Ariana Grande wears Brandy Melville, aiding in the promotion of the brand. Well-known stores such as PacSun and Nordstrom also sell the company's products.[13] There is very little evidence of company representatives speaking on record, rarely any promotional press, and there has been a rumor that the employees are not allowed to discuss the company's history or the identity of the CEO with anyone.[14]
Brandy Melville sells a sub-brand named John Galt (or J. Galt), named for the character in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged and referring to CEO Stephan Marsan's interest in Libertarianism.[15]
Brandy Melville has faced considerable backlash for its "one-size" policy, narrowly promoting a skinny aesthetic, and predominantly limiting hiring to girls who can fit into its clothes.[16]
According to a former store owner, CEO Stephan Marsan has said he doesn't want black people shopping at his stores or working in publicly visible areas as it would hurt the brand.[17] Marsan and other top executives routinely shared jokes about Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust in a group chat titled "Brandy Melville gags". Hitler was reportedly mentioned 24 times in 150 message screenshots reviewed by Insider, including one image that showed Marsan's head photoshopped onto Hitler's body—an image he allegedly created himself.[18]
The 2024 documentary film Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion detailed extensive allegations of bigotry and body shaming at the company; these included claims that white employees were more likely than others to be assigned roles in the front of the store, that Marsan collected full-body photos of his young female employees, a sexual assault that happened at a New York City apartment controlled by the company, and that hiring and firing decisions were explicitly made based on the appearance of employees, among others. The film also discussed the brand's fast fashion status.[19] [20] [21]
As of January 2021, Brandy Melville has 97 locations in various countries, with 40 locations in the US.
Locations worldwide:
| Region | Number of locations | |
|---|---|---|
| Asia (Japan, Indonesia, China (Shanghai, Beijing) and Hong Kong) | 7 | |
| Australia (Sydney, Melbourne) | 2 | |
| Austria (Vienna) | 1 | |
| Belgium | 1 | |
| Canada (British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec) | 3 | |
| France (Paris + Lyon) | 3 | |
| Germany (closing) | 5 | |
| Italy | 20 | |
| Netherlands | 2 | |
| Norway (Oslo) | 1 | |
| Portugal (Lisbon) | 2 | |
| Spain | 6 | |
| Sweden (Stockholm) | 1 | |
| Switzerland | 15 | |
| United Kingdom (London) | 8 | |
| United States | 40 |