How Not to Treat Your Employees or the Earth: A Brandy Melville Story
A new documentary profiles a retailer with unhinged ethics
There's a lot to be disgusted by in the new documentary Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion. Most of the horrors I was hip to; I'd heard them before. However, it was a good reminder that many people will take advantage of you (or your kids) and then dump their trash in other countries that are left without much choice.
While working in retail stores for two decades, I saw incredible waste. We threw away so much plastic; it was shocking. We were also instructed to throw away new supplies and signs we never used.
The upside, though, was always my staff. I did everything I could to protect the health and well-being of my very young sales associates, but I also felt like that was not the norm in the industry.
Creeps and lazy managers ran amok.
Sales associates who were minors, sixteen and seventeen-year-olds, would tell me nightmarish stories of working in fast food or restaurants. They were scheduled until midnight, not given any breaks, and made to haul trash across empty, dark parking lots alone.
As soon as they began working at my store, they quickly quit those awful jobs.
I never felt like I did all that much for these kids, but I treated them like humans and followed the law, which is way more than most employers do, I guess.
Brandy Melville is out here hiring fourteen-year-olds without work permits, taking photos of their outfits every day, and firing them without cause.
They're still doing it.
Here's why.
They're doing it because they can.
Whenever they get sued, they simply pay the fines and carry on - business as usual. Brandy Melville's estimated annual revenue is currently $93.5M per year. Their estimated revenue per employee is $285,000.
"The companies that own Brandy Melville stores in California — including Bastiat USA, Inc., which controls the brand nationally — agreed to pay $1.45 million to settle ex-workers' claims the retailer violated California labor laws." - Kate Taylor, Business Insider.
So, does a company that rakes in $93.5 million annually care about $1.45 million to settle some labor law dispute in California?
Probably not.
Do you think the CEO, who requests a photo of each girl before her shift, gives a shit about these girls, paying them fairly, or following unique labor laws in each state?
That's gonna be a no.
His stores are so popular that he can be sexist and racist, break the law, and buy his way out. Young people are still lined up around the block when a new store opens. Even when one of their former executives says this about their teenage employees:
"They're like 16-year-old girls. You can find, like, 700 different reasons to fire them." "Like, it's too easy. It wasn't even fair."
He's not wrong. It is really easy to fire teenagers. They don't know their rights, have little work experience, and aim to please. They're probably not going to question you - especially girls. Girls are typically raised to behave, be nice, and not question authority.
*Sigh*
But just because you can (or because it's easy) doesn't mean you should - obviously.
Here's what Brandy does well. Like, evil cartoon villain-well.
Brandy is a trend powerhouse.
The managers of this company are obsessed with trends - as they should be.
They see a style, send it to their manufacturers, test it in a few doors, and roll it out company-wide quickly if it performs well.
They're not concerned with copyright infringement—they pay those fines, too—they're only concerned with what's trendy.
Get it copied.
Get it produced.
Get it to the stores and sell it - fast.
Fast fashion at work.
The company also radically approached social media and marketing.
Instagram. By teens for teens.
Before TikTok, user-generated content was just in its toddler stages. Ten years ago, companies using Instagram may not have seen the potential of having teenagers run a social account for teenagers, but Brandy did.
Brandy Melville did almost no marketing. They relied on teen girls creating content on Instagram to sell their clothes. They tapped into aspiring photographers, still in high school, to create an effortless, sunny, skinny, California vibe.
Spoiler alert - it worked.
Teenage girls clamored to get featured on Brandy's account or, better yet - followed by Brandy. The company chose girls they wanted to wear their clothes and sent them boxes of free apparel. The girls excitedly tore open the packages and pulled each item out, one by one, to show their followers the latest haul.
Looking back now, especially after the explosion of TikTok, the choice seems obvious.
The company empowered the girls who loved the brand. They harnessed their energetic spirit. Young people should be listened to and trusted in the creative process. However, Brandy Melville did it unethically.
Brandy Melville is a fast-fashion monster with a viable customer base.
The company contributes to massive waste globally. Even though many shoppers have sworn off the store due to terrible labor practices, a poor-quality product, and used clothing strangling our oceans, many still sheepishly shop there.
According to an article in New York Magazine, The Secret Shame of Wearing Brandy Melville, author Katy Schneider reveals that millennials with connections to the fashion world still shop at Brandy when no one is looking and even acknowledge "it's a trash brand."
Why? Because there is a vast discrepancy between what people say they care about and what they actually do.
If used apparel was washing up on the beaches of Malibu, Brandy Melville may have a problem. But since the waterways of Ghana are affected, the problem isn't tangible for Western consumers.
Even after watching this documentary, many people will think, "OMG, wow! That's so terrible. Look at that trash pile towering over the city of Accra! How sad." Then, they will drive their cars to the mall and stock up on the latest t-shirt for summer that they will wear four times and then discard.
It's too easy.
The people of Ghana refer to these clothes as "Dead white man's clothes." Because who else would need that much or have the means to buy it?
Fifteen million used garments are shipped to Accra each week from the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia. About 40% are of such poor quality they are deemed worthless and dumped in a landfill.
Fast fashion is creating an environmental catastrophe.
Brandy Melville doesn't care.
But neither do the other fast fashion brands.
And there aren't enough consumers shopping at thrift stores to make a dent in the landfills.
not
All is ^ Lost.
Retail gets a bad rap, and the people running Brandy Melville are not helping the optics here. However, documentaries that expose the worst companies and business practices will make a difference.
Some people will change their shopping habits.
Some people will get a better understanding of labor laws.
Some people will ditch Brandy because it's a "trash brand" run by men with questionable ethics.
Will it be enough to prevent environmental catastrophe?
We won't know for a while.
What I do know is that teenagers entering the workforce must be treated with respect, given breaks, and taught how to have a job. Some of my favorite people I've ever worked with were teenagers. They're bright, funny, and supportive of one another.
It's too bad Brandy Melville will never get to see that side of these young women. They will never see their light. In their eyes, teens are meant to be used and discarded - just like their clothing.
Trends come and go. Companies are no different.
Someday, Brandy will be one of them—a distant, faded memory atop a massive pile of trash.
Kit Campoy: Retail insider & freelance writer for SaaS Retail Tech. She also tackles Leadership & Business topics.
I'm SO glad you wrote this!! You summed up the message of the documentary and more by focusing on the young people as well as the environment. It's all so awful but your hopeful ending lifted my outlook.