FAST FASHION
Who owns Brandy Melville, the company in the documentary ‘The Cult of Fast Fashion’?
The clothing and accessories brand has come under fire for its business practices but little is known about its top management.
Brandy Melville has made waves in the world of fashion in the United States in the last 15 years or so, with its aggressive online marketing strategy persuading teenage girls in particular to pick up their phone and splash out on affordable new clothes at the tap of a screen.
How much did Brandy Melville make it sales in 2023?
The brand almost exclusively makes “one size fits all” (small) products for young women, most of which cost less than $40, much in the same way as other “fast fashion” producers. After receiving some backlash, they have since altered the wording of their strategy to “one size fits most”.
The company’s numbers (annual sales for Brandy Melville totalled $212.5m in 2023, up from $169.6m in 2019, says the Wall Street Journal) suggest a well-run, successful business, but it has already come under serious scrutiny for its actions and there is more coming its way.
The “Brandy Hellville and the Cult of Fast Fashion” documentary premiered on SXSW and on HBO this week, looking further into a 2021 Business Insider article which exposed some questionable management practices, shall we say.
Who is the owner and CEO of Brandy Melville?
Officially, every store is owned by a shell company, with the Brandy Melville name owned by a Swiss firm. However, journalist Kate Taylor, who compliled that Business Insider report, identified Italian Stephan (also called Stefan) Marsan as the current CEO, with him and father Silvio having set up the company in Italy before moving to Los Angeles, where it gained popularity in the late 2000s.
There is very little public information about either of the Marsans, in keeping with the company’s “designed not to be traceable” structure, as Eva Orner, the director of the documentary, calls it. However, it’s safe to say former employees interviewed for the documentary don’t have especially kind words about Brandy Melville’s top management.
What have former Brandy Melville employees accused the company of?
Stories of exploitation and manipulation abound. Ex-workers, mainly teenage girls, claim photos of them were sent to the younger Marsan every day for “brand research,” which several people say consisted of copying other companies’ designs, which led to a number of lawsuits.
Others talk of racist discrimination, and managers sending anti-Black memes and Hitler jokes to one another. One former employee claims he was instructed to fire girls due to the colour of their skin or being overweight, while there has even been an accusation of sexual assault at a property owned by the company in Manhattan.
Marsan ignores previous allegations
When added to more “widespread” fast fashion issues such as the use of sweatshops and dumping clothes in landfills (in Italy and Ghana respectively in Brandy Melville’s case), you would think there may be questions for Marsan to answer further down the line.
However, management didn’t issue a statement or apology in relation to the allegations made in that Business Insider article three years ago, after which profits continued to soar.
With the bottom line improving regardless of those previous allegations, they might again feel sitting tight is the best way to weather any storm that could come their way.