Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion airs on HBO on April 24, 2024. The documentary presents an investigation by journalist Kate Taylor into the operating system of the clothing brand.
Taylor points out the problem surrounding "one size fits all," this strategy used by Brandy Melville to offer clothing for the greatest number of people. Except that the measurements submitted for sale do not exceed size 38 (M). In 2024, the clothing industry has democratized the notion of inclusiveness. On social networks, many are now turning the marketing strategy into ridicule. This is the case of content creator Liat Hackmann: in a TikTok, she makes fun of the label's "one size" policy. In the 2010s, a time when the cult of thinness was rife in the fashion industry, Melville's "one size" policy went rather unnoticed. It was mainly due to the fashion effect, even more so with the emergence of Tumblr, a favorite social network. Former employees report that Stephan Marsan sent anti-Semitic, racist, and sexist memes and texts there. The documentary also focuses on a sexual assault that occurred on a Brandy Melville employee. Several sources point to discriminatory hiring, like hiring young girls who had to be white, thin, and slender. Two actions containing “serious allegations of racism” were filed in court, according to former employees speaking in the documentary. Allegations which have all been denied by the company. The fact remains that this is obviously not enough to stop the frenzy around this brand, if its growing figures are to be believed.