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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion

Streaming on Max

For teenage girls growing up in the 2010s, Brandy Melville was a complicated mecca. The clothes—lacy camisoles, miniskirts, oversized hoodies that said MALIBU in big chunky letters—exuded an effortless, California-girl chic and were relatively inexpensive. The workers were young, cool, and beautiful. On the flip side: the clothes were one-size-fits-all, as long as “all” was between XS and S, and the unspoken message of the beautiful workers was, “these clothes are for people who look like us.” A new documentary reveals that this message was not unspoken—it was actually the official policy of Brandy Melville’s founder and CEO, Silvio Marsan. Directed by the Academy Award-winner Eva Orner, the film centers around the Business Insider article by Kate Taylor, published in 2021, that uncovered the racist, exploitative, and anti-Semitic conduct of the company’s leadership. Speaking with former store employees, executives, and Taylor, the documentary investigates the dark side of fast fashion. —Paulina Prosnitz

Photo courtesy of HBO