FASHION
A One Size Fits Small World
By: Lauren Sorabella
Brandy Melville – an Italian brand many American girls know and love – or hate.
Brandy Melville, a popular brand for young women, is known for their affordable closet staples that emulate 90s clothing trends and their standard one-size-fits-all sizing policy. Despite its immense popularity and success, Brandy Melville customers know that their products run extremely small, and their models show almost zero body diversity across their online platforms. This has led critics to condemn the brand and label it non-inclusive as it promotes an unattainable and harmful “skinny aesthetic.” Unfortunately, their brand strategy works, and it remains incredibly popular. And while the brand is viewed as an exclusive club that only accepts slim young women as customers, the rest of the population is forced to shamefully shop elsewhere.
Brandy Melville seems to be today’s version of the 2010s Abercrombie & Fitch brand, who also faced backlash for cultivating a toxic, beauty-based work environment and exclusionary culture. Abercrombie & Fitch had an idea of who their customer would be and that was the picture of an “all-American teenager." Only employees and models who embodied the white, skinny, Western European standard the brand emulated were hired, making the brand distant to consumers who didn’t fit that image.
The reality of the one-size-fits-all label is that the brand can mass produce their products at a lower price point. Brandy Melville can advertise their clothes as suitable for everyone, yet most of their products are unfit for most customers. The one-size-fits-all policy only applies to those whom Brandy wants to wear their clothes. It is a sad and scary truth that certain sizes are still being discriminated against within the fashion industry even in 2022.
Nowadays, I merely roll my eyes at any label that reads “one-size-fits-all” because I know how misleading it is. I own a good amount of Brandy Melville items because they supply some quality basics. However, when shopping online I am deeply aware, perusing their pants section, of the reality that they won’t fit my figure. I deal with the disappointment when an item doesn’t appear the same on me as it does on the model in the pictures on their Instagram. It seems as though teenage girls have grown numb to this toxic mentality – knowing they won’t fit into things and accepting that reality because a brand doesn’t provide the size they need or represent them in any way.
Brandy Melville remains a source of controversy and is not alone in its lack of diversity in sizing. Even in today’s day and age where body diversity is embraced more than ever, we are still reminded of the brands that have somehow evaded progress within an increasingly accepting society. Do better, Brandy.