Brandy Melville is a fashion brand popular among young girls and teens of petite stature. If you like small and fitting clothes, then you’ve probably heard of or owned Brandy Melville clothing. However, if you are always on social media, you have heard racism and size-ism complaints against the brand.
Brandy Melville is definitely not an ethical brand. The company accommodates too many qualities of a fast-fashion brand. It cannot be realistically tagged ethical. There have been several complaints from current and former employees accusing brand executives of racism and discrimination.
Is Brandy Melville Ethical?
An ethical brand cares about the environment, workers’ welfare, animal protection, and tries to remove discrimination and inequality in the workplace. Brandy Melville does not fit any of those bills.
Good On You, an organization that rates how ethical a fashion brand is, describes the brand as poor in ethical considerations. This damning rating is coupled with online reviews from employees and customers.
What do Employees Have to Say?
There are allegations that the company’s recruitment strategy focuses on young, slim and pretty girls.
According to a former employee, if you are fat or black, your chances of getting employed at Brandy Melville are practically non-existent. The brand also only employs models of the same category or size, mainly one-size, slim, white, and pretty.
There’s a neglect of plus-sized women in the brand’s products. Some have accused the brand of only making clothes for a particular section of the female population.
Apparently, executives only care about making fast sales and recording huge profits.
The work environment is toxic, as executives often sack employees for cutting their hair, gaining weight, or even aging. Other unethical activities include a lack of a policy statement on the prevention of fabric wastage, protection of the environment, and our furry friends.
Rating Brandy Melville’s Ethics
The basis for rating the ethics of a brand revolves around how the company has affected those around it.
This section will examine how Brandy Melville takes care of its employees, reduces environmental pollution, and minimizes animals’ suffering.
Employee Welfare
Brandy Melville places more importance on profits and sales, instead of ensuring a healthy workplace for its employees. The brand’s employment policy is characterized by sexism, racism, and unequal treatment.
There are also indications that the company engages in unfair and illegal labor practices. They also pay discriminatory wages to their workers. Some of their manufacturing activities are contracted to sweatshops in China. China has no legislation banning unequal wages or cruelty against animals.
Brandy Melville provides no information about employee wages or how their rights are protected at work. But internet reviews from current and past employees tell us all we need to know about their operations.
The company apparently has a toxic and exploitative culture, where employees are not allowed flexibility in choosing their own dress, cutting their hair, or gaining weight.
Also, if an employee is judged as old or ugly, they might get sacked by executives. Employment is also not based on merit, but on race, gender, and physical appearance.
Environmental Impact
Again, Brandy Melville does not publish enough information on the steps it is taking to protect the environment.
It uses materials such as plastic and polyester to manufacture clothes and other fashion accessories. These materials cannot be recycled, so they will later cause pollution and end up in a landfill.
Similar to fast fashion brands, the brand can manufacture many clothes in a very short period. Such high turnover will undoubtedly lead to wastage of fabrics and water resources.
However, it is safe to assume that the company does not track its waste products, carbon emissions, and use of harmful chemicals.
Animal Welfare
Similar to the last two sections, Brandy does not have a policy on animal welfare and protection.
Not even a single public statement supporting our furry friends can be attributed to company executives or stakeholders. This situation is compounded because Brandy Melville operates in China.
China is notorious for allowing fashion companies to experiment and carry out inhumane practices on animals. Fashion companies based in China automatically lose points on animal rights protection.
Conclusion
Brandy Melville is not doing anything to convince us they are an ethical brand. Indeed, the evidence points at the opposite, especially with employees having to endure racist, sexist and discriminatory actions. The brand also refuses to publish relevant information on employee welfare, supplier’s act, and environmental plan.
Brandy Melville is a fast-fashion brand. The brand aims to copy trending styles and produce them in large quantities to make fast sales. However, the materials used in manufacturing these clothes are non-recyclable materials. And they are harmful to the environment. Using harmful chemicals in treating raw materials, wastage of water, non-efficient use of fabrics, and excess carbon emissions are the hallmarks of fast fashion.
