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Raise your hand if the storyline of Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion surprised you.
No? Me neither.
The documentary, directed by Eva Orner, traces the turbulent path of teen shopping sensation Brandy Melville and discusses the darkness underpinning the company’s treatment of, well, almost everyone in its sphere of influence.
The teen girls working for them were simultaneously made to feel like royalty for scoring an employment gig with the store and like nothing for supposedly not meeting the brand’s strict standards for appearance and dress.
What were those standards, you ask? Being a direly skinny white girl with pale skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. (You know who else really liked white people with blond hair and blue eyes? I’ll wait.)
Not to say that women of other visages were not employed there at all – many people of color worked in the stock rooms. See? The brand is not racist. Only, they were (and extremely likely still are), according to reports from a few years ago.
One of the more informative moments of the film came when viewers were informed about Prato, an Italian city known for its fast fashion. “Italy” and “fast fashion” aren’t terms that one would expect to come up in the same sentence, but here we are. Prato’s ‘pronto moda’ sector gives merchants that manufacture fast fashion with Chinese factories the cover to state that their products are made in Italy. The implications of this are economically immense, given that many associate Italian-made goods with being among the world’s most quality products. When you watch the documentary, keep an eye out for that portion of the film.
Another highlight of the documentary was hearing the experience of former Brandy Melville employees straight from their mouths. The audience having the ability to make that type of connection in a film that covers such disturbing topics is crucial to the information sticking with those viewing it.
But with that said, we know that fast fashion is bad. We know that fast fashion executives have done unethical things.
We also know that the financial cost of sustainable fashion – fashion that is better for the environment – is often cost-prohibitive for many people, hence why many continue to purchase fast fashion despite knowing this information (among other reasons).
Those of us with a keen interest in seeing fashion become sustainable in all aspects – environmentally, to be sure, but also with respect to paying fair wages to employees and creating safe working conditions – see no reason why this shift in fashion values cannot be made today. In fact, why can’t it be done yesterday? But we are clearly in the minority, and it is up to us to position sustainability as a palatable environmental solution to the majority of citizens. I, for one, have mentioned on numerous occasions that governmental legislation is potentially one of our only effective solutions to fashion doing its part in combating the climate crisis.
In viewing Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion, one is hit with the soul-crushing realization that we have been down this road again. And again. And again. And again.
More photos of the mounds of discarded clothing from Western society forced into the hands of Ghana’s citizens – after all, why should we Westerners have to deal with our own issues? Why not make third-world countries figure it out for us? A sordid tale – one as old as time.
More stories of workers who were exploited and abused. Mostly women, but that seems to be standard procedure throughout the supply chains of a number of companies in the fashion industry.
More moments of reckoning for the bad corporate actors, followed by a canceling of their cancellation and a return to profitability. See, if you wait out the storm, you can make it to the other side just as good as before – if not better. This point is further proven by walking past any Brandy Melville store these days and seeing the consistent stream of patrons entering and exiting the retailer’s doors despite the company’s disgraces.
It all feels like an unfortunate rerun that we’re doomed to watch, over and over again.
And, as a TV miniseries from the great Stephen King once noted, “Hell is repetition”.
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