@@lupin0745 People in their early 20s would do fine. Young teens shop at places with old SAs too, that doesn't make sense. Plus it's not a secret that you're extremely unlikely to get hired if you don't have the Brandy Melville 'look': young, thin, attractive, and white.
but it’s not just about hiring young people. most people who work in retail are already young. the manager takes a picture of every single person who applies, sends it to corporate, then checks their instagram, because you can only work there if you’re pretty, thin, and popular. if you aren’t all three, they won’t even consider you for the job.
milky tea its not about who they hire? its about the fact that grown men are looking at pictures of young girls and picking apart the way they look in order to hire the most attractive
Elz Garrett ok but also if they do offer you money, you could take that offer and donate it all to charity, and the video would be taken down from your channel but it wouldn’t be erased from the internet, because nothing can be erased from the internet completely. The plan is fool proof😈
@@ElzGarrett I totally forgot I had his number lmao one time he came into our store, stared at me, didn't introduce himself then just went to the back of the store yelling about how ugly our visuals were
Kristina Muharremaj i think the family made it as hust a small family company and that’s why they never had real advertising and they just meant for it to be on the down low but jessy might of made it bigger and the family still wants to be private
It's quite smart to be so private in this age, especially for Brandy. Cause even though Brandy is so controversial, since there is no one to "attack" or "blame", all the controversies kind of fade away.
If anyone tries to sue you or get you to take this video down, you cannot be sued! all the info use is public online, and just bc you had to really dig doesn't make it any less public!
If sis can find all of this information using simple ol’ Google, I’d like to know what she’s capable of with other tools. Sis needs to be an investigator or something!
Ok I don't know if I should post this since I've worked for Brandy for quite a long time and I know some people higher up check my channel from time to time.. I also don't know if this will be helpful for anyone either but basically, Brandy Melville has different franchises all over the world. So while the Marsan family is in charge, they're not run by them? If that makes sense? Those franchises changed a bunch as well. First UK, Belgium and I think France was one franchise but I think due to money problems, Belgium became part of the Dutch and Italian franchise. I got to admit I'm not entirely sure which countries belong to which franchise but I remember a bunch of Italian Brandy Melville workers visiting us and just not being nice. Then for the clothes: most of them are made in China, same for the jewellery, purses etc maybe 1% of the clothes come from Italy which is also why (at least in Belgium) they no longer advertise them as "made in Italy". Sometimes they came with holes in them and we still had to sell them or fix it ourselves. As for the company; really badly run.. We didn't have a working toilet for more than a month, the lights in our narrow hallway with steep stairs wasn't working for over a month either which made some of us trip (and nearly breaking my ankle or sth), during busy weeks we'd barely get any clothes delivered or like 3 things of one clothing item which meant we weren't even allowed to hang it up and then when it wasn't busy, we'd get 17 boxes and we couldn't fit all of it in store. CCTV was also never used to make sure someone was stealing but was kinda just used to make sure we were working at all times like one of my colleagues once got a text saying she should get of her phone from someone working in the freaking UK.. I remember when we were part of the first franchise, if people who didn't fit the brandy melville look (I just.. I'm so sorry) came to hand in their resume, we'd have to throw it in the trash. Nowadays, fashion seems to be more important rather than their physical looks because I think they're trying to be a bit more diverse idk. I was also once told to get my gel nails removed because they weren't brandy enough even though that SAME person posted a picture of me on the brandy insta with those SAME ASS NAILS.. I know it's a small thing but it made me angry.. But you know, as bad as it all sounds, the 50% discount was nice. Anyway, let's hope Brandy never sees this or I might be screwed lol
@@yeastinfection6616 Yeah.. There were times I'd be working while having panic or anxiety attacks because of everything.. But I mean, I guess that's what happens when you work retail or in customer service.
i think the marsan & marsan is there like photo studio behind the santa monica shop, it’s legit on the street right behind the brandy melville shop but it’s where they take all their website pics and modeling pics (those walls are featured in a lot of their pics)
also a lot their operations are in santa monica like their product research team, modeling, one of their biggest stores, and their online distribution center
Elz Garrett some other interesting things i’ve found cause i was interested in how this company works is how romwe uses their graphics in some of their own shirts and also how the company is apparently really badly managed, like the glassdoor reviews of working there sound like the company isn’t run very well
I find it so suspicious there's barely any info on the founders of brandy. and the fact that they're men too makes it even more suspicious. something's up.
mariana hmmm I would‘nt call it creepy cause it’s a store only (mostly) forteens so I think it would be weirder when 40 years old women/ man would work there
oh relating to the olive oil thing - i was on tik tok and there was a "working at brandy melville check" sound and the last one was "put your finger down if the owners have given you olive oil"??? idk it sounded weird at the time but now i guess i know why lol
@@ElzGarrett i think(?) you said something about olive farms? but i looked a little bit more into the marsan farming thing and found out they had olive and olive oil farms
I just watched a video by Ella Snyder on Brandy Melville (she worked there for 5 yrs) and she said that the owner (or one of the owners) is an olive oil connoisseur and sometimes gives bottles of olive oil to employees as a gift.
also has anyone else noticed they blew up during the time that tumblr was the it thing and being anorexically skinny was the ideal body type i dont think their sizing was a coincidence
Is it not weird that it was originally run by grown MEN and is targeted to young teenage girls AND there’s a one size fits most which is encouraging society’s beauty standard that you have to be a certain weight to be beautiful???
thats their marketing strategy, its a privelege to fit in brandy melville clothes otherwise what would make it different and stand out (even if negatively) from other similar clothing brands?
i think they are trying to profit off of the "exclusivity" hype the way Abercrombie did. However, it ended up backfiring for Abercrombie, which may be why the owners are so secretive.
@@nimimoi78 I've seen many short/skinny girls not fit into their some of their clothes properly so no I don't think so also in Italy and many other places being skinny means your beautiful and if you aren't your not
fun fact: brandy melville and john galt are both based off of book characters. it's so funny that people ask who john galt is because this is from a wikipedia page - "John Galt is a character in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. Although he is not identified by name until the last third of the novel, he is the object of its often-repeated question "Who is John Galt?" and of the quest to discover the answer."
that's so interesting! i saw a lot of info about the story behind the name 'Brandy Melville' but none of it was relevant to the video so i didn't include it... :))
Jesus when you said atlas shrugged 😬...........im a little concerned about the ethics behind the company now, although not surprised given that libertarianism is rampantly prolific
wow i never put together how wrong that was. not that they only had one size, i knew that was wrong but like _men_ telling woman and teenagers what size their body needs to be. that’s disgusting
no one is telling anyone to be a particular size, they just offer clothes for that size. It’s like those plus size stores. Yes i think its weird that some brands don’t offer clothes for different people but thats just how it is. 🤷🏼♀️
I emailed Brandy when they first came out and talked about how terrible it is that they only have one size. They responded saying they only have one size because the company was made for college girls who don't have the time to try everything on while going to school, so they can just come in and leave with a shirt without having multiple sizes to choose from and try on... First of all, that makes no sense. Second, most college students aren't buying from Brandy because every girl over 16-17 usually has curves and isn't a 25 waist and can't afford to constantly be buying clothes. And fourth, isn't Brandy marketed towards middle school girls...? Such a freaking lie. They have no good reason for one size only. I am literally 5'1", petite, and usually a small and I've only ever found 1 pair of jeans that fit me and 1 shorts, both were marketed as "mom jeans" or "oversized". It's ridiculous Since people want to pick apart everything people say on the internet I reworded "no college students buy Brandy" to "most college students can't fit into or afford brandy".
@@ElzGarrett Yup! Right when they came out and started becoming more mainstream. I can fit into their clothes and will buy from them occasionally but it's so sad how their sizing has contributed to people feeling left out or driving people to eating disorders. I know I feel crappy whenever I try something on in their store and it can't even fit around my thighs or arms
@@paigeisme95 a petite store would feature models and clothes that are 'petite' all the brandy models are 5'7 and skinny which isn't petite lmao, also 'plus size' stores still offer smaller sizes so your argument is redundant
I would also like to add that although brandy Melville is considered "one size" all of the items are actually different sizes. From shopping on their website, I have noticed that the waist in bottoms ranges from 24" - 32" and bust size in tops ranges from 10"-16" so all of their clothes are literally all different sizes. So its really not more convenient for girls because they don't have to try everything on - they actually have to try everything on even more because all of the clothes are different sizes but they're not really marked as such!
justin s, no it is sexist because it is implying that young women should be a certain size to be deemed attractive. Men enforcing these standards on women is sexist because for centuries women had and have been used to look aesthetically pleasing to men’s standards. So no, this person is not being sexist
Honestly I haven’t seen anyone working for brandy that is over the age of 20 even during photoshoot videos, the photographer looks 17 lol. I just thought it was run by Instagram models
Allene Jerome yeah I was just curious because I had seen a video of a brandy shoot and it just looked like a bunch of girls taking photos of each other.
Matilde Pilia I’ve never seen boys work there. Probably because they don’t make anything for guys as opposed to similar stores like urban outfitters and pacsun were there is a men’s section
I'm pretty sure I've met one of the Marsans... before the bm shop in Shanghai officially opened they had a showroom, and the two/three main workers/ppl who run the showroom were like middle-aged Italian men (spoke Italian to each other/when they spoke English they had an accent). I'm pretty sure its either Stephen marsan/one of the Italian leaders :)
A little tea for you guys. Brandy may be italian but we literally have NO stores here in italy. Maybe just a couple in the whole country. I personally have never seen it
Elz Garrett actually, to be fair we used to have quite a similar store but it was under another name (and the items were not quite like the Brandy ones) and now it’s part of another chain. I’m pretty positive that’s the same Brandy man that owns it. This is my most plausible explanation
@@erikadalcortivo4034 To be fair, in the article about when they made the store by the UC school, they mentioned putting an American beachy girl twist on the clothing to sell more. So it would make a lot of sense for them to be marketing it under a different name and in a different way to a new target demographic.
so much family stuff. wouldn’t be surprised if i ever found out that brandy melville was somehow mafia affiliated. it has the same kind of sketchy vibe and it’s from italy
I'm sorry but that's just plain racist. I'm Italian born and raised, and don't you know that family operated businesses are a thing anywhere in the world, not just Italy? Also you base yourself off a 'sketchy vibe'? Please think before you say these things about a country... not all Italians are affiliated with the mafia, and also each and every country has its own mafia, so. I don't judge other countries so please don't judge mine or any other. (:
travelller my boyfriend and closest friend are italian and i live in France and attend an international school. I’m fully aware of certain prejudices against countries and i’m sorry if my intentions came off the wrong way. I’m also deeply sorry for my mediocre wording. It’s just that the company has zero front that isn’t social media. In my experience, most “family run” businesses are very open about being family run because it’s a good marketing point: makes it look like more of an ethical company, etc. I didn’t know it was family run until I googled it. I think it’s “sketchy” that no one speaks out from the company concerning its controversy. The only information we hear is from teenage girls who work/have worked at one of their stores. On the website, it doesn’t talk about where their clothing is manufactured or how (as opposed to other more sustainable brands that market to young girls.) Their ethics are questionable and in a modern day society when these things are frequently talked about regarding companies and when CEO’s tweet out to customers sometimes- it is frankly sketchy. Furthermore, I understand that not every family in Italy is mafia affiliated, but it is my understanding that the mafia does still EXIST there and influence things. It’s also a little sus that this is their only venture in the fashion industry and everything else they own is agricultural?? especially with such a successful business model for a clothing brand? I understand that family run businesses are a thing everywhere but because of all of the other reasons I just mentioned I feel as though this one may be more susceptible to more unsavory things. Not to be an ass, but i feel kind of patronized after your comment: as if I don’t know the mafia exists everywhere? Just didn’t really come into the conversation as the people that run brandy aren’t russian? If it were, I would have probably made the same case. So i’m sorry if i offended you, but they seem to have some makings of a business that is maybe mafia affiliated. And I don’t think that’s racist to italians, because it doesn’t mean to say that just because they are italian they are mafia affiliated. there could be a multitude of reasons for that?? I didn’t stereotype or discriminate against all italians. I didn’t say italy had a sketchy vibe, I said the MAFIA has a specific sketchy vibe that Brandy low key has too. I also just said: Questionable business in italy, maybe mafia due to “sketchy reasons”- also takes place in italy where it is known that there is still involvement by the mafia so it wouldn’t be as outlandish to suggest this theory as it could be. Thank you for your time.
I'm the average weight for my age and height and I occasionally have fluctuations in my weight and brandy clothes literally don't fit me. If your brand's clothes don't even fit people who are considered perfectly healthy by the medical profession then there's an issue there. It's not about creating clothes to fit a "plus size" consumer, it's about creating clothes for people with the average, healthy body and not supporting the image that flat tummies and tiny waists and being petite is always healthy and what every girl should strive to. I personally don't even really wanna buy brandy clothes bc I've found alternatives in my size, but brands need to be more aware of the image and message they perpetuate and with the epidemic of teen girls developing eating disorders, they need to be smarter than this.
also all the workers need to take photos before they start each shift, and the photo is sent to corporate. im assuming this is a way for the bigger people in the company can 'maintain' the workers weight/appearance by making them aware their photo is being circulated around. this is just rlly sad :(
yeah they get pics sent to corporate every shift and they pick the girls with the best style to do “product research” aka hunting for products to copy for their brand. i’ve also heard stuff on glassdoor of employees being fired for not wearing makeup/having their hair done/etc. crazy 😷
This video just made me so curious about what the original clothing designs were when Brandy started. I had never realized the company had made clothes in the 80s and when I tried to find what they looked like, I couldn’t find anything. Maybe I need to learn from your detective skills so I can see the original designs lol
update : I HAVE FOUND PHOTOS OF THE FAMILY (i think so) THROUGH THIER WEBSITE ABOUT THE FARM idk reply if you want me to post the link, i dont think i should be 'exposing' them, but at the same time there are no photos of them, and after all, its on their website on the "about/history of the farm section" i also have good reasonings of why it is them + above the photos it talks about silvio marsan
@@angelicaknutsen8981 translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=www.pollosanbartolomeo.it/&prev=search this is the translated link to their website; if you scroll down there a photos of a family, which includes a 60/ish old man also since stephan marsan changed his youtube profile picture to his face and kids, his face looks very familiar to one of the men in the photos on the website which also shows 2 kids.
hey gals! i'm really enjoying making these kind of videos for this channel 😎... if there are any un-answered business questions or topics you want me to do some research on for a video reply them to this comment or dm me on instagram & i'll turn this into a series!! ⬇️
I’m pretty sure they recently just sold the business to Americans. I was talking to a brandy worker about it since in Canada they closed all the brandy Melville’s except four stores. The worker said this was because the original Italian family just sold the company and it’s now under American management and they only wanted to keep open the “necessary stores” in Canada.
maybe you could talk more abut the youtube videos with the mob of girls outsid\de the brandy? im kinda confused lol and if there was a mob it was probably mentioned in a news article.
I’ve never been to a Brandy Melville store because I live rural Canada, but I occasionally go to PacSun since I live near a small U.S. city. I remember buying Brandy clothes from there when I was younger, but the last time I went, I couldn’t find any. I looked in the sale section and found a blue sweater. The tag inside was partially cut out, but I could tell that it was Brandy. It would make sense if they added a John Galt tag, but they just cut the name off and left it. I found a few more shirts with the same thing. It seemed really odd. I’ve always found Brandy Melville kind of ominous.
Elz Garrett I remember going to a pac sun outlet specifically a few years ago and the brandy tags were cut out, but I went more recently and the tags hadn’t been cut out so I think they stopped doing that
John Galt is the main character in a book called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, a right-wing libertarian thinker who moved to America from the USSR after the Russian Revolution in 1917
I’m Italian and I read the article and this is what it said about the younger brother yvan is the one that manages the Italian part of brandy .. will try to find out more about brandy and btw where I live there isn’t really a brandy Melville. It’s pretty much only in big cities.. I don’t think we have one in my region really
hey i've made few videos about brandy melville in the past (trying their clothes and breaking down the psychology behind the hype this brand is getting) and I actually did stumble on that quote by jesse longo and i found it shady asf!!! Also, i dont know if you want to look into it, but did you know that brandy doesn't actually pay all of their workers! Those who do product research are paid in clothes lmao!
omg hi! yeah the whole thing is rlly weird but interesting lmao - that's crazy tho! they must be young to agree not to get paid but paid in clothes 🤔i know i wouldn't do that lol
This was super sick to watch! I had never really thought about who was behind Brandy Melville and this was really informative and interesting to watch. Thanks so much! 💓
i saw on tik tok that brandy workers sometimes got olive oil as gifts from the owners since apparently they also run an olive oil company? it was a vague statement though on one of the 'put a finger down' videos, so i'm not 100% sure that the info is correct,, just thought that was interesting lol
THANK YOU! I’ve literally asked myself these questions for like 5 years. I’ve always wondered why brandy melville seems so mysterious. Even my friends who work there are confused. You’re a lifesaver
I'm Italian, and I always thought brandy was an American brand, because it's not that much popular here. Now I'm gonna do some research and read all the Italian articles. Thanks for your service girl 🙆🏻♀️
Okay so this took a different turn to what I expected when I was halfway through I got a bit dark there .... and maybe I should delete my second comment lol , but there are still a lot of suspicious circumstances surrounding in store things , and if it’s ran by a family I can’t understand all the layers we started off with , why stick to the small sizes, why use young girls to model for your company , if they own the photography studio behind the shop like someone else mentioned in the comments because I’m a freak and I read almost all of them and I’m still left with an eerie vibe , why not make more sizes in clothes so you make more money for your family , why does the company have this whole cult feel to it , like maybe because it’s ran by a family and a cult is like a family but I don’t know it’s all just weird . I think you could find a few more things to research off the comments here alone and if you don’t want to then I will be forced to aha , But excellent research and good video 💙
yeah i was thinking that... i'm gonna let the video do it's thing and then maybe there will be another video, but not right now lol... glad u like it tho!! :)
Hey!! love this video, I can't imagine how long it took to find all this info. I've actually always found brandy quite sus. I live in Canada, and currently there's only 3 stores in big cities (Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal). However they used to have a store in my city, which I actually didn't even know about till I did some digging. I went there once, and a month later I called to ask if they had an item in stock. The worker actually told me they weren't receiving anymore stock since they are closing. Immediately I was very confused since I haven't heard anything about their closing. I went there again to see if there was any closing sales, or at least a sign saying they were closing, but there was nothing. Also the same thing happened with another location, which is just rly sus to me. This summer I believe they closed all Canadian locations expect the big cities, which again I find kinda weird. Lastly, don't you think its sus that their bags are just a simple black bag. No branding at all, in fact I haven't seen a single advertisement for the company, yet they are talked about everywhere. Idk if this is any good info, but I thought I'd share. Brandy is very very sus n all this research is actually interesting lolzz. Anyways if you've read everything thank u sm! :)
ItsRoni relating to the bags some stores do have branding on the bags not all tho and i think part of the reason their black is to cut costs on printing the logo on every single bag and the black bag is aesthetically pleasing to some.
Mike Gonzalez Makes sense, thanks for clearing that up! i just think it’s strange that such a big brand doesn’t have too much advertisement yet is still talked about so much. I do understand that money wise it is definitely more beneficial to use simple black bags, and if people find it aesthetically pleasing I would say it’s great for their brand. Although there is no branding, for some reason I could recognize a brandy bag anywhere 😂 Thank you for clearing things up! :)
Silvio is the founder listed on so many articles and on wiki but the best information you can find about him is his farm. He has a percentage in brandy but it does not seem like he has any other interest in it. It's so strange for him to be the easiest found name associated with the brand but the rest of his life has nothing to do with fashion. Jessy Longo has been mentioned in many articles that he suggested the move to the USA. Lowkey feel like Jessy Longo needs more recognition for blowing up the brand
I actually got to know brandy melville by accident when I was in Como(Italy) and there where really nice women in their 30s working there. It didn’t seem sketchy to me at all because they even told me a bit about the story of the brand when they found out it was my first time at a brandy melville store. Next time I’m there I’m going to ask a lot more questions though and maybe I’ll find out some interesting stuff. Also: if anyone finds an interesting article which happens to be written in italian on the topic....don’t hesitate to answer my comment with it and I’ll translate it for you:)
Elz Garrett np keep doing what you’re doing, I feel like you should make this investigating type videos about different companies into a series, it would def be big
john galt is a character in the book atlas shrugged by ayn rand! brandy also used to sell a t-shirt with an ayn rand quote on it (well a misquote) from the book, said by the character. ayn rand was an American author in the 50s/60s who was super into capitalism laissez-faire economics etc--- a lot of right-wing politicians today say she's there favorite author (cough the american president cough) in the book, john galt isn't really a character but he's more like a symbol of the ideal man in capitalism, like he steps on other people to get to the top basically... which i feel like is a really good metaphor for their one size fits all policy... idk. great video !!
