The controversy of the clothing company Brandy Melville continues, as people are deciding whether to continue to wear the label despite the company’s alleged wrongdoings.

The CEO of the company, Stephan Marsan, has come under scrutiny recently, pointed out for his immorality in the treatment of his workers. Brandy’s “one size fits all” is considered exclusive, and, in reality, does not actually fit all. This sizing issue has been under attack as the body positivity movement has grown on social media.

Mel McCullough, a junior from Philadelphia, Pa., who personally wears Brandy, feels that the one size fits all strategery does not work, and Brandy attempting to be more inclusive is actually driving customers away.

“I think it’s never going to work,” Mel said. “Brandy has always been known for [catering] to people who are petite. As soon as they started making their clothes bigger, the original people who shopped there didn’t fit it anymore.”

Recently, Brandy tried to rebrand their “one size fits all” to “one size fits most,” however this change still implies that majority of people should fit into the company’s clothing.

Brandy Melville participates in fast fashion, but its clothes are often considered much better quality than other clothes in the fast fashion industry.

Katie Toole, a junior from Nantucket, Mass, feels the quality of Brandy clothes are not the same as most fast fashion items, and are not just a microtrends.

“The clothes are timeless. They literally never go out of style,” she said. “It’s not like Shien or stuff like that; it’s actually really good quality.”

Shien has come under fire for poor quality clothing and exploiting their workers, paying them below living wage and making them work 75-hour weeks. Many of their factories are located in China, where, according to labor laws outlined on the Chinese government’s official website, the maximum one should be working per week is 40 hours.

Brandy Melville was started by Silvio Marsan in Italy in the 1980s, and opened their first store in the U.S. in 2009. A 2024 HBO documentary, “Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion,” explains the dark truth of the company, digging deep into Marsan and his making of unrealistic beauty standards as well as his racist and antisemitic views.

In the documentary, Marsan is accused of making employees send a picture of their outfits before work so that he can decide whether he likes them. If he doesn’t, it can result in the employee being fired.

Many people remark in the documentary that non-white employees are often working in the back while the white employees work out on the floor. This is what Marsan claims to prefer, since his vison of the perfect teenage girl is skinny, blonde, and white. The beauty standard he has cultivated is obviously unrealistic; not every single teenage girl is going to be the same race, have the same body type, and fit into the same size.

Marsan has also been accused of making Hitler references in work group chats.

Despite these comments and standards, the brand is still flourishing.

In truth, many of their customers don’t know much, if anything, about Marsan. Many teenagers are not typically involved in politics, and the politics they do know are often received through social media. On social media, the focus on Brandy has been about their sizing issues, not about the owner.

Katie Toole is educated more on the one size fits all controversy than the Marsan controversy, but believes both disputes are not deal breakers for anyone.

“I heard a little bit about the company being weird to the workers and stuff, but not much else,” she said. “I don’t think it really stopped people from buying from them.”

Maya Vuklah, a junior from New York City, believes Brandy is popular because it begins to appeal to girls starting at a young age, an age where politics are even farther from their minds.

“When you get older and you start to buy clothes for yourself, Brandy is one of the first stores a lot of girls see,” she explained. “So, it quickly becomes their style.”

A look at Brandy Melville’s website shows their simple catchy approach to clothing. Some of the items have cute animals, like deer and ducks, displayed on them which quickly draws the eyes of a young audience. There are more mature pieces like sweaters and jeans that seem as though they could easily match anything in your closet.

Katie, who often wears Brandy Melville, believes that the people she surrounds herself with are not the type to judge her for wearing the company’s clothing.

“People usually don’t make comments because a lot of my friends wear it too,” she said. “There are so many other clothing brands with other sizes, so I mean if this works for me and fits me, I will wear it.”