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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[producer] Everyone good?

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So, let's start with some
easy stuff at the beginning.

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How did you first hear about
Brandy Melville?

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I heard about Brandy first
when I was in seventh grade.

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Everyone was
wearing it at school.

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You had to have it.

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If you didn't have it,
what were you doing?

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And, um,

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I remember I walked into
the store

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and I bought the star necklace
that was all over Pinterest.

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And me and my seven friends
wore it.

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And I felt so cool and accepted

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that I had a piece
of Brandy Melville.

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And...

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I remember, um, thinking that

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the girls that didn't wear it,
they weren't as great as I was.

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Maybe they weren't as pretty.

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Maybe there was something wrong
with them.

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It was like the social norm
at the time.

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[up-tempo, funky music playing]

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Ever since I was like, 13,

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I've been obsessed
with Brandy Melville.

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[woman 1]
Fashion is identity,

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especially for teenage girls.

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This is how you show
who you are,

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what you believe,
who you're friends with,

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and I think Brandy Melville
encapsulates that

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better than almost
any other brand.

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But there's also a dark side.

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[music intensifies]

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[woman 2] The fashion industry
has always been

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built on the back
of exploitation.

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[woman 3] When it comes
to fast fashion,

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it often is a story of abuse.

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[woman 4] From the beginning
of the supply chain to the end,

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we're all being exploited
by the same system.

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[woman 5] You say you care about
human rights

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and the environment.

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What do your clothes
say about you?

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[woman 1]
It's easy to think,

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"Who cares a fast fashion brand
is bad?

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We already know this."

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But the story of
Brandy Melville is a story

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about anti-Semitism,

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racism, sexism.

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It's a story about this wider
system of exploitation

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at Brandy Melville

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and in the fashion industry
globally.

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[dramatic music playing]

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Hey, guys. I'm back in Brandy.
It's because I'm obsessed,

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and I wanted to come back
and get more things

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even though I got
way too much already.

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It's actually a problem.

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But I love
every single thing here.

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[gentle music playing]

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Brandy Melville is probably
my all-time favorite store.

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So I went to Brandy
the other day

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and did some damage.

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This is the most exciting haul
I've ever done.

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Ever. Ever, ever, ever.

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It's all from Brandy Melville.

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Oh! I love it,
I love it, I love it.

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[woman 6] One day
in middle school,

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everyone was suddenly wearing
Brandy Melville.

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Brandy Melville was, like,
all the rage.

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[woman 7] Feminine,
very form fitting.

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Like, a lot of the shirts
are cropped.

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Their stuff
was notoriously soft.

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This, like, A-line skater skirt

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and, like, a T-shirt
with a cupcake on it.

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[woman 7] A lot of pretty,
like, girlie prints.

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Like, you see bows, hearts,
little cute graphics.

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[woman 6] Sort of trendy, like
young girl beachy style.

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[woman 8] It's like Americana,
California.

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Brandy Melville was, like,
my world when I was a teenager.

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[woman 6]
The reason why I liked it?

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I mean, I think it's just...

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because everyone else liked it.

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[tender piano melody playing]

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[woman 9] It was my sophomore
year of high school.

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I was 15 years old.

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And I went into
the Brandy Melville store.

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I was immediately approached
by one of the workers,

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and she asked me

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if she could take a picture
of my outfit

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for "store style,"
she called it.

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Um... And I told her...
I told her that she could.

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And after she took the picture,

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she says, "Oh, thank you,"

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asked for my Instagram,
then I walk out.

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And I had a smile on my face
for the rest of the day.

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Told everybody at school,
told anyone I knew, really.

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I told... I told everybody.

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Everything about it

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was just a dream come true to me
at the time.

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[mellow electronic music
playing]

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-[car horns honking]
-[traffic buzzing]

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[woman 1] I spend
a lot of time doing

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the day-to-day news
of the retail industry.

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So a lot of, "What's happening
with Gap's earnings?

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What's happening at McDonald's?"

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And then the last couple
of years

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I've been able to go deeper
on these big stories,

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which brought me to this brand
that teenagers love

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that most adults
haven't heard about.

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Brandy Melville.

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The first thing that you hear
about Brandy Melville

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is that
it's one size fits all...

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and that size is tiny.

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I was like, this is something
that doesn't seem

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like it should be happening
in fashion anymore.

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I love you, Brandy Melville!

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[Kate] In the last decade,
there's been

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more and more pushes
towards inclusivity.

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We have more plus-size,
we have more diversity

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in bodies that we're seeing.

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Brandy Melville just took things
in the opposite direction

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where it says
there's one skinny,

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perfect, tiny, ideal size.

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This is something that was

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explicitly part
of the business model.

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Everything I've been learning
about Gen Z teenagers today

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is that they wouldn't
put up with this.

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Kind of weird.

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[dramatic music playing]

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[woman 10] Here's a thing that
me and my friends joke about.

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We're like,
"Fuck Brandy Melville.

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I'm never shopping there again.
You couldn't make me."

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But like, god damn,
the baby tees!

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They fit so good.
They're so small and cute.

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[woman 3] I remember
when I saw an article

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about the Brandy Melville
Instagram

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and how it was this phenomenon
with one-size-fits-all clothing.

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[dramatic music playing]

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And that was, like,
the first time I ever

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heard of this brand.

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And then suddenly, I saw
a lot of stores popping up

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around New York City.

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When I was at Teen Vogue,
part of my job

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as the fashion news editor

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was to kind of report
on celebrity style.

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What is Taylor Swift wearing?

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How to get the look.

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Sometimes, you know,
even the celebrity

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would wear
a Brandy Melville tee,

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and that would be an easy, cheap
T-shirt that you can also get.

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People are buying into
not just a white T-shirt.

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They're buying into
that Brandy Melville lifestyle.

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I think it's impossible to talk
about Brandy Melville

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and not talk about social media.

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Don't need a camera or anything.
Just use your phone.

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Be like, "Hey, what's going on?"

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And then they watch it.

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[Kate] Brandy Melville started
opening stores in the U.S.

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at the time that you had a lot
of teenage girls

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really creating their
own content for the first time

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without any gatekeepers,

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without being filtered through
a fashion magazine

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or through adults in any way.

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-Outfit check with friends!
-Gucci, Brandy Melville pants...

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[Kate] This was allowing
teenage girls to see themselves

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and portray themselves
the way they want

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and push the limits
for the first time.

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A lot of the Brandy Melville
photographers

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were teenagers themselves.

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All right. We're going to
shoot the first look

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on the famous white wall.

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[Kate] So, it was teenagers
taking photos of teenagers

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to post on social media.

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And it was this whole kind of

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Brandy Melville
extended universe

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where it felt genuine
because it was genuine.

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That taxi driver right there

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just let us take a bunch
of photos in his taxi,

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and they're so good.

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[giggles]

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[woman 11] I started to notice
like, Brandy, I don't know,

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was all over Tumblr.
I was a big Tumblr girl.

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My nickname
in high school was "Door."

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That's what my parents called me
because I had my door closed,

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was in my room all day,
just online.

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[gentle music playing]

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They had this dress.
The, like, iconic Jada dress.

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I... I don't know if you...

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But it had, like, this one,
like, band across the back,

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and it was kinda open back.

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I thought it was kinda cool
to show off your back

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because then they had this bra

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that had all these
kind of like strips across it.

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Now looking back, I'm like,
"I would never wear that."

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But I took some, like,
self-portrait photos,

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which I used to do
a lot back in high school,

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and I posted it on Tumblr.

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And I think that was, like,

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the biggest post
I ever had on there.

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I think it got, like, 100,000
reblogs or whatever

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[counter clicking rapidly]

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[gentle music continues]

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I was following the
Brandy Melville Instagram.

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They were really into
hair moving.

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And so was I at the time.
I don't know why.

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I think that was kind of the
photo style that I really liked.

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Really natural.

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You know, like you're
following somebody around,

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and they turn back
and look at you.

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A little bit conceptual.

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Very bohemian, like,
summertime stuff.

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[laughs] But I just loved it.

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I was already doing basically

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what the Brandy photographers
would do with their friends

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of, like, get a bag of clothes

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and go run around
and take pictures.

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I thought it looked really fun,
kind of like a community.

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And one of my friends
had a Brandy shirt,

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and I was like, "Let me take
a couple pictures like this.

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Maybe they'll post it
or something."

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00:11:01,411 --> 00:11:03,788
They both had really long,
kind of blondish hair,

220
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and they were just shaking
their hair back and forth

221
00:11:06,583 --> 00:11:09,502
with, like, some stupid
striped T-shirts on

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00:11:09,586 --> 00:11:11,338
in, like, the Back Bay
of Newport Beach,

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00:11:11,421 --> 00:11:15,425
and that's... that's the picture
that they posted.

224
00:11:16,134 --> 00:11:19,471
[gentle tonal electronic music
playing]

225
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They flipped it to the side and
put some weird filter over that.

226
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It was so random.

227
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And then that's
when I got the email.

228
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It was super short.
It was, "Hey.

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Let me know if you'd like
to work together sometime."

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There was no email signature.

231
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There was no, "Hi,
I'm from this company."

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"I really like your work."
Nothing.

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00:11:46,289 --> 00:11:47,832
It just said, "Jessy Longo."

234
00:11:47,915 --> 00:11:49,501
I was like, "Who is this?"

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I clicked in, and then I saw
@BrandyMelvilleUSA.com.

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It was... nuts.

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I was around 16, 17.

238
00:12:07,644 --> 00:12:09,270
I was living in Orange County
at the time,

239
00:12:09,354 --> 00:12:11,147
and then they had me come
to Santa Monica,

240
00:12:11,189 --> 00:12:13,066
and my parents just kind of
dropped me off,

241
00:12:13,149 --> 00:12:15,819
and they were kind of just,
like, "Okay."

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00:12:17,278 --> 00:12:19,948
And then I recognized,
oh, this was, like, the wall

243
00:12:20,031 --> 00:12:21,783
where they shoot
a lot of photos,

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00:12:21,866 --> 00:12:23,118
you know, in the alleyway.

245
00:12:23,201 --> 00:12:25,036
And then I was starting
to put things together,

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like, "Okay, so like, it all
happens right here."

247
00:12:28,164 --> 00:12:30,375
And that made me really excited.

248
00:12:31,543 --> 00:12:35,922
Then kind of behind the curtain,
it's like complete chaos.

249
00:12:36,881 --> 00:12:39,843
[dramatic music playing]

250
00:12:39,884 --> 00:12:42,178
[Kate] "Brandy Melville"
is not a person's name.

251
00:12:42,220 --> 00:12:45,390
It is named after these two
fictional characters:

252
00:12:45,473 --> 00:12:48,184
Brandy, who is an American,

253
00:12:48,226 --> 00:12:51,021
and Melville,
who is an Englishman,

254
00:12:51,062 --> 00:12:53,565
and they somehow meet in Italy
and fall in love.

255
00:12:54,983 --> 00:12:57,193
I was kind of confused
by this being the name

256
00:12:57,235 --> 00:13:01,406
because the backstory
isn't really in line, even,

257
00:13:01,489 --> 00:13:04,743
with the Brandy Melville image
at this point.

258
00:13:05,577 --> 00:13:10,040
Everything about this brand gets
pretty confusing pretty quickly.

259
00:13:11,791 --> 00:13:13,126
Describing the Brandy
business model,

260
00:13:13,209 --> 00:13:15,170
it feels like one of those
string boards

261
00:13:15,253 --> 00:13:16,838
where you're
trying to connect things

262
00:13:16,921 --> 00:13:18,548
and you look like
a conspiracy theorist

263
00:13:18,590 --> 00:13:20,550
because it is so convoluted.

264
00:13:20,592 --> 00:13:22,093
[keyboard keys clicking]

265
00:13:22,135 --> 00:13:24,763
The CEO is usually
pretty easy to find

266
00:13:24,846 --> 00:13:26,598
from a quick Google search.

267
00:13:26,639 --> 00:13:29,434
But for Brandy Melville,

268
00:13:29,476 --> 00:13:31,061
there was just nothing there.

269
00:13:31,102 --> 00:13:34,189
No mission statement,
no explanation at all.

270
00:13:34,272 --> 00:13:36,858
Like, who is actually running
all these stores?

271
00:13:36,941 --> 00:13:38,818
So, as I was digging deeper,

272
00:13:38,902 --> 00:13:40,987
I realized
each Brandy Melville store

273
00:13:41,071 --> 00:13:43,782
is owned by a different
shell company.

274
00:13:43,823 --> 00:13:45,700
And then Brandy Melville
is a trademark

275
00:13:45,784 --> 00:13:48,536
that's owned
by a Swiss company.

276
00:13:49,162 --> 00:13:51,122
So, you have all of these
different companies.

277
00:13:51,206 --> 00:13:53,124
Kind of trying to figure out
how to connect them

278
00:13:53,208 --> 00:13:54,668
can get very, very confusing.

279
00:13:54,751 --> 00:13:58,672
Experts told me that it is
probably deliberately confusing.

280
00:13:59,547 --> 00:14:03,051
But on pretty much all of them,
the same person is named,

281
00:14:03,134 --> 00:14:05,512
and that person
is Stephan Marsan.

282
00:14:07,263 --> 00:14:09,641
There was nothing
about him out there.

283
00:14:09,724 --> 00:14:11,059
I was going through
Google images

284
00:14:11,142 --> 00:14:13,186
and just scrolling
and trying to find anything

285
00:14:13,269 --> 00:14:16,064
to figure out what this guy
looked like, what his deal was.

286
00:14:16,147 --> 00:14:19,484
And you start imagining
this evil mastermind

287
00:14:19,567 --> 00:14:22,028
wearing, like, Armani suits.

288
00:14:25,448 --> 00:14:28,159
[man 1] Usually, I stay away
from Italians,

289
00:14:28,201 --> 00:14:30,995
especially the ones abroad
are trouble.

290
00:14:31,037 --> 00:14:32,664
But we got introduced,

291
00:14:32,706 --> 00:14:35,417
and, uh... the vibe was good.

292
00:14:36,835 --> 00:14:39,045
I had a restaurant
in Santa Monica,

293
00:14:39,129 --> 00:14:41,464
and they just got here.

294
00:14:41,506 --> 00:14:42,716
[producer] Who are "they"?

295
00:14:42,799 --> 00:14:44,342
Stephan and Jessy.

296
00:14:44,968 --> 00:14:46,845
Stephan is the owner
of this brand,

297
00:14:46,928 --> 00:14:48,179
Brandy Melville,

298
00:14:48,263 --> 00:14:50,557
and Jessy was his right hand.

299
00:14:51,516 --> 00:14:55,270
He was able to do everything
that Stephan couldn't do,

300
00:14:55,353 --> 00:14:58,231
and also spoke a little bit
more English.

301
00:14:58,314 --> 00:15:01,359
Stephan had zero
knowledge of English.

302
00:15:02,569 --> 00:15:04,195
We clicked right away.

303
00:15:04,237 --> 00:15:07,157
He became like
what in the surface

304
00:15:07,198 --> 00:15:09,242
would appear like a friendship.

305
00:15:14,539 --> 00:15:18,376
He was bald with braces.

306
00:15:19,085 --> 00:15:21,171
The only reason I'm bringing
that up is 'cause

307
00:15:21,212 --> 00:15:23,048
once I found out
that he ran the Instagram,

308
00:15:23,089 --> 00:15:26,551
it was so funny to me that
no one has any idea

309
00:15:26,634 --> 00:15:29,971
that this man, like, in his,
I don't know, maybe late 30s,

310
00:15:30,055 --> 00:15:32,390
with, like, sneakers
and sweatpants on,

311
00:15:32,432 --> 00:15:34,976
is running the Instagram
that all these teenage girls

312
00:15:35,060 --> 00:15:36,311
are, like, fanning over.

313
00:15:36,394 --> 00:15:38,730
Yeah, hopefully Brandy
notices me

314
00:15:39,397 --> 00:15:42,025
once I wear their clothes
and post in their wall.

315
00:15:42,067 --> 00:15:44,277
Like, that'd be so cool
to be known to Brandy Melville.

316
00:15:44,361 --> 00:15:45,987
Love you, Brandy,
if you're watching.

317
00:15:46,821 --> 00:15:49,616
[Willow] It was definitely
just strange. It was bizarre.

318
00:15:51,117 --> 00:15:53,244
I guess you could call him
a creative director.

319
00:15:53,286 --> 00:15:56,623
But I never got
an official title

320
00:15:56,706 --> 00:15:59,125
of anyone ever
that worked there.

321
00:16:01,127 --> 00:16:02,587
We went into the store
for a bit,

322
00:16:02,671 --> 00:16:05,340
and he was just grabbing things,
throwing them in bags.

323
00:16:05,423 --> 00:16:07,676
I was also kind of, like,
what the fuck is this place?

324
00:16:07,759 --> 00:16:11,012
-Sorry, I don't know if I can...
-[producer] No, you can swear.

325
00:16:11,638 --> 00:16:13,181
And then two models showed up,

326
00:16:13,264 --> 00:16:16,017
and it was, you know,
not anything like,

327
00:16:16,101 --> 00:16:18,103
"You should style this
with that."

328
00:16:18,186 --> 00:16:19,813
It was just a bag of clothes

329
00:16:19,896 --> 00:16:22,399
and, like, kind of,
"Show me what you got."

330
00:16:23,817 --> 00:16:25,151
It was a mess.

331
00:16:28,113 --> 00:16:31,783
I was really surprised that
they were able to have

332
00:16:31,866 --> 00:16:35,286
such a large business
at that scale.

333
00:16:36,079 --> 00:16:37,914
I mean, even their office space
was just...

334
00:16:37,956 --> 00:16:39,332
It wasn't an office space.

335
00:16:39,415 --> 00:16:41,167
It was, like, a warehouse
with crap everywhere.

336
00:16:41,251 --> 00:16:44,713
It wasn't like a global,
you know, brand.

337
00:16:46,214 --> 00:16:49,426
And from day one, I knew
that, like, this place

338
00:16:49,467 --> 00:16:52,512
is not your conventional
clothing company.

339
00:16:52,595 --> 00:16:55,223
[dramatic music playing]

340
00:16:56,099 --> 00:16:58,184
We want things.

341
00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:00,812
It's kind of like that
adrenaline rush.

342
00:17:00,895 --> 00:17:03,606
That endorphin that you get
when you find something cute.

343
00:17:03,648 --> 00:17:04,898
Oh, my gosh!

344
00:17:05,525 --> 00:17:07,902
Fast fashion brands
have kind of figured out

345
00:17:07,986 --> 00:17:10,780
exactly what you want
when you want it,

346
00:17:10,821 --> 00:17:12,531
and you can have it for cheap.

347
00:17:13,616 --> 00:17:16,703
A lot of people credit
ZARA as sort of this starter

348
00:17:16,786 --> 00:17:18,496
of the fast fashion model.

349
00:17:18,954 --> 00:17:21,290
In the '70s, they opened
their first store.

350
00:17:21,332 --> 00:17:23,209
And then,
as the '80s progressed,

351
00:17:23,292 --> 00:17:25,502
they decided to do
quicker trends

352
00:17:25,587 --> 00:17:27,672
that they made themselves
in-house.

353
00:17:27,756 --> 00:17:31,134
The faster they got them out,
the faster people were buying.

354
00:17:31,217 --> 00:17:35,513
So, their whole model was to do
quick trends at low prices.

355
00:17:35,555 --> 00:17:38,016
They were dropping
new styles every week,

356
00:17:38,058 --> 00:17:40,810
so that was
about 52 seasons a year.

357
00:17:41,728 --> 00:17:45,190
Some of the newer brands
have gone even further.

358
00:17:45,231 --> 00:17:47,359
SHEIN, for example, advertises

359
00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:49,861
that they drop about
a thousand styles a week.

360
00:17:49,903 --> 00:17:53,365
And now, social media
advertising has made shopping

361
00:17:53,406 --> 00:17:55,158
so much easier
than it has ever been.

362
00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:57,535
[dramatic music playing]

363
00:17:57,577 --> 00:18:01,498
And in that way, it's also
changed our shopping habits

364
00:18:01,539 --> 00:18:03,291
because we're often
seeing things

365
00:18:03,375 --> 00:18:04,959
we don't necessarily need,

366
00:18:05,043 --> 00:18:06,252
but it's kind of playing into

367
00:18:06,336 --> 00:18:08,046
our nature of like,
"Well, I want that."

368
00:18:08,546 --> 00:18:10,882
In order for fast fashion
to succeed,

369
00:18:10,965 --> 00:18:12,217
it needs us to see clothing
as something

370
00:18:12,300 --> 00:18:14,886
that we can just pick up
and get rid of.

371
00:18:14,969 --> 00:18:17,180
And that's why it works.

372
00:18:17,681 --> 00:18:19,391
You can access it so easily

373
00:18:19,432 --> 00:18:21,726
that it's almost like,
why wouldn't you?

374
00:18:21,810 --> 00:18:25,772
I got, literally... a whole lot.

375
00:18:25,855 --> 00:18:28,441
[car horns honking]

376
00:18:28,525 --> 00:18:30,235
[former store owner]
I remember once

377
00:18:30,318 --> 00:18:35,156
Stephan was bragging about how
the store on Saturday or Sunday

378
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:39,244
did, like, $20,000 or $25,000.

379
00:18:40,412 --> 00:18:43,164
And I'm looking
at the numbers, and I go,

380
00:18:43,248 --> 00:18:45,417
like, goddamn,

381
00:18:45,458 --> 00:18:48,128
that's...
that's not a bad model.

382
00:18:49,462 --> 00:18:53,133
Stephan said, "Why don't you
open store in Canada?"

383
00:18:53,216 --> 00:18:55,301
And I go, like,
"With these clothes?

384
00:18:55,385 --> 00:18:58,596
I'm not going to Canada.
I mean, Canada is cold."

385
00:18:58,638 --> 00:19:02,058
And he was like,
"Just go to Canada."

386
00:19:02,726 --> 00:19:05,145
So, I opened the first store
in Canada,

387
00:19:05,228 --> 00:19:08,773
in Vancouver,
April 2012.

388
00:19:09,190 --> 00:19:12,444
But the big jump
was when I opened Toronto.

389
00:19:13,028 --> 00:19:17,615
I kid you not, I had, like, a
ten-block line waiting outside.

390
00:19:17,699 --> 00:19:20,118
[crowd screaming]

391
00:19:20,201 --> 00:19:21,536
It was insane.

392
00:19:21,619 --> 00:19:24,414
This is Brandy Melville,
Canada, Toronto,

393
00:19:24,456 --> 00:19:26,124
coming at you live
on Queen Street,

394
00:19:26,207 --> 00:19:27,584
opening in five minutes.

395
00:19:27,667 --> 00:19:29,502
[dramatic music playing]

396
00:19:29,586 --> 00:19:31,755
[former store owner] I had
stores come and complain to me

397
00:19:31,796 --> 00:19:37,010
because the line was blocking
the entrance of other stores,

398
00:19:37,093 --> 00:19:38,636
and they were pissed.

399
00:19:38,678 --> 00:19:41,473
"Who is the owner?
What's going on?

400
00:19:41,556 --> 00:19:42,974
What is this?"

401
00:19:43,058 --> 00:19:44,893
Ha, this is success.

402
00:19:47,645 --> 00:19:51,149
Based on what I've heard from
former executives, insiders,

403
00:19:51,191 --> 00:19:52,984
it's an incredibly
successful business.

404
00:19:53,068 --> 00:19:56,237
[dramatic music playing]

405
00:19:56,321 --> 00:19:59,366
I heard Abercrombie looked into
buying Brandy Melville,

406
00:19:59,449 --> 00:20:01,785
and when the bankers looked
at the financials,

407
00:20:01,826 --> 00:20:04,829
they were a bit shocked
by how successful it was.

408
00:20:09,709 --> 00:20:13,254
[former store owner] Stephan is
a very, very, very smart guy.

409
00:20:13,338 --> 00:20:15,507
He understood
that the social media

410
00:20:15,590 --> 00:20:17,717
would get the attention
of the masses.

411
00:20:18,551 --> 00:20:21,846
Instagram, they had
a very efficient impact

412
00:20:21,888 --> 00:20:23,264
on these little girls.

413
00:20:23,348 --> 00:20:25,392
Fourteen, 15, 16,

414
00:20:25,475 --> 00:20:26,935
that's all they did.

415
00:20:27,394 --> 00:20:29,354
As soon as we posted something,

416
00:20:29,437 --> 00:20:31,856
you can see
the number of likes scrolling.

417
00:20:31,898 --> 00:20:34,359
Like, one, two, three, four,
five, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta.

418
00:20:34,401 --> 00:20:36,611
It was, like, so fast.

419
00:20:37,445 --> 00:20:39,572
They never use advertisement.

420
00:20:39,656 --> 00:20:42,158
Their advertisement
was Instagram

421
00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:45,620
and was the celebrity
wearing things around.

422
00:20:46,871 --> 00:20:51,126
We had so many from the
Disney Channel like Ciley Myrus,

423
00:20:51,209 --> 00:20:52,919
Miley Cyrus,
or whatever her name is.

424
00:20:53,003 --> 00:20:54,295
[producer] Miley Cyrus.

425
00:20:54,379 --> 00:20:57,007
[former store owner]
They had the Jenner, Kyla?

426
00:20:57,048 --> 00:20:58,508
What's her name? Ky...

427
00:20:58,550 --> 00:21:01,052
Well, I not very good with this.

428
00:21:01,094 --> 00:21:03,013
The daughter of Cindy Crawford,

429
00:21:03,054 --> 00:21:05,807
she happened to live in New York

430
00:21:05,890 --> 00:21:07,183
right above the store.

431
00:21:07,225 --> 00:21:08,643
I'm Kaia Gerber,

432
00:21:08,727 --> 00:21:11,229
and I'm going to be showing you
what I wear in a week.

433
00:21:11,312 --> 00:21:13,231
[man 2] Stephan loved her.

434
00:21:13,314 --> 00:21:16,067
So, we had literally luggages
full of clothes

435
00:21:16,151 --> 00:21:17,485
left with the concierge.

436
00:21:17,569 --> 00:21:19,988
These sweatpants
are Brandy Melville.

437
00:21:20,071 --> 00:21:22,449
Shout out,
because Brandy Melville

438
00:21:22,532 --> 00:21:23,616
has been a staple in my life

439
00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:25,243
since I was in, like,
fifth grade.

440
00:21:25,326 --> 00:21:26,536
[former store owner]
They'd have people

441
00:21:26,578 --> 00:21:28,288
scrolling through Instagram
and see

442
00:21:28,371 --> 00:21:31,124
if you have at least,
like, a million followers,

443
00:21:31,207 --> 00:21:33,918
you would get
a private message saying,

444
00:21:34,002 --> 00:21:35,587
"Hey, are you interested?

445
00:21:35,670 --> 00:21:37,964
We are going to send you
a box of clothes

446
00:21:38,048 --> 00:21:39,299
for free for you to keep.

447
00:21:39,382 --> 00:21:41,259
All you have to do is post it."

448
00:21:41,343 --> 00:21:43,428
Which is normal.
Everybody does that.

449
00:21:43,511 --> 00:21:45,472
I don't know why they gave me
all these clothes

450
00:21:45,555 --> 00:21:48,433
but thank you so much, Brandy.
So cute. It's so cute.

451
00:21:48,475 --> 00:21:51,436
[dramatic music playing]

452
00:21:54,439 --> 00:21:56,358
The United States and Europe
are consuming

453
00:21:56,441 --> 00:21:59,611
around 36 billion units
of clothing a year,

454
00:22:01,363 --> 00:22:04,532
and 85% of that
is getting discarded.

455
00:22:05,450 --> 00:22:06,618
With numbers like that,

456
00:22:06,701 --> 00:22:09,371
where is all that clothing
supposed to go?

457
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:12,749
Donation bins
are pretty common.

458
00:22:12,791 --> 00:22:15,335
I live next door to one,
and I can hear it.

459
00:22:15,418 --> 00:22:17,379
Like, every single night,
you hear this "Bang!"

460
00:22:17,462 --> 00:22:19,422
and it's going on and on.

461
00:22:20,423 --> 00:22:23,927
I'm seeing these clothing bins
get filled to the brim.

462
00:22:25,303 --> 00:22:26,805
I think most people think

463
00:22:26,888 --> 00:22:28,598
they actually are donating
their clothes,

464
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,518
and that is inherently
a good thing.

465
00:22:31,601 --> 00:22:34,312
But our systems are not in
place in order to get clothing

466
00:22:34,354 --> 00:22:36,731
to either be recycled
or donated properly,

467
00:22:37,482 --> 00:22:40,235
and therefore, it's just
ending up somewhere else.

468
00:22:40,318 --> 00:22:44,489
[ominous music playing]

469
00:22:45,824 --> 00:22:47,742
[crowd chatter]

470
00:22:48,952 --> 00:22:53,790
Ghana is like a dumping ground
for our unwanted fast fashion.

471
00:22:55,834 --> 00:23:00,922
We have deals with countries
in Africa to take the clothing,

472
00:23:01,339 --> 00:23:04,050
even though they don't
necessarily need it.

473
00:23:05,051 --> 00:23:07,512
[man 3] We are currently in
Kantamanto Market,

474
00:23:07,595 --> 00:23:11,474
which is the largest
secondhand economy in the world.

475
00:23:12,100 --> 00:23:15,520
Kantamanto sees around
15 million garments each week.

476
00:23:15,562 --> 00:23:17,689
And then, just for context,
Ghana is a country

477
00:23:17,772 --> 00:23:19,566
that only has 32 million people.

478
00:23:19,649 --> 00:23:21,443
So, if you look at it,
that means, like,

479
00:23:21,526 --> 00:23:23,653
almost, like, every Ghanaian
needs to buy

480
00:23:23,695 --> 00:23:25,530
at least one outfit every week

481
00:23:25,572 --> 00:23:26,906
for us to consume
the amount of stuff

482
00:23:26,990 --> 00:23:28,533
that comes in
from the Global North.

483
00:23:28,575 --> 00:23:33,038
So, the U.S., Canada, UK,
other parts of Europe.

484
00:23:34,039 --> 00:23:37,208
In Ghana, secondhand clothing
is called "Obruni Wawu,"

485
00:23:37,292 --> 00:23:39,961
which means
"dead white man's clothes."

486
00:23:40,712 --> 00:23:42,297
The term comes from the fact

487
00:23:42,339 --> 00:23:44,883
that when clothing
started flooding in here,

488
00:23:45,216 --> 00:23:48,386
people assumed that it came from
people who had died.

489
00:23:49,054 --> 00:23:51,723
Because why else would there be
so much of it?

490
00:23:53,892 --> 00:23:56,186
[Sammy] The retailers buy
the bales from the importers,

491
00:23:56,227 --> 00:23:59,064
but the retailers have
no idea what's in the bale.

492
00:23:59,105 --> 00:24:00,398
They invest huge sums of money

493
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,609
into basically
a surprise box.

494
00:24:03,318 --> 00:24:06,696
And the quality
keeps getting worse.

495
00:24:07,906 --> 00:24:09,908
This is because
with fast fashion

496
00:24:09,991 --> 00:24:12,535
there is no attention paid into
quality anymore.

497
00:24:12,577 --> 00:24:15,497
So you go, and the only things
that you're finding

498
00:24:15,580 --> 00:24:17,665
are, like, you know,
low-quality goods.

499
00:24:18,541 --> 00:24:21,503
[Alyssa] United States
and Europe

500
00:24:21,586 --> 00:24:25,090
have sort of forced this
arrangement on these countries.

501
00:24:25,674 --> 00:24:29,260
And when they have tried
to stop it,

502
00:24:29,344 --> 00:24:30,762
the United States and Europe

503
00:24:30,804 --> 00:24:33,807
have imposed punishments
on them.

504
00:24:33,890 --> 00:24:36,768
For example, trying to take
away the duty-free status

505
00:24:36,851 --> 00:24:39,562
of anybody that wouldn't take
the secondhand clothing,

506
00:24:39,604 --> 00:24:43,191
or taxing them in ways,
or taking away grant money.

507
00:24:44,526 --> 00:24:46,319
[Liz] Fast fashion
has essentially turned

508
00:24:46,403 --> 00:24:48,571
all clothing just into weight.

509
00:24:48,613 --> 00:24:50,448
It's just being shuffled
around the world.

510
00:24:50,532 --> 00:24:52,283
You try to make a couple pennies
off of it.

511
00:24:52,367 --> 00:24:53,785
You move it somewhere else,

512
00:24:53,827 --> 00:24:55,787
you try to make another couple
pennies off of it.

513
00:24:55,829 --> 00:24:57,747
And you can't escape the truth

514
00:24:57,789 --> 00:25:00,041
which is that there is
too much clothing.

515
00:25:00,125 --> 00:25:04,170
[dramatic music playing]

516
00:25:05,130 --> 00:25:08,008
[woman 6] It wasn't until after
I worked at Brandy Melville

517
00:25:08,091 --> 00:25:10,301
that I even realized
that Brandy Melville

518
00:25:10,343 --> 00:25:12,387
was part of fast fashion,

519
00:25:12,470 --> 00:25:14,597
and how fast fashion
was impacting the world

520
00:25:14,639 --> 00:25:16,307
and our environment.

521
00:25:17,517 --> 00:25:18,768
[former store owner]
Stephan's father

522
00:25:18,810 --> 00:25:20,311
started the company in Italy.

523
00:25:20,395 --> 00:25:23,023
The father was making T-shirts,

524
00:25:23,106 --> 00:25:24,482
just T-shirts.

525
00:25:24,524 --> 00:25:26,609
[woman 12] In Italy,
the Brandy that I knew

526
00:25:26,651 --> 00:25:28,319
when I was a teenager

527
00:25:28,403 --> 00:25:32,782
was these weird sentences
that they had on the T-shirts,

528
00:25:32,824 --> 00:25:35,994
like "Stressed, Depressed,
But Well Dressed."

529
00:25:36,077 --> 00:25:37,495
[laughs]

530
00:25:37,537 --> 00:25:38,830
When I was 19,

531
00:25:38,913 --> 00:25:41,458
my cousin started to work
with Stephan

532
00:25:41,499 --> 00:25:43,043
and Brandy Melville family.

533
00:25:43,126 --> 00:25:46,588
And I said, "Okay.
Can I... can I try?"

534
00:25:46,671 --> 00:25:49,049
And I started to work,
first in Rome.

535
00:25:50,675 --> 00:25:53,303
I mean, I was 19 years old.

536
00:25:53,345 --> 00:25:55,764
I was basically working
with all girls.

537
00:25:56,181 --> 00:26:00,518
It was like the dream for,
like, a guy 19 years old.

538
00:26:01,269 --> 00:26:05,648
Brandy Melville was not popular
when it was in Italy.

539
00:26:06,232 --> 00:26:08,485
[former senior VP] The girls
wouldn't pull their hair off

540
00:26:08,526 --> 00:26:10,862
for Brandy Melville
like they do in the U.S.

541
00:26:10,945 --> 00:26:14,157
While I worked there,
they had this, like, switch.

542
00:26:14,199 --> 00:26:16,701
[former senior VP] They started
focusing all the product

543
00:26:16,743 --> 00:26:18,703
for the U.S. market.

544
00:26:19,788 --> 00:26:22,916
Stephan had moved there
and based everything,

545
00:26:22,999 --> 00:26:26,378
like every research
into the U.S.

546
00:26:26,461 --> 00:26:29,214
That was... that was
his main target.

547
00:26:29,255 --> 00:26:31,216
[dramatic music playing]

548
00:26:31,257 --> 00:26:35,387
I was working at Brandy
exactly during that time.

549
00:26:36,012 --> 00:26:40,225
So, Brandy turned to this
California girl look.

550
00:26:41,059 --> 00:26:45,689
A white, blonde, tall,
skinny, surfer girl

551
00:26:45,730 --> 00:26:49,150
that looked beautiful naturally
without makeup.

552
00:26:49,234 --> 00:26:51,861
You could really feel this
shift coming,

553
00:26:51,903 --> 00:26:54,072
that they wanted to go
in this direction

554
00:26:54,155 --> 00:26:55,615
with this type of girl,

555
00:26:55,699 --> 00:26:57,283
this type of body shape.

556
00:26:58,284 --> 00:27:00,370
[former store owner] They
end up opening the first one

557
00:27:00,412 --> 00:27:03,957
by UCLA in 2009,
or something like that.

558
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:05,667
[former senior VP]
And that's when

559
00:27:05,750 --> 00:27:08,420
Brandy Melville exploded,

560
00:27:08,503 --> 00:27:10,422
and became what it became.

561
00:27:12,382 --> 00:27:15,260
[former store owner] It was
a thing to be a Brandy girl.

562
00:27:15,927 --> 00:27:19,723
I never heard of Chanel girl
or, like, a Gucci girl,

563
00:27:19,764 --> 00:27:22,767
or even, like, a lululemon girl.

564
00:27:22,809 --> 00:27:24,394
But this was a thing.

565
00:27:24,436 --> 00:27:26,438
It was the Brandy girl.

566
00:27:27,188 --> 00:27:30,775
So, today I have the opening
shift at Brandy Melville.

567
00:27:30,817 --> 00:27:33,695
-On my way to work.
-Oh, we're headed to Brandy.

568
00:27:33,778 --> 00:27:35,363
-So now we're at work.
-Welcome to my channel.

569
00:27:36,072 --> 00:27:39,075
[Kate] It is amazing
how much content there is

570
00:27:39,117 --> 00:27:42,454
from Brandy Melville employees
about Brandy Melville.

571
00:27:42,537 --> 00:27:44,998
There are these videos with
hundreds of thousands of views

572
00:27:45,081 --> 00:27:48,668
that are just, "A day in my life
as a Brandy Melville employee."

573
00:27:48,752 --> 00:27:50,420
I'm on cash today,
which is my favorite thing.

574
00:27:50,462 --> 00:27:54,132
[Kate] It was a little bit of,
like, a hangout spot.

575
00:27:54,215 --> 00:27:56,551
A place to kind of, like,
see and be seen.

576
00:27:57,052 --> 00:28:00,263
These videos
are so, so popular.

577
00:28:00,305 --> 00:28:03,641
This is what the behind
the store looks like right now.

578
00:28:03,683 --> 00:28:05,602
[Kate] It somehow
has become the job

579
00:28:05,643 --> 00:28:08,438
that all of these teen girls
want to have.

580
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:10,899
[dramatic music playing]

581
00:28:14,235 --> 00:28:17,864
[Natasha] When I was 15,
I was sitting at a cafe,

582
00:28:17,947 --> 00:28:19,866
reading my summer reading book,

583
00:28:19,949 --> 00:28:22,035
um, and a woman came up to me
and said,

584
00:28:22,118 --> 00:28:23,328
"Want to work at
Brandy Melville?"

585
00:28:23,411 --> 00:28:24,954
She's, like, "You look so cute.

586
00:28:24,996 --> 00:28:27,332
I think you would look great
working at our store."

587
00:28:27,374 --> 00:28:30,377
And I was like, "Yeah, I want
to work at Brandy Melville."

588
00:28:30,460 --> 00:28:32,504
Like, I thought
it was so cool.

589
00:28:32,587 --> 00:28:35,799
They were opening a store
that next day in Palo Alto,

590
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:37,967
and she wanted me to be one
of the ten girls

591
00:28:38,009 --> 00:28:40,428
who were gonna
be opening this new store.

592
00:28:41,012 --> 00:28:44,349
When I started, I realized that
they definitely, like, found

593
00:28:44,849 --> 00:28:47,602
the other, like, popular girls
in our community

594
00:28:47,686 --> 00:28:49,312
to start working at this store.

595
00:28:49,354 --> 00:28:51,356
[producer] Were you
even looking for a job?

596
00:28:51,439 --> 00:28:54,275
No, I wasn't looking for a job.

597
00:28:56,945 --> 00:29:00,949
[woman 10] I moved to New York.
I had no job, no apartment.

598
00:29:01,032 --> 00:29:03,076
I was, like, 30 pounds lighter.

599
00:29:03,159 --> 00:29:06,162
Just, like, very skinny, blonde.

600
00:29:08,039 --> 00:29:11,251
I walked into Brandy Melville,
and I was like,

601
00:29:11,710 --> 00:29:14,796
oh, my God,
everyone here is so pretty.

602
00:29:14,879 --> 00:29:16,631
Like, I wanna work here.

603
00:29:17,090 --> 00:29:19,843
They essentially, like,
hired me on the spot.

604
00:29:20,343 --> 00:29:21,845
[laughs]

605
00:29:26,933 --> 00:29:29,561
[Natasha] There was a stereotype
against Brandy Melville

606
00:29:29,602 --> 00:29:31,396
for only hiring
skinny white girls.

607
00:29:31,438 --> 00:29:33,940
That was sort of what
everyone knew about the store,

608
00:29:34,024 --> 00:29:36,568
but they shopped there,
and it was cool anyways.

609
00:29:37,027 --> 00:29:40,030
Like, "This is what you want to
look like. This is your goal."

610
00:29:40,071 --> 00:29:44,367
The white girl, mostly blonde,
sometimes brunette.

611
00:29:44,409 --> 00:29:46,995
Cool girl. Like, pretty girl.

612
00:29:47,078 --> 00:29:53,585
A little basic but knows
how to follow the trends.

613
00:29:54,085 --> 00:29:57,047
Skinny, small. Definitely young.

614
00:29:57,088 --> 00:29:58,965
She's obviously,
like, beautiful.

615
00:29:59,049 --> 00:30:03,511
Thin, blonde hair, blue eyes,

616
00:30:03,595 --> 00:30:06,389
pale, white.

617
00:30:07,557 --> 00:30:11,936
[former store owner] There was
a quiet, non-written agreement

618
00:30:12,020 --> 00:30:15,106
where you need
good-looking girls at the store.

619
00:30:15,148 --> 00:30:17,984
[producer] Did Stephan
tell you that or somebody else?

620
00:30:18,068 --> 00:30:20,403
All the guideline
come from Stephan.

621
00:30:20,445 --> 00:30:24,282
In fact, I was even encouraged
to pay them more,

622
00:30:24,366 --> 00:30:27,285
even though they were not good
at what they did.

623
00:30:28,286 --> 00:30:30,538
[woman 13] I remember one of
my assistant managers and I,

624
00:30:30,622 --> 00:30:32,624
when we were closing with
another sales associate

625
00:30:32,707 --> 00:30:33,958
who was younger,

626
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:37,879
she had this, like,
Swiffer brush,

627
00:30:37,962 --> 00:30:41,132
but didn't have the Swiffer pad
on the Swiffer.

628
00:30:41,174 --> 00:30:44,177
So, she was just, like,
plastic to concrete,

629
00:30:44,260 --> 00:30:46,137
just scraping.

630
00:30:47,138 --> 00:30:50,100
So, it's girls that, like,
clearly don't have

631
00:30:50,141 --> 00:30:53,937
some key working skills.
It's just, like, gone.

632
00:30:53,978 --> 00:30:56,439
A customer just walked in.
Should I say hi?

633
00:30:57,399 --> 00:30:59,734
[Kate] There's an entire subset
of TikTok parodies and memes,

634
00:30:59,818 --> 00:31:02,570
where it's people talking about
shopping at Brandy Melville

635
00:31:02,654 --> 00:31:04,489
and just being ignored.

636
00:31:04,572 --> 00:31:07,325
[nonchalantly] Hey.
Welcome to Brandy Melville.

637
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,079
Do you need something?
I'm kinda busy.

638
00:31:11,162 --> 00:31:13,164
It's very, like, exclusive.

639
00:31:13,248 --> 00:31:15,625
Like, you're supposed to feel
like you're part of a club

640
00:31:15,667 --> 00:31:16,751
if you work there.

641
00:31:16,835 --> 00:31:18,211
Did you try this on?

642
00:31:18,294 --> 00:31:22,924
[Lee] So the energy is kind of,
like, mean girl, catty.

643
00:31:23,008 --> 00:31:24,300
I think she heard us.

644
00:31:24,342 --> 00:31:26,302
You're not supposed
to be rude, but...

645
00:31:26,344 --> 00:31:29,180
they wouldn't fire you,
probably, if you were.

646
00:31:29,264 --> 00:31:31,891
Next time, can you make sure
you take this off the hanger?

647
00:31:32,392 --> 00:31:35,645
Just makes it easier for us.
Thanks.

648
00:31:35,687 --> 00:31:38,148
I was totally in this vibe,
as well.

649
00:31:38,690 --> 00:31:41,443
I remember, like, walking
around and feeling like,

650
00:31:41,526 --> 00:31:43,278
I'm, like, different
because I work here,

651
00:31:43,361 --> 00:31:46,364
and all the people who shop here
are just, like, boring.

652
00:31:46,406 --> 00:31:49,117
And, like, "Oh, I'm going in
the secret door in the back,"

653
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:51,202
and, like,
"You can't come back here."

654
00:31:52,287 --> 00:31:54,748
[Cate] I was always looking
forward to it when at school.

655
00:31:54,831 --> 00:31:55,999
I'm gonna wear my best outfit.

656
00:31:56,041 --> 00:31:58,877
I'm gonna walk past
all the customers,

657
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:00,253
and they're gonna look up to me,

658
00:32:00,337 --> 00:32:02,464
and their kids are gonna
look up to me.

659
00:32:02,839 --> 00:32:04,591
And I felt really special.

660
00:32:04,674 --> 00:32:08,261
[dramatic music playing]

661
00:32:10,388 --> 00:32:13,558
For Stephan, if they were
really light-skinned and redhead

662
00:32:13,641 --> 00:32:16,394
was, like, the number one,
the top of the top,

663
00:32:16,478 --> 00:32:19,064
which was funny to us
because, like,

664
00:32:19,105 --> 00:32:22,359
"Oh, he's doing that
because he's a redhead."

665
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:24,903
So, we would always
laugh about him

666
00:32:25,362 --> 00:32:30,116
basically trying to attract
only the elite.

667
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:33,787
Let's call it probably the cool
kids in school and everything.

668
00:32:33,870 --> 00:32:37,415
That's then after what all the
other girls in schools wanted.

669
00:32:37,874 --> 00:32:40,543
[Willow] It was really hard to
find models Stephan would like.

670
00:32:40,585 --> 00:32:42,796
I'd send him so many
different kind of models.

671
00:32:43,672 --> 00:32:48,051
I was interested in girls with
really unique facial features.

672
00:32:48,093 --> 00:32:50,720
But it was very clear
the kind of models

673
00:32:50,762 --> 00:32:52,972
and aesthetic
that they wanted.

674
00:32:53,556 --> 00:32:54,766
[woman 7] When I applied,

675
00:32:54,808 --> 00:32:56,685
it was like a shot in the dark
for me, to be honest,

676
00:32:56,768 --> 00:32:58,436
because I am part Asian

677
00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:00,647
and a lot of the girls
in the store,

678
00:33:00,730 --> 00:33:03,274
they were all tall, skinny,
blonde, white girls,

679
00:33:03,316 --> 00:33:05,610
and I was like, "I don't stand
a chance against them."

680
00:33:05,652 --> 00:33:08,113
[dramatic music playing]

681
00:33:08,154 --> 00:33:11,282
I remember I had to submit
a full body photo,

682
00:33:11,366 --> 00:33:14,494
which was really interesting
and also all my social media,

683
00:33:14,577 --> 00:33:17,330
like Instagram handle
and everything.

684
00:33:17,414 --> 00:33:19,290
I feel like a lot
of the questions

685
00:33:19,332 --> 00:33:20,792
weren't what I was expecting.

686
00:33:20,875 --> 00:33:24,045
I feel like they're asking more
about where I like to shop

687
00:33:24,129 --> 00:33:25,964
and, like, what YouTubers
I like to watch.

688
00:33:26,047 --> 00:33:28,008
Nothing really about,
like, my skills,

689
00:33:28,091 --> 00:33:30,135
nothing really about
my work history.

690
00:33:30,218 --> 00:33:34,139
But being 17, and being in love
with Brandy Melville,

691
00:33:34,180 --> 00:33:38,601
I was, like, answering whatever
they wanted me to say.

692
00:33:39,519 --> 00:33:41,813
I started off
as a sales associate.

693
00:33:42,522 --> 00:33:45,942
Me and, like, another minority
Brandy Melville worker

694
00:33:45,984 --> 00:33:47,986
were the only ones
behind the cash register

695
00:33:48,069 --> 00:33:49,654
and we kind of made a joke like,

696
00:33:49,696 --> 00:33:51,948
"Oh, we're always working
together behind the register."

697
00:33:51,990 --> 00:33:54,075
But what I notice is that

698
00:33:54,159 --> 00:33:57,120
the really pretty,
like, model-like white girls,

699
00:33:57,162 --> 00:33:59,414
they got to be the ones
to greet customers,

700
00:33:59,497 --> 00:34:01,666
to be, like,
the face of the store.

701
00:34:02,208 --> 00:34:05,045
[former senior VP] With Asians,
after they opened in China

702
00:34:05,128 --> 00:34:08,047
and the store made
a shitload of money,

703
00:34:08,130 --> 00:34:10,759
Stephan was happy
with Chinese people.

704
00:34:10,842 --> 00:34:14,304
But in regards
of Black people,

705
00:34:14,346 --> 00:34:15,513
he...

706
00:34:15,597 --> 00:34:17,766
he didn't want a lot
of Black people.

707
00:34:19,016 --> 00:34:20,351
[Lee] When I started
working there,

708
00:34:20,435 --> 00:34:22,603
you go down, and you go
into the stockroom

709
00:34:22,687 --> 00:34:25,565
and you see all the other people
who are working there

710
00:34:25,648 --> 00:34:27,150
who are not white.

711
00:34:27,192 --> 00:34:29,194
Yeah, there was an awareness.

712
00:34:29,235 --> 00:34:31,112
But we all just kind of...

713
00:34:31,987 --> 00:34:34,949
side-eyed it
and tried to do our job.

714
00:34:35,492 --> 00:34:38,995
[Kali] I started working
at Brandy Melville

715
00:34:39,036 --> 00:34:40,914
when I was probably just
turning 16.

716
00:34:40,996 --> 00:34:44,583
I was a minor, of course,
so, it's very hard to find jobs

717
00:34:44,668 --> 00:34:46,210
when you're not 18,

718
00:34:46,293 --> 00:34:49,005
and so I was so excited.

719
00:34:49,297 --> 00:34:51,299
[producer] What was
your title or role there?

720
00:34:51,382 --> 00:34:53,217
I started off as fitting room,

721
00:34:53,301 --> 00:34:55,512
and then I eventually moved
to stock.

722
00:34:55,553 --> 00:34:58,515
-[solemn music playing]
-[chatter]

723
00:34:58,556 --> 00:35:01,017
There was no white people
working in the stockroom.

724
00:35:01,059 --> 00:35:03,812
If you're white,
you had to be in sight.

725
00:35:04,396 --> 00:35:06,940
-[screams]
-[laughter]

726
00:35:07,232 --> 00:35:09,734
We all knew it was not right

727
00:35:09,776 --> 00:35:13,571
that we were all, you know,
pushed in the back out of sight.

728
00:35:13,655 --> 00:35:16,074
But it wasn't something
we were necessarily mad about

729
00:35:16,157 --> 00:35:19,160
because I just loved being
around my people.

730
00:35:19,244 --> 00:35:23,248
Like, people of color,
Hispanic and Black people.

731
00:35:23,331 --> 00:35:25,291
So, it was kind of like,

732
00:35:25,375 --> 00:35:26,918
you win some, you lose some.

733
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:28,962
[dramatic music playing]

734
00:35:29,045 --> 00:35:33,633
Fashion has been built on these
very racist, colonial structures

735
00:35:34,509 --> 00:35:37,137
and also on the backs
of women,

736
00:35:38,263 --> 00:35:40,348
mostly women of color.

737
00:35:42,559 --> 00:35:46,521
The way that the industry gets
away with abusive situations

738
00:35:46,604 --> 00:35:48,857
is by dehumanizing
this workforce.

739
00:35:48,940 --> 00:35:52,777
[dramatic music playing]

740
00:35:55,613 --> 00:35:58,616
These women are hidden
from our consciousness.

741
00:35:58,700 --> 00:36:01,369
We have an existing
head-carrying culture,

742
00:36:01,453 --> 00:36:02,787
where we carry buckets
of water,

743
00:36:02,871 --> 00:36:06,332
or maybe, like, five-kg items
on our heads.

744
00:36:07,625 --> 00:36:10,170
[Liz] Kayayei are female
head porters.

745
00:36:11,129 --> 00:36:14,799
It's a term that literally means
"she who carries the burden."

746
00:36:15,508 --> 00:36:18,386
In Kantamanto, they carry bales
of secondhand clothing

747
00:36:18,470 --> 00:36:21,222
that weigh a minimum
of 120 pounds.

748
00:36:21,306 --> 00:36:23,933
So, it's their entire
body weight on their heads.

749
00:36:25,852 --> 00:36:27,270
[Chloe] This is dangerous,

750
00:36:27,312 --> 00:36:30,315
and it's literally backbreaking

751
00:36:30,357 --> 00:36:33,026
if you carry 50 kg
ten times a day.

752
00:36:33,109 --> 00:36:37,572
That's 500 kg
on a woman's body.

753
00:36:37,655 --> 00:36:39,074
[crowd chatter]

754
00:36:39,157 --> 00:36:40,992
A lot of the girls
have chest pains.

755
00:36:41,034 --> 00:36:43,953
They have scoliosis
from the work.

756
00:36:44,496 --> 00:36:49,000
It's literally crushing
cartilage, compressing it.

757
00:36:49,376 --> 00:36:51,920
And some of them,
their spines are fused.

758
00:36:52,003 --> 00:36:54,214
They have, like,
sharp tips here.

759
00:36:54,297 --> 00:36:56,841
So they're in pain every day.

760
00:36:58,093 --> 00:36:59,344
Once you stop the work

761
00:36:59,386 --> 00:37:02,180
then the deterioration
will stop,

762
00:37:02,263 --> 00:37:04,641
but it will not go back
to how it was.

763
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:08,603
Seeing my sisters
go through it is...

764
00:37:08,687 --> 00:37:10,855
seeing another human being
go through it,

765
00:37:11,356 --> 00:37:12,565
this is wrong.

766
00:37:12,649 --> 00:37:14,943
No one should
have to go through this.

767
00:37:15,026 --> 00:37:18,405
[dramatic music playing]

768
00:37:18,488 --> 00:37:21,199
I've been wanting
more Brandy T-shirts

769
00:37:21,282 --> 00:37:22,492
because
they're such great material

770
00:37:22,534 --> 00:37:24,703
and they're just
the perfect oversized fit.

771
00:37:24,744 --> 00:37:26,871
I just love the way
my beachy necklaces

772
00:37:26,913 --> 00:37:28,623
looked with this button detail.

773
00:37:28,707 --> 00:37:30,542
They have this little,
dainty floral pattern

774
00:37:30,583 --> 00:37:32,544
all over them,
which I think is so cute.

775
00:37:32,627 --> 00:37:37,007
I, one day, was wearing
a shirt to work

776
00:37:37,048 --> 00:37:38,466
that was a little bit unique.

777
00:37:38,550 --> 00:37:40,468
When it came out on the floor,
like, a few weeks later

778
00:37:40,552 --> 00:37:41,970
in a shipment, I was like,

779
00:37:42,012 --> 00:37:43,805
that's the shirt
that I was wearing.

780
00:37:44,264 --> 00:37:46,057
[Kali]
There was this white girl.

781
00:37:46,141 --> 00:37:48,143
We were friends.
She was like, "Oh, my God.

782
00:37:48,226 --> 00:37:50,562
Like, Stephan,
he just paid me $100

783
00:37:50,603 --> 00:37:54,607
for the sweater I am wearing."
So they could copy it!

784
00:37:55,108 --> 00:37:56,735
One day I come in,
the higher ups,

785
00:37:56,776 --> 00:37:58,403
they were like,
"We love your pants."

786
00:37:58,486 --> 00:37:59,738
And they're like,

787
00:37:59,821 --> 00:38:01,740
"Where did you get them,
and can you show us?"

788
00:38:01,823 --> 00:38:05,285
So, I showed them online,
and they bought the pants.

789
00:38:05,368 --> 00:38:08,413
They paid, like, $50
for express shipping.

790
00:38:09,664 --> 00:38:12,417
I didn't get paid for my pants
that they stole,

791
00:38:12,500 --> 00:38:14,294
so I am confused.

792
00:38:14,377 --> 00:38:16,171
Where is my $100?

793
00:38:16,796 --> 00:38:21,009
[Kate] It was such a weird,
ramshackle way

794
00:38:21,092 --> 00:38:22,927
to run a business,
but it worked,

795
00:38:23,011 --> 00:38:26,389
because then they were able
to kind of mass produce

796
00:38:26,431 --> 00:38:29,059
what these cool girls
were already wearing.

797
00:38:29,768 --> 00:38:32,604
In some cases,
the names of these things

798
00:38:32,645 --> 00:38:33,980
on the Brandy Melville website,

799
00:38:34,064 --> 00:38:35,857
it'll be like,
"Jocelyn's Shirt,"

800
00:38:35,940 --> 00:38:39,444
and it'll be because the shirt
was literally purchased

801
00:38:39,486 --> 00:38:40,945
off of Jocelyn's back.

802
00:38:41,029 --> 00:38:42,864
[eerie music playing]

803
00:38:42,947 --> 00:38:46,451
Companies spend hundreds
of millions of dollars

804
00:38:46,534 --> 00:38:47,952
developing a brand.

805
00:38:48,036 --> 00:38:50,622
Brandy doesn't do that.

806
00:38:51,498 --> 00:38:53,792
[former store owner] I don't
understand these big brands.

807
00:38:53,833 --> 00:38:57,003
They have to hire a guy
that is probably in his 40s,

808
00:38:57,087 --> 00:39:00,882
and he has to design clothes
for a 14-year-old girl.

809
00:39:00,965 --> 00:39:02,300
What? Why?

810
00:39:02,842 --> 00:39:06,471
Isn't it easier to ask the
14-year-old girl what she likes,

811
00:39:07,055 --> 00:39:09,641
instead of trying to figure out
what she likes?

812
00:39:09,724 --> 00:39:12,352
Um, I like these shirts,
but not this style.

813
00:39:12,435 --> 00:39:14,104
This is too tight to me.

814
00:39:14,145 --> 00:39:16,523
I like this skirt. I have it.

815
00:39:16,606 --> 00:39:18,274
My friend Phoebe
literally was, like,

816
00:39:18,316 --> 00:39:20,151
"Oh, you guys
should sell socks."

817
00:39:20,193 --> 00:39:21,736
And then they started
selling socks.

818
00:39:22,153 --> 00:39:26,324
[Marta] They would ask me to
look up clothes on his computer

819
00:39:26,366 --> 00:39:30,036
and order them,
and then they would remake them.

820
00:39:31,079 --> 00:39:33,331
[former store owner] It happen,
like, a few times.

821
00:39:33,373 --> 00:39:35,375
We had stuff
that had to be recalled

822
00:39:35,458 --> 00:39:37,794
because there was
an infringement

823
00:39:37,836 --> 00:39:39,337
of property rights.

824
00:39:39,921 --> 00:39:42,799
And they would
get a notice from an attorney,

825
00:39:42,841 --> 00:39:45,176
and so, they would call
and tell me,

826
00:39:45,510 --> 00:39:48,054
"Oh, you have to take
all the stuff out."

827
00:39:48,930 --> 00:39:51,141
For a little bit, Jessy was
showing me graphics

828
00:39:51,182 --> 00:39:53,768
and things, "Do you like this?
What about this color?"

829
00:39:53,852 --> 00:39:55,979
"Product research"
was what they called it.

830
00:39:56,646 --> 00:39:58,815
[former senior VP]
The product research girls,

831
00:39:58,857 --> 00:40:00,692
they were girls
that worked there,

832
00:40:00,775 --> 00:40:04,195
and Stephan thought they had,
like, uh, really good style.

833
00:40:04,279 --> 00:40:06,197
[girl] Let's pick an outfit.

834
00:40:07,157 --> 00:40:10,243
[former store owner] They give
credit cards to the girls

835
00:40:10,326 --> 00:40:12,370
that they consider wealthy,

836
00:40:12,454 --> 00:40:15,665
from Malibu or Calabasas.

837
00:40:15,707 --> 00:40:18,626
Very white neighborhoods,
good family.

838
00:40:18,710 --> 00:40:20,628
It's basically the elite.

839
00:40:21,629 --> 00:40:23,298
[former senior VP] It was, like,

840
00:40:23,381 --> 00:40:25,842
"I want that
as my top clientele,

841
00:40:25,884 --> 00:40:29,387
to see what they buy,
to produce what they want."

842
00:40:29,471 --> 00:40:31,890
[girl] So many clothes. Wow.

843
00:40:31,931 --> 00:40:34,351
They come back
with a bunch of bags.

844
00:40:34,392 --> 00:40:35,435
We get in the back.

845
00:40:35,518 --> 00:40:36,853
They try the stuff.

846
00:40:36,895 --> 00:40:39,814
Change a few things
here and there.

847
00:40:39,898 --> 00:40:41,232
See how it fits.

848
00:40:41,274 --> 00:40:44,694
And then we do,
like, maybe 200 pieces.

849
00:40:44,736 --> 00:40:46,613
We test it on Santa Monica.

850
00:40:46,696 --> 00:40:49,449
If it's a bestseller,
we start production.

851
00:40:50,075 --> 00:40:52,911
I am going to China
with Brandy Melville

852
00:40:52,994 --> 00:40:55,580
to do a bunch of, like,
product research and stuff.

853
00:40:55,663 --> 00:41:00,418
I will be going to Milan, Italy
for Brandy Melville.

854
00:41:00,460 --> 00:41:03,213
[dramatic music playing]

855
00:41:04,798 --> 00:41:07,967
The executives would take
certain favorite girls

856
00:41:08,051 --> 00:41:10,011
to China or to Italy.

857
00:41:10,095 --> 00:41:14,015
We're flying business class.
It is so nice.

858
00:41:14,099 --> 00:41:16,601
[girl 1] We saw the Alps
from above.

859
00:41:16,685 --> 00:41:20,480
Guess who just landed
in Guangzhou!

860
00:41:21,606 --> 00:41:23,441
[Willow] The girls would go
to the factory

861
00:41:23,483 --> 00:41:24,943
where a lot of things are made,

862
00:41:25,026 --> 00:41:27,779
and they would have the girls
pick out stuff they liked.

863
00:41:28,780 --> 00:41:31,533
And that was obviously
an amazing trip to get to go on.

864
00:41:31,616 --> 00:41:33,785
[girl 1] We got to the factory,

865
00:41:33,868 --> 00:41:35,912
and I looked through
a lot of samples

866
00:41:35,954 --> 00:41:39,624
and filtered them out
to which ones I liked.

867
00:41:39,666 --> 00:41:42,293
I never finished
the vlog yesterday

868
00:41:42,377 --> 00:41:46,673
because we were in fittings
for, like, so many hours.

869
00:41:46,756 --> 00:41:48,800
[Kate] It was incredibly
competitive

870
00:41:48,842 --> 00:41:51,177
to be invited to be
on one of these trips.

871
00:41:51,261 --> 00:41:52,762
We're living very luxuriously,

872
00:41:52,804 --> 00:41:55,098
and I don't want
to go home, ever.

873
00:41:55,473 --> 00:41:57,600
They were treated like queen.

874
00:41:57,642 --> 00:42:02,063
Best hotel, best restaurants,
best of everything.

875
00:42:02,897 --> 00:42:04,816
[girl 2] I can't wait
to see all of the stuff

876
00:42:04,858 --> 00:42:06,609
that we worked on in China

877
00:42:06,651 --> 00:42:09,654
make it to
all of the stores worldwide.

878
00:42:09,696 --> 00:42:11,364
It'll be so cool to see things

879
00:42:11,448 --> 00:42:13,658
and be, like, hey, like,
I'm the reason

880
00:42:13,742 --> 00:42:16,119
why those jeans
are that color,

881
00:42:16,161 --> 00:42:19,039
or I'm the reason
why those pants fit like that.

882
00:42:19,122 --> 00:42:20,665
So cool.

883
00:42:22,625 --> 00:42:24,836
[Kate] Brandy Melville
harnesses that energy

884
00:42:24,919 --> 00:42:27,213
of "Teenage girls
can do anything.

885
00:42:27,297 --> 00:42:30,383
Teenage girls have
this amazing design capability.

886
00:42:30,467 --> 00:42:32,677
They have this eye
for fashion."

887
00:42:34,012 --> 00:42:37,682
They are paying these people
close to minimum wage

888
00:42:37,766 --> 00:42:39,809
to do what,
at another company,

889
00:42:39,851 --> 00:42:41,561
the senior leadership
might be doing,

890
00:42:41,644 --> 00:42:43,938
to make them extremely rich.

891
00:42:46,858 --> 00:42:49,069
[former store owner]
The clothes, let me tell you.

892
00:42:49,152 --> 00:42:52,364
The clothes were
not that good quality.

893
00:42:52,405 --> 00:42:53,948
It was a very cheap product.

894
00:42:54,032 --> 00:42:58,745
But Stephan was holding himself
as one of the luxury brands.

895
00:42:58,828 --> 00:43:00,580
Some of their stuff
was super soft

896
00:43:00,663 --> 00:43:04,292
but definitely thin,
wouldn't last long.

897
00:43:04,376 --> 00:43:05,877
You'd get holes in the seams.

898
00:43:06,670 --> 00:43:07,837
Even as a sales associate,

899
00:43:07,879 --> 00:43:09,881
having to put a tag
in something,

900
00:43:09,964 --> 00:43:12,842
and just that, like, thin
little needle of a tag

901
00:43:12,884 --> 00:43:14,052
would, like, destroy a shirt.

902
00:43:14,511 --> 00:43:16,888
[former store owner] I had
shorts that completely open up.

903
00:43:16,971 --> 00:43:19,808
Clothes were just,
like, falling apart.

904
00:43:19,891 --> 00:43:22,560
I had entire boxes
that I had to throw away.

905
00:43:22,644 --> 00:43:25,897
For me,
this was mind blowing.

906
00:43:27,857 --> 00:43:29,693
[Kate] A lot of
the Brandy Melville clothing

907
00:43:29,734 --> 00:43:30,777
says "Made in Italy,"

908
00:43:30,860 --> 00:43:32,654
which is,
I think in the U.S.,

909
00:43:32,737 --> 00:43:36,533
a lot of people see as this sign
of quality and luxury.

910
00:43:37,075 --> 00:43:40,120
[Melissa] Brandy was famous for,
like, being produced in Italy.

911
00:43:40,203 --> 00:43:41,454
It's an Italian brand.

912
00:43:41,538 --> 00:43:43,832
But then I started wondering,
"Hm, made in Italy, yeah,

913
00:43:43,915 --> 00:43:45,875
but the quality is quite bad."

914
00:43:45,917 --> 00:43:48,169
And sometimes
I could hear, like,

915
00:43:48,253 --> 00:43:49,546
the owner talking,

916
00:43:49,587 --> 00:43:51,256
and, obviously,
because I speak Italian

917
00:43:51,339 --> 00:43:53,633
and maybe sometimes
they forgot that I understood

918
00:43:53,717 --> 00:43:55,427
everything what they were
talking about,

919
00:43:55,510 --> 00:43:57,387
I could always hear them
talk about

920
00:43:57,429 --> 00:43:59,264
the clothes being produced
in Prato

921
00:43:59,305 --> 00:44:02,308
and, like, pickups from Prato
and factories in Prato.

922
00:44:02,392 --> 00:44:05,562
I always heard about this city.
I was like, what is this Prato?

923
00:44:05,603 --> 00:44:08,023
[dramatic music playing]

924
00:44:08,106 --> 00:44:12,444
[man 4] Prato is the most
important textile hub

925
00:44:12,527 --> 00:44:14,070
in Europe.

926
00:44:14,404 --> 00:44:16,364
It's a real long tradition.

927
00:44:18,408 --> 00:44:22,495
For 100 years,
we are specialized

928
00:44:22,579 --> 00:44:24,789
in the luxury brand.

929
00:44:25,331 --> 00:44:31,087
People come here from other
poor region of Italy to work.

930
00:44:32,672 --> 00:44:36,092
Now we are
the biggest in production

931
00:44:36,134 --> 00:44:41,014
for the most important
fast fashion brands in Europe.

932
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:46,394
The first Chinese people
in Prato

933
00:44:46,478 --> 00:44:48,480
arrived during the '90s.

934
00:44:49,356 --> 00:44:53,151
Now, they are ten percent
of our population.

935
00:44:54,569 --> 00:44:56,821
They decided to work
for themselves,

936
00:44:56,863 --> 00:45:00,533
opening Pronto Moda factories.

937
00:45:00,950 --> 00:45:03,870
Pronto Moda,
it is fast fashion.

938
00:45:03,953 --> 00:45:07,957
You know, a T-shirt that you use
three, four, or five times,

939
00:45:07,999 --> 00:45:11,753
and then you throw away
because they are very cheap.

940
00:45:12,754 --> 00:45:15,006
It's cheap.
It's very, very cheap.

941
00:45:16,341 --> 00:45:20,762
[in Italian]

942
00:45:20,929 --> 00:45:23,515
[in English]
And the rest is history.

943
00:45:24,349 --> 00:45:28,687
And now, the label
contains the written

944
00:45:28,770 --> 00:45:30,313
"Made in Italy."

945
00:45:30,772 --> 00:45:32,357
They are made in Italy.

946
00:45:32,399 --> 00:45:33,650
They are made in Prato.

947
00:45:33,858 --> 00:45:36,444
[in Italian]

948
00:45:46,121 --> 00:45:47,872
[former senior VP] When
I started working with them,

949
00:45:47,956 --> 00:45:49,708
basically, Brandy Melville

950
00:45:49,749 --> 00:45:52,377
had the biggest factory in Prato
at the moment.

951
00:45:53,086 --> 00:45:54,879
Let's say that they need
to produce

952
00:45:54,921 --> 00:45:56,840
a certain amount of T-shirts.

953
00:45:56,881 --> 00:45:59,175
There is a machine
cutting all the shapes.

954
00:45:59,551 --> 00:46:00,969
And then, all those shapes,

955
00:46:01,052 --> 00:46:03,304
they're given to
a Chinese company that come,

956
00:46:03,388 --> 00:46:06,057
take all the pieces,
and bring it back.

957
00:46:06,099 --> 00:46:09,310
The part I saw was, like,
everyone was pretty happy

958
00:46:09,394 --> 00:46:11,604
because Brandy was getting
a good deal

959
00:46:11,688 --> 00:46:13,690
and everyone was making money.

960
00:46:14,566 --> 00:46:17,193
And if you have, like, a company
like Brandy Melville

961
00:46:17,235 --> 00:46:19,654
that keep producing,
producing, producing,

962
00:46:19,738 --> 00:46:22,365
that's... that's
a good perk in Italy.

963
00:46:25,368 --> 00:46:27,370
I think everybody outsources
their production

964
00:46:27,412 --> 00:46:28,830
for the most part these days.

965
00:46:28,913 --> 00:46:31,499
I mean, very few companies
have in-house production.

966
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:34,336
Subcontracting happens
in every country.

967
00:46:34,419 --> 00:46:36,504
You'll say, "Factory A,

968
00:46:36,546 --> 00:46:38,214
can you produce this product
for me?"

969
00:46:38,256 --> 00:46:40,884
Factory A will say yes,
but then they will realize

970
00:46:40,925 --> 00:46:42,927
they don't have enough
manpower in-house,

971
00:46:42,969 --> 00:46:44,763
or they've got too many orders
backed up,

972
00:46:44,846 --> 00:46:47,182
so they'll then go down
to Factory B, C, and D

973
00:46:47,265 --> 00:46:49,267
to say, "Can you help me produce
this product?"

974
00:46:49,309 --> 00:46:51,269
All of a sudden,
you've employed four factories

975
00:46:51,353 --> 00:46:53,605
when you thought you were
employing one factory.

976
00:46:54,147 --> 00:46:56,232
Fashion supply chains
are really opaque.

977
00:46:57,442 --> 00:47:00,570
[Matteo in Italian]

978
00:47:08,286 --> 00:47:10,205
[reporter in English]
For Lina Iervasi,

979
00:47:10,288 --> 00:47:12,791
Head of Immigration
at the Prato Police,

980
00:47:12,832 --> 00:47:14,292
raids on Chinese workshops

981
00:47:14,334 --> 00:47:16,795
have become
a familiar occurrence.

982
00:47:16,836 --> 00:47:18,296
Several times a week,

983
00:47:18,380 --> 00:47:19,547
she drops by unannounced

984
00:47:19,631 --> 00:47:23,343
on one of over 3,000
small Chinese businesses,

985
00:47:23,426 --> 00:47:26,054
some of which
employ workers illegally.

986
00:47:26,638 --> 00:47:29,432
[Matteo] There are a lot of
Pronto Moda that are regular.

987
00:47:29,933 --> 00:47:33,144
But sometimes,
not always, but sometimes,

988
00:47:33,228 --> 00:47:37,315
we find people
that was like slaves.

989
00:47:37,524 --> 00:47:41,361
[in Italian]

990
00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:45,323
[Ayesha] Oh, the sweatshop
conversation is not new.

991
00:47:45,615 --> 00:47:48,618
This is an industry
that has always

992
00:47:48,660 --> 00:47:50,161
robbed workers of their wages,

993
00:47:50,245 --> 00:47:52,497
and always had
unsafe conditions.

994
00:47:52,580 --> 00:47:55,000
[reporter] A dress here sells
for just five euros

995
00:47:55,041 --> 00:47:56,668
and a coat for ten.

996
00:47:56,710 --> 00:48:00,130
All the clothes also carry the
coveted "Made in Italy" label,

997
00:48:00,171 --> 00:48:02,340
which helps sell them abroad.

998
00:48:02,382 --> 00:48:04,134
[Ayesha] There is this
perception, somehow,

999
00:48:04,175 --> 00:48:07,387
that if it's made in Italy
that it's somehow better.

1000
00:48:08,013 --> 00:48:09,764
The truth of the matter
is that

1001
00:48:09,848 --> 00:48:12,225
there are good and bad factories
everywhere,

1002
00:48:12,308 --> 00:48:13,893
and if you want
to see sweatshops,

1003
00:48:13,977 --> 00:48:15,770
you can see them in Prato,

1004
00:48:15,854 --> 00:48:17,522
and you can see them
in Los Angeles,

1005
00:48:17,564 --> 00:48:18,606
and in the UK.

1006
00:48:18,690 --> 00:48:19,816
They exist right here

1007
00:48:19,858 --> 00:48:21,943
in the Western Hemisphere.

1008
00:48:22,027 --> 00:48:24,029
If something costs very little,

1009
00:48:24,112 --> 00:48:27,032
is coming to you in a way
that feels impossibly too easy,

1010
00:48:27,073 --> 00:48:28,867
impossibly too good,

1011
00:48:28,908 --> 00:48:31,119
there is someone somewhere
in that supply chain

1012
00:48:31,202 --> 00:48:35,040
that is not being paid,
that is not being respected.

1013
00:48:39,794 --> 00:48:41,296
Why am I in Brandy Melville,

1014
00:48:41,379 --> 00:48:44,049
and I'm looking at the sizes,
looking for sizes,

1015
00:48:44,090 --> 00:48:46,217
and there's no sizes
on anything I'm looking at.

1016
00:48:46,259 --> 00:48:49,637
And then I find this one shirt,
and it says one size fits all.

1017
00:48:49,721 --> 00:48:51,014
How is it still open?

1018
00:48:51,056 --> 00:48:53,308
How is a shirt
one size fits all?

1019
00:48:57,479 --> 00:49:00,231
[former senior VP]
At first, we had sizes.

1020
00:49:00,315 --> 00:49:04,361
At a certain point,
all the sizes disappeared.

1021
00:49:04,402 --> 00:49:05,570
If you ask someone,

1022
00:49:05,612 --> 00:49:08,490
it's like, so basically,
you're losing sales,

1023
00:49:08,573 --> 00:49:12,077
which is true
from a certain point of view.

1024
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:14,662
But Stephan's point of view was,

1025
00:49:14,746 --> 00:49:16,206
"We are not losing sales.

1026
00:49:16,247 --> 00:49:18,750
We are keeping
the brand exclusive

1027
00:49:18,833 --> 00:49:20,251
as, like, a goal.

1028
00:49:20,293 --> 00:49:23,588
Like, 'Oh, I need to fit
in these clothes.'"

1029
00:49:24,172 --> 00:49:26,383
[Lee] I realized it
on, like, my first shift.

1030
00:49:26,424 --> 00:49:29,594
I was like, "Well, like, what
about the mediums and larges?"

1031
00:49:29,636 --> 00:49:31,930
And they were like, "Oh no,
we don't have mediums, larges."

1032
00:49:32,013 --> 00:49:33,390
And I was like,
"So, it's all small?"

1033
00:49:33,431 --> 00:49:35,934
And they were like,
"No, it's not small.

1034
00:49:36,017 --> 00:49:37,644
There's no size."

1035
00:49:37,727 --> 00:49:41,272
[dramatic music playing]

1036
00:49:43,733 --> 00:49:46,069
[former store owner] After
multiple weeks of complaining,

1037
00:49:46,111 --> 00:49:48,655
we went from
"one size fits all"

1038
00:49:48,738 --> 00:49:50,699
to "one size fits most,"

1039
00:49:50,782 --> 00:49:52,117
and we still had complaints

1040
00:49:52,158 --> 00:49:56,204
because they go,
"So, I'm not even most?"

1041
00:49:59,082 --> 00:50:02,252
[solemn, pensive music playing]

1042
00:50:06,256 --> 00:50:08,466
[Lee] I had an eating disorder

1043
00:50:08,550 --> 00:50:10,135
that was definitely, like,
at its worst

1044
00:50:10,218 --> 00:50:12,470
when I was working
at Brandy Melville.

1045
00:50:13,430 --> 00:50:15,473
[Natasha] I was recovering
from an eating disorder

1046
00:50:15,515 --> 00:50:17,392
for the three years
I worked there.

1047
00:50:17,475 --> 00:50:19,644
I remember when I was
gaining the weight back

1048
00:50:19,728 --> 00:50:22,731
to be, you know, like,
a very normal-looking person,

1049
00:50:22,772 --> 00:50:24,399
like, I no longer had
a thigh gap,

1050
00:50:24,482 --> 00:50:28,820
at that point, I was very much
aware of the pressure to be,

1051
00:50:28,903 --> 00:50:30,113
like, skinny.

1052
00:50:30,155 --> 00:50:32,532
There was just, like,
too much pressure

1053
00:50:32,615 --> 00:50:33,992
to be perfect, I think.

1054
00:50:34,034 --> 00:50:36,036
[Isabela] Brandy did put me
in that mindset

1055
00:50:36,119 --> 00:50:38,663
where I hated my body.
I hated myself.

1056
00:50:38,705 --> 00:50:40,707
A lot of girls suffered with it,

1057
00:50:40,790 --> 00:50:42,250
a lot of the girls there.

1058
00:50:42,334 --> 00:50:44,669
And I'm still recovering.
You know, I'm still recovering.

1059
00:50:44,711 --> 00:50:47,172
Eating disorders are gonna
stay with you for a while.

1060
00:50:48,173 --> 00:50:50,175
[Cate] I do remember one time,
there was a customer

1061
00:50:50,216 --> 00:50:52,761
who, um, picked up a jacket

1062
00:50:52,844 --> 00:50:55,347
and she told me,

1063
00:50:55,388 --> 00:50:58,266
"My granddaughter
looks like your size,

1064
00:50:58,350 --> 00:51:00,143
you know, kind of bigger."

1065
00:51:00,185 --> 00:51:03,480
And those words,
"kind of bigger,"

1066
00:51:03,521 --> 00:51:08,693
sent my entire... my entire
shift into a mental orbit

1067
00:51:08,735 --> 00:51:11,738
of me thinking, "Am I not
thin enough to work here?"

1068
00:51:11,821 --> 00:51:14,991
I had already gone through,
you know, my troubles

1069
00:51:15,033 --> 00:51:16,618
of being ultra-thin,

1070
00:51:16,701 --> 00:51:19,537
that's not something I ever
wanted to deal with again.

1071
00:51:19,621 --> 00:51:22,582
I went to the back, and no one
was telling me it wasn't true.

1072
00:51:22,665 --> 00:51:24,918
They were just saying,
"Don't listen, don't listen."

1073
00:51:25,293 --> 00:51:27,212
I remember feeling,
like, proud of myself

1074
00:51:27,253 --> 00:51:28,672
for gaining, like, five pounds

1075
00:51:28,713 --> 00:51:32,967
and then realizing that, like,
if I kept being healthy,

1076
00:51:33,009 --> 00:51:36,096
like, I wouldn't be able
to follow company policy

1077
00:51:36,179 --> 00:51:37,931
and, like, keep wearing
their clothes.

1078
00:51:38,598 --> 00:51:40,350
So, that wasn't good
for my brain.

1079
00:51:41,726 --> 00:51:43,228
[former store owner]
I look to the YouTube,

1080
00:51:43,311 --> 00:51:45,146
and I found so many video

1081
00:51:45,230 --> 00:51:47,190
that these people
were obsessed

1082
00:51:47,232 --> 00:51:49,150
with attacking Brandy Melville.

1083
00:51:49,234 --> 00:51:50,568
I say to Stephan,

1084
00:51:50,610 --> 00:51:52,737
"Okay, did you see
these videos?"

1085
00:51:52,779 --> 00:51:55,198
And Stephan goes, "Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah.

1086
00:51:55,240 --> 00:51:57,242
I know. Well, guess what?

1087
00:51:57,283 --> 00:52:01,079
Our sales went up like 20%,
so, who cares?"

1088
00:52:01,788 --> 00:52:05,166
That reaction remind me of
the famous phrase of Mussolini.

1089
00:52:05,542 --> 00:52:08,670
"Talk bad about me,
talk good about me,

1090
00:52:08,753 --> 00:52:11,464
but talk about me
because it's all publicity.

1091
00:52:11,548 --> 00:52:14,759
And I don't give a shit
if it's good or bad.

1092
00:52:14,801 --> 00:52:16,177
Publicity is publicity."

1093
00:52:16,261 --> 00:52:19,431
[dramatic electronic music
playing]

1094
00:52:19,472 --> 00:52:23,268
Receiving those complaints
was basically a confirmation

1095
00:52:23,351 --> 00:52:26,771
that what we were doing
at the time was working.

1096
00:52:28,356 --> 00:52:32,318
I hated having so many
customers come up to me,

1097
00:52:32,902 --> 00:52:35,947
being so, like, sad and hurt

1098
00:52:35,989 --> 00:52:37,657
that they couldn't find
clothing.

1099
00:52:37,741 --> 00:52:39,743
And they would come back
again and again and again

1100
00:52:39,784 --> 00:52:42,037
and, like, nothing's
gonna change with Brandy.

1101
00:52:42,620 --> 00:52:46,124
[Cate] We are having trouble
fitting into pants here,

1102
00:52:46,458 --> 00:52:49,419
when the store is meant for us,

1103
00:52:49,461 --> 00:52:51,921
when we're supposed
to be the examples.

1104
00:52:52,547 --> 00:52:54,716
There needs to be more sizes.

1105
00:52:59,304 --> 00:53:01,639
[producer] What do you think
drives Stephan?

1106
00:53:01,681 --> 00:53:04,476
I think what drives him
is try to improve

1107
00:53:04,517 --> 00:53:06,853
and always aiming
for perfection.

1108
00:53:06,936 --> 00:53:10,815
It's ironic how he was, like,
so picky with his customers.

1109
00:53:10,899 --> 00:53:14,444
If you see the way he dress,
he's not perfect either.

1110
00:53:14,486 --> 00:53:18,907
His body, I mean, he would
not be a Brandy customer.

1111
00:53:18,990 --> 00:53:20,700
He dress like a bum.

1112
00:53:22,118 --> 00:53:24,496
He have very strong
political views.

1113
00:53:24,579 --> 00:53:28,166
Even talked about that
with his employees,

1114
00:53:28,249 --> 00:53:30,669
and his employees
are, like, very young.

1115
00:53:31,753 --> 00:53:34,589
In California,
they are mostly liberal.

1116
00:53:34,673 --> 00:53:37,550
So, at the time,
I think they were, like,

1117
00:53:37,634 --> 00:53:39,761
talking about Bernie Sanders.

1118
00:53:39,844 --> 00:53:43,515
And he goes, like, "I can't
believe these little girls,

1119
00:53:43,598 --> 00:53:45,684
they didn't do nothing
all day,

1120
00:53:45,767 --> 00:53:47,060
their father is rich,

1121
00:53:47,143 --> 00:53:49,854
and they are talking about
Bernie Sanders.

1122
00:53:49,896 --> 00:53:53,441
Can you believe how fucked up
is this country?"

1123
00:53:53,525 --> 00:53:55,485
He was, like-- he was so mad.

1124
00:53:55,527 --> 00:53:57,570
[producer]
But his father was rich.

1125
00:53:57,654 --> 00:54:00,031
That, that's exactly his point.

1126
00:54:00,115 --> 00:54:02,033
"How you can come
from a wealthy family

1127
00:54:02,117 --> 00:54:06,746
and then you want to vote for
this communist, Bernie Sanders?"

1128
00:54:07,664 --> 00:54:09,290
[former senior VP]
He is libertarian,

1129
00:54:09,374 --> 00:54:12,002
and, uh, he hates taxes.

1130
00:54:12,627 --> 00:54:16,506
He tries to do everything
to avoid them.

1131
00:54:16,548 --> 00:54:22,012
And it worked out pretty well
so far, I mean, for him.

1132
00:54:22,554 --> 00:54:24,431
They had, like, a lot of, like,

1133
00:54:24,514 --> 00:54:26,558
libertarian, like,
bumper stickers.

1134
00:54:26,641 --> 00:54:29,060
I would see those around.
I don't know who it was,

1135
00:54:29,102 --> 00:54:31,396
Ron Paul, or whatever
the name was.

1136
00:54:31,438 --> 00:54:35,859
He liked for people to know
that he was libertarian.

1137
00:54:35,900 --> 00:54:38,361
[Kate] In the early
Brandy Melville stores,

1138
00:54:38,403 --> 00:54:41,072
I heard from former employees,

1139
00:54:41,156 --> 00:54:43,283
Stephan Marsan would give

1140
00:54:43,366 --> 00:54:45,410
his personal copies
of Atlas Shrugged

1141
00:54:45,493 --> 00:54:47,579
to display in the stores.

1142
00:54:47,620 --> 00:54:50,123
This Ayn Rand novel,
Atlas Shrugged,

1143
00:54:50,206 --> 00:54:53,084
is the foundational text
for libertarians.

1144
00:54:53,168 --> 00:54:55,545
It's referenced a lot
by people who have

1145
00:54:55,587 --> 00:54:57,380
these strong
anti-taxation beliefs,

1146
00:54:57,422 --> 00:54:59,883
anti-regulation
more generally.

1147
00:55:00,592 --> 00:55:04,220
I've heard people call it
the bible of Brandy Melville.

1148
00:55:05,096 --> 00:55:07,432
[Willow] And they had
the other store, John Galt.

1149
00:55:07,474 --> 00:55:10,101
And I had remembered even
asking people in the company,

1150
00:55:10,185 --> 00:55:11,603
I was like, "What is this name?"

1151
00:55:11,686 --> 00:55:13,980
They're like, "Oh, it's from
some book or some story."

1152
00:55:14,647 --> 00:55:18,777
[Kate] John Galt is a character
in Atlas Shrugged.

1153
00:55:20,653 --> 00:55:22,238
It's not uncommon for brands

1154
00:55:22,280 --> 00:55:24,741
to have these private label
sub-brands.

1155
00:55:24,783 --> 00:55:28,787
What is a little bit weird
is that it's called John Galt.

1156
00:55:29,412 --> 00:55:30,872
This is a store
for teenage girls,

1157
00:55:30,955 --> 00:55:34,751
where they're going to shop
for T-shirts and miniskirts.

1158
00:55:34,793 --> 00:55:39,005
This is not some
libertarian social club.

1159
00:55:42,592 --> 00:55:44,844
I don't know what happened.

1160
00:55:44,928 --> 00:55:49,474
At a certain point, Stephan
started to care more about money

1161
00:55:49,516 --> 00:55:52,852
and way less
about people in general.

1162
00:55:54,771 --> 00:55:57,524
[Kate] I was reading through
all the lawsuits I could find

1163
00:55:57,607 --> 00:55:59,067
that mentioned Brandy Melville.

1164
00:55:59,150 --> 00:56:02,779
And as I was looking through
the exhibits of one of them,

1165
00:56:02,821 --> 00:56:05,824
something that is mentioned
is text messages

1166
00:56:05,865 --> 00:56:09,160
between the senior leadership
at Brandy Melville.

1167
00:56:09,994 --> 00:56:13,498
This group chat was called
"Brandy Melville Gags."

1168
00:56:14,332 --> 00:56:17,711
And these are some
of the most disturbing,

1169
00:56:17,794 --> 00:56:19,713
vilest messages.

1170
00:56:20,088 --> 00:56:22,257
We had a group chat.

1171
00:56:22,340 --> 00:56:26,094
It was really cheap humor,
I'll say.

1172
00:56:28,179 --> 00:56:30,724
[former store owner] It was
someplace where everybody

1173
00:56:30,807 --> 00:56:33,727
would get in touch and say hi,
or "Happy Birthday,"

1174
00:56:33,810 --> 00:56:36,521
or every time
they found something funny

1175
00:56:36,563 --> 00:56:40,191
on social media or on Facebook,
or on Instagram

1176
00:56:40,233 --> 00:56:42,068
or wherever they found it,

1177
00:56:42,152 --> 00:56:45,613
they would post it there
with a comment and laugh.

1178
00:56:46,197 --> 00:56:48,533
It was like a virtual bar.

1179
00:56:49,367 --> 00:56:51,286
[producer]
Who was on that text chain?

1180
00:56:51,369 --> 00:56:54,539
[former store owner]
Everybody. Everybody.

1181
00:56:54,956 --> 00:56:59,210
Everybody from Stephan,
Stephan's brother, me,

1182
00:56:59,294 --> 00:57:00,962
the production in Italy.

1183
00:57:01,046 --> 00:57:02,380
Everyone.

1184
00:57:02,881 --> 00:57:05,759
[Kate] These men
are just sending the most vile,

1185
00:57:05,842 --> 00:57:09,095
sexual, racist jokes possible
to each other,

1186
00:57:09,179 --> 00:57:11,598
again and again and again.

1187
00:57:11,681 --> 00:57:13,016
[producer] Did you think
it was funny,

1188
00:57:13,058 --> 00:57:14,726
or were you surprised
by some of the content?

1189
00:57:14,768 --> 00:57:17,437
Well, you know,
when you see something once,

1190
00:57:17,520 --> 00:57:19,898
okay, then it can be funny.

1191
00:57:20,732 --> 00:57:23,943
Then it becomes
a little bit worrisome.

1192
00:57:27,447 --> 00:57:30,158
I think he enjoyed
the juvenile jokes.

1193
00:57:31,493 --> 00:57:33,286
[Kate] This isn't something
that is, like,

1194
00:57:33,370 --> 00:57:35,330
"Oh, someone
got overly offended by,

1195
00:57:35,413 --> 00:57:36,664
like, a joke on Twitter."

1196
00:57:36,748 --> 00:57:42,462
It was shocking how far
they were willing to go.

1197
00:57:43,505 --> 00:57:45,965
[producer] Do you think
he was anti-Semitic?

1198
00:57:46,049 --> 00:57:48,343
I don't know. I don't.

1199
00:57:48,385 --> 00:57:52,639
I mean, when I saw him
wearing a Hitler outfit,

1200
00:57:53,431 --> 00:57:55,058
I wasn't surprised.

1201
00:57:55,558 --> 00:57:57,811
[dramatic music playing]

1202
00:58:02,399 --> 00:58:04,943
Store style photos
were taken every day.

1203
00:58:05,026 --> 00:58:07,028
[Natasha] The second
you came up to your shift,

1204
00:58:07,112 --> 00:58:08,697
whoever was in charge
that day would be like,

1205
00:58:08,780 --> 00:58:10,115
"Time to take your store style."

1206
00:58:10,156 --> 00:58:11,449
They would take a photo of you

1207
00:58:11,491 --> 00:58:14,285
and send it to Stephan
and Jessy.

1208
00:58:14,327 --> 00:58:15,870
Another weird thing.

1209
00:58:15,954 --> 00:58:19,541
Like, why did they need
to do that?

1210
00:58:20,166 --> 00:58:21,418
"Time for your photo.

1211
00:58:21,459 --> 00:58:23,420
Like, go stand against
that wall and pose

1212
00:58:23,461 --> 00:58:26,756
so I can text it to the founder
of the company you work for."

1213
00:58:27,173 --> 00:58:28,967
[Sheridan] And for me, it was,
like, a very quick,

1214
00:58:29,009 --> 00:58:30,802
"Let's just get this done,
and I'm over it,"

1215
00:58:30,844 --> 00:58:33,638
but some girls would be gone
for 20 minutes of their shift

1216
00:58:33,722 --> 00:58:36,349
because they're doing
a full photo shoot in the back.

1217
00:58:37,142 --> 00:58:39,477
We were kind of told,
you know, "The photos

1218
00:58:39,561 --> 00:58:41,813
are potentially
if we want you to model for us."

1219
00:58:41,896 --> 00:58:44,899
[Emily] At first, it was only
full body photos.

1220
00:58:44,983 --> 00:58:46,443
And then,
they started requesting

1221
00:58:46,484 --> 00:58:50,363
chest and feet pictures,
which I was like, what?

1222
00:58:50,822 --> 00:58:52,365
[Sheridan] And you're, like,
okay, now, wait,

1223
00:58:52,449 --> 00:58:54,367
where are all these photos
going of me

1224
00:58:54,451 --> 00:58:56,870
in, like, a crop top
and a little skirt?

1225
00:58:57,454 --> 00:58:59,789
[producer] What was
the rationale behind it?

1226
00:59:00,331 --> 00:59:03,460
Um... I don't really know what.

1227
00:59:03,918 --> 00:59:05,712
[Cate] One time,
we were closing,

1228
00:59:05,795 --> 00:59:10,050
and I asked, "Where do
these photos that we take go?"

1229
00:59:10,425 --> 00:59:12,552
And it went dead silent.

1230
00:59:12,635 --> 00:59:14,929
And one of the older girls said

1231
00:59:15,013 --> 00:59:17,015
that we're not allowed
to talk about it.

1232
00:59:18,391 --> 00:59:20,518
And that's when I went, oh, no.

1233
00:59:20,977 --> 00:59:23,313
There's something going on
that I don't know about,

1234
00:59:23,897 --> 00:59:26,024
and I don't feel safe anymore.

1235
00:59:28,193 --> 00:59:30,695
So, I put in my two weeks,
and I left.

1236
00:59:30,779 --> 00:59:33,782
[dramatic music playing]

1237
00:59:34,240 --> 00:59:37,660
[mellow, funky music playing]

1238
00:59:37,702 --> 00:59:39,996
[former senior VP] For
each store, we had a group chat

1239
00:59:40,038 --> 00:59:44,167
with the managers, myself,
and Stephan.

1240
00:59:44,918 --> 00:59:47,420
We received the pictures
from our girls,

1241
00:59:47,504 --> 00:59:50,632
and if Stephan didn't
like some of them,

1242
00:59:51,132 --> 00:59:54,761
he would have sent it
back to me privately

1243
00:59:55,261 --> 00:59:57,806
and say, "Fire her."

1244
00:59:57,889 --> 00:59:59,808
[producer] Did Stephan
hire and fire people

1245
00:59:59,891 --> 01:00:01,476
based on their looks?

1246
01:00:01,559 --> 01:00:02,811
Of course he did.

1247
01:00:02,894 --> 01:00:04,270
[producer] What kind of reasons
would you say?

1248
01:00:04,354 --> 01:00:07,023
Because you can't say
it's because you're ugly or fat,

1249
01:00:07,107 --> 01:00:08,233
because that's illegal.

1250
01:00:08,274 --> 01:00:09,901
What would you say?

1251
01:00:09,943 --> 01:00:12,153
They're, like,
16-year-old girls.

1252
01:00:12,237 --> 01:00:16,324
You can find, like, 700
different reasons to fire them.

1253
01:00:16,408 --> 01:00:18,868
Like, it's too easy.

1254
01:00:18,910 --> 01:00:21,579
Like-like, that...
that wasn't even fair.

1255
01:00:22,205 --> 01:00:24,958
And then, day after,
we were hiring other people.

1256
01:00:26,418 --> 01:00:29,254
I was basically
being Stephan's eyes,

1257
01:00:29,754 --> 01:00:33,091
making sure
the store was perfect,

1258
01:00:33,174 --> 01:00:34,968
up to standards.

1259
01:00:38,179 --> 01:00:40,473
[Melissa] When I was working
in Berlin,

1260
01:00:40,557 --> 01:00:44,436
some Brandy Melville guys
from Italy

1261
01:00:44,477 --> 01:00:47,105
came to the shop
and observed us,

1262
01:00:47,188 --> 01:00:52,694
made weird comments
about us and our bodies.

1263
01:00:53,319 --> 01:00:54,529
From one day to the other,

1264
01:00:54,612 --> 01:00:56,614
they told me that I have
to leave,

1265
01:00:56,656 --> 01:00:58,783
and I was so shocked.

1266
01:01:00,285 --> 01:01:02,037
And there was this woman,

1267
01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:05,540
she was the one that I also
had the initial interview with.

1268
01:01:05,582 --> 01:01:08,543
I asked her, I was like,
"Can you please tell me

1269
01:01:08,626 --> 01:01:10,253
the real reason
why you're firing me,

1270
01:01:10,295 --> 01:01:14,215
because I cannot believe
that I have done a bad job."

1271
01:01:14,299 --> 01:01:17,802
She told me that one of these
managers that came to the shop,

1272
01:01:17,844 --> 01:01:21,306
that he did not like
my body type.

1273
01:01:21,389 --> 01:01:24,976
He did not find me,
like, physically attractive,

1274
01:01:25,060 --> 01:01:27,937
and that I'm not a typical
Brandy girl.

1275
01:01:28,772 --> 01:01:29,898
My colleagues were,

1276
01:01:29,981 --> 01:01:32,650
they were so shocked
from that day

1277
01:01:32,692 --> 01:01:34,486
that they also quit.

1278
01:01:34,569 --> 01:01:37,447
[solemn music playing]

1279
01:01:40,033 --> 01:01:43,453
I was told that if I see
a girl shopping in the store

1280
01:01:43,495 --> 01:01:45,038
that has, like, Brandy style,

1281
01:01:45,121 --> 01:01:47,665
that I should take a--
ask to take a photo of them.

1282
01:01:48,416 --> 01:01:52,253
We were told to go up to them,
um, compliment them,

1283
01:01:52,337 --> 01:01:55,340
kind of, like, sugar them up
and, like, get them talking.

1284
01:01:55,423 --> 01:01:58,176
I would say, "Hey,
do you mind if I take a photo

1285
01:01:58,259 --> 01:02:00,303
of what you're wearing?
It's really cute.

1286
01:02:00,345 --> 01:02:01,680
We do this for market research,

1287
01:02:01,763 --> 01:02:03,348
and it's just gonna
get sent to leadership,"

1288
01:02:03,431 --> 01:02:06,184
and they would be, like,
normally, pretty flattered.

1289
01:02:06,226 --> 01:02:08,812
Then I would just send it like
a regular employee store style

1290
01:02:08,853 --> 01:02:10,105
to Stephan and Jessy.

1291
01:02:10,438 --> 01:02:12,857
Quite often, they
would respond and say, like,

1292
01:02:12,941 --> 01:02:15,860
"Hire her right now,"
um, if they really liked her.

1293
01:02:17,195 --> 01:02:18,905
[Kate] One of the former
employees I talked to

1294
01:02:18,988 --> 01:02:23,535
said that she was working
in the New York flagship store,

1295
01:02:23,576 --> 01:02:25,036
and she came up behind Stephan

1296
01:02:25,078 --> 01:02:27,789
and she looked over
and he had a folder.

1297
01:02:28,748 --> 01:02:30,875
In the folder was every
single one of the photos

1298
01:02:30,917 --> 01:02:34,462
that she'd sent over
the years for this daily image.

1299
01:02:35,630 --> 01:02:37,048
She said that, looking back,
that was

1300
01:02:37,132 --> 01:02:39,384
such a chilling,
eerie thing to realize,

1301
01:02:39,467 --> 01:02:42,762
that these photos
were being kept by Stephan.

1302
01:02:44,472 --> 01:02:49,561
[Marta] Stephan's office was,
like, sort of a bird's nest

1303
01:02:49,602 --> 01:02:51,980
overlooking the registers.

1304
01:02:52,063 --> 01:02:56,317
And that's where him and other
people that were high up

1305
01:02:56,401 --> 01:02:57,569
would hang out.

1306
01:02:57,652 --> 01:03:00,030
Like, one day,
I came into work,

1307
01:03:00,071 --> 01:03:03,116
and there were these
clear buttons

1308
01:03:03,199 --> 01:03:06,870
with sort of, like,
electrical system setup

1309
01:03:06,911 --> 01:03:08,997
right next to every register.

1310
01:03:09,539 --> 01:03:12,375
It was a system
that Stephan used

1311
01:03:12,417 --> 01:03:16,171
to inform the person working
at the register

1312
01:03:16,254 --> 01:03:19,966
that they should take a photo
of the girl that's checking out.

1313
01:03:21,801 --> 01:03:23,595
The red button goes off

1314
01:03:23,636 --> 01:03:25,013
and then you're supposed
to take a photo

1315
01:03:25,096 --> 01:03:27,849
and also offer them a job
as well.

1316
01:03:27,932 --> 01:03:29,851
[producer] Did you do that?

1317
01:03:30,560 --> 01:03:32,062
Yeah. Sometimes,
we would ignore it

1318
01:03:32,103 --> 01:03:34,564
because, I don't know,
we were kind of rebellious

1319
01:03:34,606 --> 01:03:37,442
with a couple of our friends
and we didn't want to do that.

1320
01:03:37,484 --> 01:03:40,278
Um, but yeah, we had to.

1321
01:03:43,823 --> 01:03:45,367
[Lee] One night,
we were all leaving

1322
01:03:45,450 --> 01:03:48,828
and I see this girl,
like, getting an Uber.

1323
01:03:48,912 --> 01:03:51,289
And I was like, "Oh man,
I wish I could afford Ubers."

1324
01:03:51,331 --> 01:03:52,916
She's like,
"Oh, I'm not paying for this."

1325
01:03:52,957 --> 01:03:54,459
I was like, "What do you mean?"

1326
01:03:54,542 --> 01:03:58,338
And she was like, "I, like,
have, like, the company Uber."

1327
01:03:58,421 --> 01:04:01,508
She referenced
an apartment in New York,

1328
01:04:02,300 --> 01:04:04,761
and she made it clear
that, like,

1329
01:04:04,803 --> 01:04:06,805
if you didn't know
about the apartment,

1330
01:04:06,888 --> 01:04:09,057
then you wouldn't know
about the Ubers.

1331
01:04:09,140 --> 01:04:12,227
[dramatic music playing]

1332
01:04:13,228 --> 01:04:16,022
[Willow] I had never, ever been
to New York before.

1333
01:04:16,106 --> 01:04:17,816
And Jessy had talked about,
"Oh, we should have you

1334
01:04:17,857 --> 01:04:19,693
come out to New York
for the summer

1335
01:04:19,776 --> 01:04:21,152
and shoot for Brandy."

1336
01:04:21,194 --> 01:04:23,988
I was like, "Yeah.
Sounds amazing. I'd love to."

1337
01:04:24,447 --> 01:04:27,325
He said, "We have an apartment
and you can stay there."

1338
01:04:27,409 --> 01:04:30,578
It was in an amazing location
in SoHo.

1339
01:04:30,662 --> 01:04:33,748
It was really close to both
of the stores that they had.

1340
01:04:34,416 --> 01:04:36,084
There was really nothing
in the apartment

1341
01:04:36,167 --> 01:04:38,503
when I first got there.
I didn't even have a blanket.

1342
01:04:41,172 --> 01:04:43,633
There were times where
people would just show up.

1343
01:04:43,675 --> 01:04:46,636
Like, I remember
walking downstairs,

1344
01:04:46,678 --> 01:04:50,015
and it was dark, maybe, like,
ten o'clock or something,

1345
01:04:50,056 --> 01:04:51,307
and, like, turn the light on,

1346
01:04:51,349 --> 01:04:53,059
and there was a girl asleep
on the couch.

1347
01:04:53,143 --> 01:04:54,936
And that was, like,
she scared the crap out of me

1348
01:04:55,020 --> 01:04:57,230
because I thought
I was home alone.

1349
01:04:58,064 --> 01:05:01,067
I remember one day,
this guy showed up.

1350
01:05:02,318 --> 01:05:04,821
Had no idea, like,
who this person is.

1351
01:05:04,863 --> 01:05:06,197
They're like, "Oh yeah, he does

1352
01:05:06,281 --> 01:05:07,782
stuff with the store,
this and that.

1353
01:05:07,866 --> 01:05:09,200
He's gonna be staying
in this room."

1354
01:05:09,284 --> 01:05:12,829
I was, like, "Okay."
But it was definitely strange.

1355
01:05:12,871 --> 01:05:14,330
It was strange to be
living with a man,

1356
01:05:14,372 --> 01:05:17,375
like, in his 30s, 40s,
I don't know how old he was,

1357
01:05:17,417 --> 01:05:20,211
when I was, like,
still a teenager.

1358
01:05:21,379 --> 01:05:24,924
[Kate] An employee who I spoke
with, she was here on a visa.

1359
01:05:25,008 --> 01:05:26,384
She was 21 years old.

1360
01:05:26,468 --> 01:05:29,137
She had been working at
Brandy Melville for a few years.

1361
01:05:29,220 --> 01:05:32,390
This employee told me
that she needed to stay

1362
01:05:32,474 --> 01:05:34,642
in the Brandy apartment
in New York

1363
01:05:34,726 --> 01:05:36,311
for a couple of nights.

1364
01:05:37,228 --> 01:05:39,397
To her surprise,
a middle-aged Italian man

1365
01:05:39,439 --> 01:05:41,441
who was involved
in Brandy Melville

1366
01:05:41,524 --> 01:05:43,401
was also staying there.

1367
01:05:44,235 --> 01:05:47,364
He took this 21-year-old out.

1368
01:05:47,405 --> 01:05:50,492
She remembers having
a first drink,

1369
01:05:50,575 --> 01:05:52,243
a second drink.

1370
01:05:52,327 --> 01:05:54,245
Then she doesn't
remember anything.

1371
01:05:54,287 --> 01:05:57,582
And she woke up the
next morning in the apartment,

1372
01:05:57,624 --> 01:05:59,626
naked with this man.

1373
01:06:02,212 --> 01:06:04,297
Her hospital records
at the time, which I've read,

1374
01:06:04,381 --> 01:06:07,384
say that she said that she was
raped by her boss,

1375
01:06:07,425 --> 01:06:09,719
and that she does not
want to report it to the police

1376
01:06:09,761 --> 01:06:11,429
because she doesn't want
to lose her job

1377
01:06:11,513 --> 01:06:13,348
and be forced
out of the country.

1378
01:06:14,891 --> 01:06:18,353
She kind of sucked it up
and just lived with it.

1379
01:06:20,605 --> 01:06:24,275
This was one of
the most horrifying things

1380
01:06:24,317 --> 01:06:26,695
that I heard about while
reporting on Brandy.

1381
01:06:27,195 --> 01:06:29,322
It was the worst parts
of Brandy,

1382
01:06:29,406 --> 01:06:32,200
where it took something
that was a job

1383
01:06:32,283 --> 01:06:34,786
and a community for people,

1384
01:06:34,869 --> 01:06:36,871
and just turned it
into this place

1385
01:06:36,955 --> 01:06:39,040
where women
were exploited,

1386
01:06:39,124 --> 01:06:41,334
in this case assaulted.

1387
01:06:41,418 --> 01:06:44,295
It-it's...
Yeah, it was horrifying.

1388
01:06:46,631 --> 01:06:50,969
There was a sense of competition
between all the girls.

1389
01:06:51,052 --> 01:06:54,222
And you... you really
wanted to look your best

1390
01:06:54,305 --> 01:06:56,266
every time you walked in there.

1391
01:06:56,307 --> 01:07:00,437
You want to feel like you have
a relationship with Stephan.

1392
01:07:01,312 --> 01:07:03,106
I was so scared to ask
them for a raise,

1393
01:07:03,148 --> 01:07:05,358
because I was just, like,
I don't want to get fired,

1394
01:07:05,442 --> 01:07:07,027
or I don't want them
to kind of hate me

1395
01:07:07,110 --> 01:07:09,487
or be on their bad side. Um...

1396
01:07:09,529 --> 01:07:11,656
[producer] Were you a bit scared
of Stephan?

1397
01:07:11,740 --> 01:07:12,866
Yes. [laughs]

1398
01:07:12,949 --> 01:07:14,701
Like, it was all part of, like,

1399
01:07:14,784 --> 01:07:17,495
some members-only club

1400
01:07:18,163 --> 01:07:21,666
where the best
and the favorite got the perks.

1401
01:07:21,708 --> 01:07:23,877
Um, I did not get the perks.

1402
01:07:23,960 --> 01:07:25,253
[laughs]

1403
01:07:25,337 --> 01:07:27,339
The Brandy account
only followed,

1404
01:07:27,422 --> 01:07:30,091
like, six people
or something like that,

1405
01:07:30,175 --> 01:07:31,926
and it was always, like,
a big deal

1406
01:07:31,968 --> 01:07:34,888
that they followed you.
It was this elite thing,

1407
01:07:34,971 --> 01:07:38,016
That's what it felt like for me.
Don't know if it meant anything.

1408
01:07:38,058 --> 01:07:40,769
But, um, I remember
one day realizing

1409
01:07:40,852 --> 01:07:42,103
that they unfollowed me.

1410
01:07:42,187 --> 01:07:45,190
And it was just kind of
like a, "What the fuck?"

1411
01:07:45,231 --> 01:07:47,192
Like, "What did I do?
Did I do anything?"

1412
01:07:47,233 --> 01:07:49,027
I remember texting Jessy
and asking him,

1413
01:07:49,069 --> 01:07:50,570
like, "Did I do something wrong?

1414
01:07:50,653 --> 01:07:54,199
Like, I don't, like,
I don't know what's going on."

1415
01:07:54,240 --> 01:07:56,034
He was, like,
"Instagram means nothing."

1416
01:07:56,117 --> 01:07:58,745
[dramatic music playing]

1417
01:07:58,828 --> 01:08:00,705
But clearly it does.

1418
01:08:02,499 --> 01:08:04,584
Instagram
is your entire business.

1419
01:08:04,668 --> 01:08:06,503
How can it mean nothing?

1420
01:08:08,004 --> 01:08:09,297
[Kali] It's a cult.

1421
01:08:09,381 --> 01:08:10,548
Like, people are obsessed

1422
01:08:10,590 --> 01:08:12,634
with this idea
of Brandy Melville,

1423
01:08:12,717 --> 01:08:15,428
and there's always going to be
this Brandy Melville

1424
01:08:15,512 --> 01:08:16,554
look and mold.

1425
01:08:16,638 --> 01:08:19,015
I just wish someone
had kind of, like,

1426
01:08:19,057 --> 01:08:20,892
stepped in and, like,
made us realize, like,

1427
01:08:20,975 --> 01:08:22,477
this isn't okay,
this isn't normal.

1428
01:08:22,560 --> 01:08:24,688
This isn't how jobs
are supposed to be.

1429
01:08:28,608 --> 01:08:31,277
[dramatic electronic music
playing]

1430
01:08:31,361 --> 01:08:33,321
Fast fashion
has created an industry

1431
01:08:33,404 --> 01:08:35,615
that's completely
unhinged from reality,

1432
01:08:36,658 --> 01:08:39,703
and it addicts people
to buy more and more clothes

1433
01:08:39,743 --> 01:08:41,162
every single season.

1434
01:08:42,037 --> 01:08:43,915
People are overconsuming,

1435
01:08:45,417 --> 01:08:48,795
and all this excess
leads to the waste crisis.

1436
01:08:51,214 --> 01:08:53,466
[crowd chatter]

1437
01:08:53,550 --> 01:08:55,301
[Sammy] With our research,
we've found out

1438
01:08:55,385 --> 01:08:57,429
that about 40%
of the garments

1439
01:08:57,470 --> 01:08:59,723
that come into Kantamanto Market

1440
01:08:59,764 --> 01:09:01,307
goes into the waste stream.

1441
01:09:04,394 --> 01:09:07,647
[Liz] There's no landfill.
Most of the clothing is burnt

1442
01:09:07,731 --> 01:09:10,399
or ends up being pushed
into the gutter system

1443
01:09:10,442 --> 01:09:13,278
where eventually
it washes out to sea.

1444
01:09:13,653 --> 01:09:17,323
[grim music playing]

1445
01:09:21,243 --> 01:09:23,705
[Chloe] Like, everywhere
you walk, there's fabric,

1446
01:09:24,163 --> 01:09:26,124
textile waste everywhere

1447
01:09:26,166 --> 01:09:29,336
with tentacles as long
as, like, that.

1448
01:09:29,419 --> 01:09:31,337
Even more,
and I'm a little person.

1449
01:09:33,465 --> 01:09:36,009
[Liz] We've dug down
over eight feet

1450
01:09:36,091 --> 01:09:38,136
and still haven't reached
the end

1451
01:09:38,178 --> 01:09:40,346
of some of these tangles
and mounds.

1452
01:09:41,096 --> 01:09:43,433
Eventually, it makes
its way out to sea.

1453
01:09:43,808 --> 01:09:47,145
And so, we believe that
the sea floor around Accra

1454
01:09:47,228 --> 01:09:48,813
looks exactly like this,

1455
01:09:49,814 --> 01:09:50,857
if not much worse,

1456
01:09:50,939 --> 01:09:52,317
because all of the stuff
has sunk.

1457
01:09:52,399 --> 01:09:55,362
[solemn music playing]

1458
01:10:06,664 --> 01:10:08,458
[Chloe] And this
is not something that we did.

1459
01:10:08,500 --> 01:10:11,044
It's not something
that we caused.

1460
01:10:11,127 --> 01:10:13,421
[dramatic music playing]

1461
01:10:17,092 --> 01:10:18,968
[man 5]

1462
01:10:50,166 --> 01:10:52,794
[dramatic music playing]

1463
01:10:53,628 --> 01:10:56,840
[Chloe] From the beginning of
the supply chain to the end,

1464
01:10:56,881 --> 01:11:00,969
we're all being
exploited by the same system.

1465
01:11:04,180 --> 01:11:06,057
When you look at
the women who farm,

1466
01:11:06,141 --> 01:11:08,143
you know, who pick cotton,

1467
01:11:08,560 --> 01:11:11,104
when you look at
garment workers,

1468
01:11:11,187 --> 01:11:12,522
the kayayei women
are being exploited.

1469
01:11:12,564 --> 01:11:15,567
You know, their bodies
are being exploited.

1470
01:11:15,608 --> 01:11:17,360
The retailers
are being exploited.

1471
01:11:17,402 --> 01:11:18,862
A lot of them are women.

1472
01:11:18,903 --> 01:11:21,531
Some of them have
no idea the impacts of it.

1473
01:11:23,908 --> 01:11:26,870
[Liz] Ghana's coast
was the main port of exit

1474
01:11:26,911 --> 01:11:29,831
for human beings
who were trafficked as slaves

1475
01:11:29,914 --> 01:11:32,292
to North America to work,

1476
01:11:32,375 --> 01:11:35,587
many of them on cotton fields
to make clothes.

1477
01:11:35,628 --> 01:11:37,922
And now, it's the main
port of entry

1478
01:11:37,964 --> 01:11:40,884
for secondhand clothing
being sent back here as waste.

1479
01:11:40,925 --> 01:11:45,138
So, that is a continuation
of colonialism

1480
01:11:45,221 --> 01:11:47,307
and slavery in another form.

1481
01:11:47,390 --> 01:11:50,560
[solemn music playing]

1482
01:11:55,106 --> 01:11:57,567
[Kate] In the course of looking
into the Brandy Melville story,

1483
01:11:57,609 --> 01:11:59,319
I found these two lawsuits

1484
01:11:59,402 --> 01:12:01,946
that were essentially
against Brandy Melville

1485
01:12:02,030 --> 01:12:03,907
from former executives.

1486
01:12:05,617 --> 01:12:08,119
These are very,
very serious allegations

1487
01:12:08,203 --> 01:12:09,788
of racism here,

1488
01:12:10,497 --> 01:12:14,125
which the company denied
in preliminary court filings.

1489
01:12:15,460 --> 01:12:18,296
I had the Brandy Melville
store close to Toronto,

1490
01:12:18,380 --> 01:12:22,300
where there is, like, a big
Indo-Pacific community,

1491
01:12:22,342 --> 01:12:25,053
lots of Indians,
lots of Pakistani,

1492
01:12:25,136 --> 01:12:26,971
a lot of, you know.

1493
01:12:27,555 --> 01:12:30,475
Stephan start to say that
the place was "ghetto,"

1494
01:12:30,517 --> 01:12:33,645
and, "How do you
open a store like that?"

1495
01:12:36,481 --> 01:12:37,691
And I go, "Well, very easy.

1496
01:12:37,774 --> 01:12:40,944
I'm making $300,000
a year in this store.

1497
01:12:40,985 --> 01:12:42,404
What do you mean?"

1498
01:12:42,487 --> 01:12:45,073
And he said, like, uh,
"Are you serious?

1499
01:12:45,156 --> 01:12:46,533
You have
all these brown people,

1500
01:12:46,616 --> 01:12:49,244
and this is not
our target customer."

1501
01:12:49,953 --> 01:12:52,997
[producer] Was Stephan directly
telling you to close down,

1502
01:12:53,081 --> 01:12:54,332
or was it somebody else?

1503
01:12:54,374 --> 01:12:55,667
No, it was Stephan.

1504
01:12:55,750 --> 01:12:57,877
He say, like, "You are going
to have to close,

1505
01:12:57,961 --> 01:12:59,170
and that's it."

1506
01:12:59,504 --> 01:13:01,297
He actually told me that.

1507
01:13:01,339 --> 01:13:03,258
"It's either you close
the store,

1508
01:13:03,341 --> 01:13:05,468
or there
is no more merchandise."

1509
01:13:06,136 --> 01:13:08,388
[former senior VP] I received
a picture back from Stephan

1510
01:13:08,471 --> 01:13:11,141
of the manager of Newport,
saying...

1511
01:13:11,182 --> 01:13:13,685
[speaks in Italian]

1512
01:13:13,768 --> 01:13:16,229
[in English] Which means
she's, like, a communist,

1513
01:13:16,312 --> 01:13:19,274
alternative girl, like,
with the piercings.

1514
01:13:19,691 --> 01:13:21,067
"She's gonna hire
people like her,

1515
01:13:21,151 --> 01:13:24,029
and she's going to destroy
the fucking store."

1516
01:13:24,112 --> 01:13:25,864
That's what he said.

1517
01:13:26,948 --> 01:13:28,450
I wouldn't fire her.

1518
01:13:29,034 --> 01:13:32,037
And then, he said,
"No, no, fire her."

1519
01:13:32,537 --> 01:13:35,582
I couldn't let her go.
So I didn't.

1520
01:13:35,665 --> 01:13:38,918
And, uh, after, like,
a couple weeks of this,

1521
01:13:39,002 --> 01:13:42,172
like, retaliation,
and I was like, "No.

1522
01:13:42,589 --> 01:13:44,591
If you're trying
to change my words,

1523
01:13:44,674 --> 01:13:46,384
deal with my lawyers."

1524
01:13:47,135 --> 01:13:50,472
I mean, if you only like to go
and shout in the street

1525
01:13:50,555 --> 01:13:52,599
you don't like Blacks,
you don't like Jews,

1526
01:13:52,682 --> 01:13:54,726
if it's that, it's different.

1527
01:13:54,768 --> 01:13:58,396
But when you are in position
that controls a company

1528
01:13:58,438 --> 01:14:00,690
that hires thousands of people,

1529
01:14:01,316 --> 01:14:04,069
then, uh, that is not cool
anymore.

1530
01:14:04,110 --> 01:14:08,531
He need to be punished,
or at least brought to justice.

1531
01:14:11,242 --> 01:14:14,037
[gentle, solemn music playing]

1532
01:14:14,079 --> 01:14:17,624
[Kate] This story took over
my life for a summer, basically.

1533
01:14:18,917 --> 01:14:20,126
I published,

1534
01:14:20,210 --> 01:14:23,046
and then, almost immediately,
people who had worked

1535
01:14:23,088 --> 01:14:24,756
at Brandy Melville
started reaching out.

1536
01:14:24,839 --> 01:14:27,884
People had even more stories
to share.

1537
01:14:27,926 --> 01:14:31,304
They all fit into this just
wider story of exploitation.

1538
01:14:31,721 --> 01:14:33,765
It was really overwhelming.

1539
01:14:37,769 --> 01:14:40,730
[Willow] I remember seeing it
on Instagram from diet_prada,

1540
01:14:40,772 --> 01:14:43,733
which I feel is where everyone
else found out about it.

1541
01:14:43,775 --> 01:14:46,778
But I was reading the article
and I was shocked.

1542
01:14:46,820 --> 01:14:49,531
I was shocked about
the Nazi stuff that came out.

1543
01:14:49,614 --> 01:14:51,825
I was like, what?

1544
01:14:51,908 --> 01:14:57,122
It's, like, you knew he was
not necessarily a good person.

1545
01:14:57,163 --> 01:14:58,498
But reading the article,

1546
01:14:58,581 --> 01:15:01,084
I... I was... I was
honestly blown away

1547
01:15:01,126 --> 01:15:02,419
by some of the stuff.

1548
01:15:02,460 --> 01:15:05,922
I was shocked,
but I was not surprised at all.

1549
01:15:07,048 --> 01:15:09,300
I also felt disgusted
having worked

1550
01:15:09,342 --> 01:15:10,969
for a company like this.

1551
01:15:11,511 --> 01:15:13,346
I had so many feelings.

1552
01:15:13,430 --> 01:15:15,223
I was like,
"I have to comment."

1553
01:15:17,726 --> 01:15:20,061
[Lee]
It was definitely satisfying

1554
01:15:20,103 --> 01:15:21,813
to read all those comments.

1555
01:15:22,313 --> 01:15:25,650
I was like, finally,
someone's talking about it.

1556
01:15:27,152 --> 01:15:29,154
Maybe this will be the time

1557
01:15:29,237 --> 01:15:32,991
that people rip the veil of,

1558
01:15:33,033 --> 01:15:36,870
you know, elitist aesthetics
and all of that,

1559
01:15:36,953 --> 01:15:39,914
and expose them for just being
a really shitty brand

1560
01:15:39,998 --> 01:15:43,752
that makes money off of
young girls' insecurities.

1561
01:15:46,212 --> 01:15:49,341
[Kate] Social media is what made
Brandy Melville,

1562
01:15:49,424 --> 01:15:51,843
but it was social media
that provided the opportunity

1563
01:15:51,885 --> 01:15:55,013
to take down Brandy Melville,
as well.

1564
01:15:58,850 --> 01:16:00,769
Now it's our time to shine.

1565
01:16:00,852 --> 01:16:02,687
If you still support
Brandy Melville,

1566
01:16:02,771 --> 01:16:05,023
you absolutely shouldn't,
and here's why.

1567
01:16:05,065 --> 01:16:07,984
Saying racism and sexual
exploitation run rampant.

1568
01:16:08,026 --> 01:16:10,612
Someone who used to be
the store manager there,

1569
01:16:10,695 --> 01:16:11,946
I got some stories of my own.

1570
01:16:12,030 --> 01:16:15,367
I printed out pages
of the article,

1571
01:16:15,450 --> 01:16:18,870
and I went around SoHo
hanging them up.

1572
01:16:19,329 --> 01:16:22,874
I had on a wig so I wouldn't
be, like, spotted easily.

1573
01:16:22,916 --> 01:16:25,919
And some of my friends,
they were helping me out.

1574
01:16:26,002 --> 01:16:29,172
They put it in the store,
all around the store for me.

1575
01:16:31,132 --> 01:16:34,552
[lumbering, dramatic rock music
playing]

1576
01:16:35,178 --> 01:16:37,555
[Emily] I talked to my manager,
and I was like,

1577
01:16:37,597 --> 01:16:39,974
"Hey, like,
I can't do this anymore."

1578
01:16:40,016 --> 01:16:42,560
[all] Fuck Brandy!

1579
01:16:42,602 --> 01:16:45,563
[cheering]

1580
01:16:45,605 --> 01:16:48,608
I just... I just
never showed up again.

1581
01:16:48,692 --> 01:16:51,486
I sent an email to my
hiring manager and was like,

1582
01:16:51,569 --> 01:16:53,571
"I'm not gonna be
working my shift today,

1583
01:16:53,613 --> 01:16:57,659
and I'm not going to be
coming in again, ever."

1584
01:16:57,742 --> 01:17:00,161
And she was just like,
"Okay."

1585
01:17:01,579 --> 01:17:04,416
Um... "Bye."

1586
01:17:05,750 --> 01:17:07,419
There's no reason to believe
this has hurt

1587
01:17:07,502 --> 01:17:08,962
Brandy Melville sales at all.

1588
01:17:09,963 --> 01:17:11,423
[former store owner]
When Business Insider

1589
01:17:11,464 --> 01:17:12,799
come out with the story,

1590
01:17:12,882 --> 01:17:16,011
I was pretty shocked
that it didn't get anywhere.

1591
01:17:16,636 --> 01:17:18,221
I was, like, wow.

1592
01:17:18,263 --> 01:17:21,599
That's weird because
everybody talks about,

1593
01:17:21,683 --> 01:17:24,394
you know, the social issue
and this and that.

1594
01:17:25,103 --> 01:17:28,148
They make a big deal
out of it politically.

1595
01:17:28,690 --> 01:17:31,776
But then, at the end,
when something comes up,

1596
01:17:31,860 --> 01:17:33,820
people have a short memory,

1597
01:17:33,903 --> 01:17:36,114
or they just...
they just don't care.

1598
01:17:38,283 --> 01:17:42,620
I was in touch with one of the
people that still work there,

1599
01:17:42,704 --> 01:17:44,622
and they were telling me
the numbers,

1600
01:17:44,664 --> 01:17:46,458
and they are doing amazing.

1601
01:17:46,958 --> 01:17:49,627
[former senior VP]
Brandy Melville got hit, yeah.

1602
01:17:49,669 --> 01:17:51,129
But for how long?

1603
01:17:51,171 --> 01:17:55,633
For a day? Two?
A week? That's it.

1604
01:17:55,675 --> 01:17:58,219
They come back
to business as usual.

1605
01:17:59,346 --> 01:18:01,097
[producer] They've made
a lot of money, right?

1606
01:18:01,139 --> 01:18:04,184
Oh, yeah.
Like, hundreds of millions.

1607
01:18:05,352 --> 01:18:07,187
[dramatic music playing]

1608
01:18:07,270 --> 01:18:09,314
[Kate] There is no reason
to believe that Brandy

1609
01:18:09,356 --> 01:18:11,858
has changed its internal
strategy in any way.

1610
01:18:11,941 --> 01:18:15,320
They did not even publish
an apology on social media.

1611
01:18:16,321 --> 01:18:19,824
Most companies would say
"We messed up, we'll do better.

1612
01:18:19,866 --> 01:18:21,659
We're going
to make these changes.

1613
01:18:21,743 --> 01:18:23,953
This executive
is going to be fired."

1614
01:18:23,995 --> 01:18:25,872
The only thing that happened
at Brandy Melville

1615
01:18:25,955 --> 01:18:28,166
was that they stopped
letting people comment

1616
01:18:28,208 --> 01:18:30,794
on their Instagram
for a couple of weeks.

1617
01:18:33,129 --> 01:18:36,174
I am relatively pessimistic
about corporate leadership

1618
01:18:36,216 --> 01:18:39,010
and how much they really
believe in inclusivity.

1619
01:18:39,719 --> 01:18:45,141
But for a CEO to not even
pretend to care

1620
01:18:45,183 --> 01:18:46,726
was so brazen.

1621
01:18:47,894 --> 01:18:49,396
By never admitting
they did something wrong,

1622
01:18:49,479 --> 01:18:51,856
they can kind of continue
keeping the business model

1623
01:18:51,898 --> 01:18:53,817
exactly the way it is.

1624
01:18:55,443 --> 01:18:59,364
Brandy Melville still is able
to find people

1625
01:18:59,447 --> 01:19:00,824
to work at these stores

1626
01:19:00,865 --> 01:19:03,284
and to appear
on their Instagram.

1627
01:19:04,369 --> 01:19:08,415
Brandy Melville still is able
to tap into the worst impulses

1628
01:19:08,498 --> 01:19:10,000
of being a teenage girl--

1629
01:19:10,041 --> 01:19:11,876
wanting to be the coolest girl
at your school

1630
01:19:11,960 --> 01:19:15,046
and, like, wanting
to do anything to be that girl.

1631
01:19:15,672 --> 01:19:18,216
We know that Stephan
has always said,

1632
01:19:18,258 --> 01:19:20,051
"I don't need
to be politically correct."

1633
01:19:20,093 --> 01:19:21,886
We know that Brandy Melville,
from the beginning,

1634
01:19:21,928 --> 01:19:25,932
has said, "One size fits most.
This isn't for everyone."

1635
01:19:26,016 --> 01:19:28,643
So, by not apologizing,
they're not hypocrites

1636
01:19:28,685 --> 01:19:30,729
because they are exactly
who they say they are.

1637
01:19:30,770 --> 01:19:33,815
They are just racist,
sexist pigs.

1638
01:19:33,898 --> 01:19:37,277
[dramatic music playing]

1639
01:19:41,740 --> 01:19:44,743
[Claire] I don't think we expect
businesses to be good anymore,

1640
01:19:44,784 --> 01:19:46,745
which I think is
seriously problematic.

1641
01:19:47,495 --> 01:19:49,873
I mean, labor issues
and the fashion industry,

1642
01:19:49,914 --> 01:19:51,791
they go hand in hand.

1643
01:19:52,959 --> 01:19:55,420
[Ayesha] Make no mistake,
this is not an industry

1644
01:19:55,503 --> 01:19:58,381
that has any
kind of commitment

1645
01:19:58,423 --> 01:20:00,884
to ethical commercial practices.

1646
01:20:01,676 --> 01:20:02,927
You know, fashion,

1647
01:20:02,969 --> 01:20:05,013
particularly when it comes
to human rights

1648
01:20:05,096 --> 01:20:08,141
and the environment,
is very unregulated.

1649
01:20:09,017 --> 01:20:10,310
The footprint of a product,

1650
01:20:10,393 --> 01:20:13,188
the footprint of the industry
is very opaque.

1651
01:20:14,314 --> 01:20:18,068
You know, this is an industry
that gets to set its own goals,

1652
01:20:18,109 --> 01:20:19,611
and then if
they don't meet those goals

1653
01:20:19,652 --> 01:20:21,488
they just change the goalposts.

1654
01:20:22,906 --> 01:20:25,533
I have a lot of empathy
for the end customer

1655
01:20:25,617 --> 01:20:26,951
who's trying to do
the right thing

1656
01:20:27,035 --> 01:20:28,912
and is thoroughly confused,
you know?

1657
01:20:29,454 --> 01:20:31,539
You have a lot of
greenwashing out there.

1658
01:20:31,623 --> 01:20:35,293
Brands that are essentially
co-opting people's interest

1659
01:20:35,377 --> 01:20:36,753
in sustainability

1660
01:20:36,795 --> 01:20:39,047
and essentially
selling that back to you.

1661
01:20:39,506 --> 01:20:43,426
And if a company's only talking
about environmental goodness

1662
01:20:43,468 --> 01:20:46,805
and nothing about the face
and the humans behind it,

1663
01:20:46,846 --> 01:20:49,432
then that is also a form
of greenwashing.

1664
01:20:51,184 --> 01:20:53,353
This is not a poor industry.

1665
01:20:54,104 --> 01:20:56,106
It's worth
three trillion dollars.

1666
01:20:56,147 --> 01:20:58,817
You're telling me an industry
worth three trillion dollars

1667
01:20:58,858 --> 01:21:00,985
can't find solutions?

1668
01:21:04,781 --> 01:21:06,991
[birds chirping]

1669
01:21:07,075 --> 01:21:11,037
[gentle music playing]

1670
01:21:15,667 --> 01:21:17,752
[Claire]
We know what we need to do.

1671
01:21:18,169 --> 01:21:20,964
The solutions that existed
a long time ago

1672
01:21:21,006 --> 01:21:23,133
are the same solutions
that exist now.

1673
01:21:23,174 --> 01:21:25,093
They're just not being scaled.

1674
01:21:27,554 --> 01:21:29,014
[Matteo] One hundred years ago,

1675
01:21:29,055 --> 01:21:31,683
before the climate change,

1676
01:21:31,725 --> 01:21:34,310
before the-the greenwashing,

1677
01:21:34,352 --> 01:21:38,690
we started to recycle
material here in Prato.

1678
01:21:39,774 --> 01:21:41,526
Uh, it was a tradition.

1679
01:21:43,028 --> 01:21:45,405
[man 6 in Italian]

1680
01:22:09,596 --> 01:22:13,475
[man 7 in English] We are a
textile company based in Prato.

1681
01:22:14,059 --> 01:22:17,562
Myself and my brother
are the third generation,

1682
01:22:17,979 --> 01:22:19,898
and we are continuing

1683
01:22:19,981 --> 01:22:24,736
what my grandfather
started in 1941.

1684
01:22:25,070 --> 01:22:28,448
[male interviewer in Italian]

1685
01:22:41,670 --> 01:22:44,172
[Marco in English]
There is no use of chemicals,

1686
01:22:44,589 --> 01:22:47,133
only a mechanical process.

1687
01:22:47,550 --> 01:22:50,845
[Matteo M.] The durability of
our fabric's very important.

1688
01:22:50,929 --> 01:22:53,431
We are doing the fabrics
that they can pass

1689
01:22:53,515 --> 01:22:55,266
from father to son.

1690
01:22:55,308 --> 01:22:59,688
But also recyclability
of our fabric is endless.

1691
01:23:00,814 --> 01:23:06,319
[man 8 in Italian]

1692
01:23:18,540 --> 01:23:21,418
[dramatic music playing]

1693
01:23:27,966 --> 01:23:30,218
[Sammy in English] Kantamanto
is one of the perfect models

1694
01:23:30,301 --> 01:23:32,095
of sustainability,
if you'd ask me.

1695
01:23:33,013 --> 01:23:35,015
I mean, from the outside
it may only look like

1696
01:23:35,098 --> 01:23:37,017
people who just retail
secondhand clothing,

1697
01:23:37,100 --> 01:23:40,562
but it's a whole ecosystem
of sustainable practices.

1698
01:23:40,645 --> 01:23:42,105
The people that work here

1699
01:23:42,147 --> 01:23:44,816
have to deal with
whatever trash, literally,

1700
01:23:44,899 --> 01:23:46,484
that comes their way.

1701
01:23:46,985 --> 01:23:49,446
So, you have people
who are screen printing,

1702
01:23:49,487 --> 01:23:52,073
we have people who are mending,
people who are embroidering,

1703
01:23:52,157 --> 01:23:53,950
people who are resizing.

1704
01:23:54,451 --> 01:23:56,327
So, these people
are using basics

1705
01:23:56,369 --> 01:23:59,122
like a sewing machine
and a pair of scissors

1706
01:23:59,164 --> 01:24:02,459
to recycle 25 million
out of the 60 million garment

1707
01:24:02,500 --> 01:24:05,295
that comes through the markets
within a month.

1708
01:24:07,380 --> 01:24:09,174
If you'd ask the people
that work in the market

1709
01:24:09,215 --> 01:24:11,343
"What is sustainability?"
they might probably not know

1710
01:24:11,426 --> 01:24:14,137
because what they are doing
is out of culture,

1711
01:24:14,179 --> 01:24:15,638
not out of a trend.

1712
01:24:15,680 --> 01:24:17,891
[crowd chatter]

1713
01:24:18,391 --> 01:24:20,101
Ghanaians like
to repurpose things.

1714
01:24:20,185 --> 01:24:22,771
Ghanaians like to give
long life to things.

1715
01:24:23,355 --> 01:24:25,231
Swapping and upcycling
is a culture

1716
01:24:25,315 --> 01:24:28,360
that has existed with us
for a very, very long time.

1717
01:24:29,611 --> 01:24:30,737
[man 9 in Twi]

1718
01:24:49,297 --> 01:24:51,508
[Liz in English]
Sustainability is a language,

1719
01:24:51,549 --> 01:24:54,552
and, here,
people still speak it.

1720
01:24:56,012 --> 01:24:58,390
It's a way for people
to deal with a system

1721
01:24:58,431 --> 01:25:01,142
that is exploiting them,
that has dumped stuff here

1722
01:25:01,226 --> 01:25:03,186
that then they can't get out of.

1723
01:25:03,728 --> 01:25:06,398
You know, if we want to solve
the problem

1724
01:25:06,481 --> 01:25:08,024
of fast fashion consumption,

1725
01:25:08,066 --> 01:25:09,526
then we need to
listen to the people

1726
01:25:09,567 --> 01:25:11,319
who still do speak
that language

1727
01:25:11,403 --> 01:25:13,613
and-and can help us learn.

1728
01:25:14,155 --> 01:25:17,784
Rebellion! Rebellion!

1729
01:25:17,867 --> 01:25:20,787
You know, one of the only tools
that activists like us

1730
01:25:20,870 --> 01:25:22,163
would have in our toolbox

1731
01:25:22,247 --> 01:25:23,748
used to be that you campaign

1732
01:25:23,832 --> 01:25:25,041
and you create scandal,

1733
01:25:25,083 --> 01:25:26,584
and then you hope conditions
get better.

1734
01:25:26,626 --> 01:25:29,254
But there's almost become
an immunity to this

1735
01:25:29,337 --> 01:25:32,132
because there are so many
scandals in this industry.

1736
01:25:33,466 --> 01:25:36,177
There's a sense
that we can get away with it.

1737
01:25:36,261 --> 01:25:39,681
And as long as sales are humming
and people are buying,

1738
01:25:39,764 --> 01:25:41,349
it doesn't matter.

1739
01:25:42,559 --> 01:25:45,895
And Brandy Melville is
another example of just a blip.

1740
01:25:45,937 --> 01:25:47,105
You have a scandal,

1741
01:25:47,188 --> 01:25:50,275
and then it's just
business as normal.

1742
01:25:52,569 --> 01:25:55,864
Brandy Melville
has only expanded more.

1743
01:25:55,947 --> 01:25:58,324
Their China business,
in particular, is booming.

1744
01:25:58,408 --> 01:26:01,369
[grim music playing]

1745
01:26:03,288 --> 01:26:04,706
From what I've heard
from sources,

1746
01:26:04,789 --> 01:26:07,667
it basically takes the
worst parts of Brandy in America

1747
01:26:07,751 --> 01:26:10,128
and plays them up.

1748
01:26:10,211 --> 01:26:13,256
[dramatic music playing]

1749
01:26:15,300 --> 01:26:18,303
It's even more toxic
and more disturbing.

1750
01:26:22,390 --> 01:26:24,809
The sizes are smaller.

1751
01:26:25,310 --> 01:26:27,145
There was
something that went viral

1752
01:26:27,187 --> 01:26:30,357
on Chinese social media
called the BM Challenge.

1753
01:26:34,444 --> 01:26:38,990
Can you fit into this
tiny Brandy Melville outfit?

1754
01:26:41,117 --> 01:26:42,869
You have Chinese teenagers

1755
01:26:42,952 --> 01:26:45,538
who are starving themselves
to fit into the clothes.

1756
01:26:46,498 --> 01:26:48,833
How small can you be?

1757
01:26:50,502 --> 01:26:52,504
It's replicating the story
in the U.S.,

1758
01:26:52,587 --> 01:26:54,673
just in a different market,

1759
01:26:55,674 --> 01:26:59,511
and it's created an entire wave
of fashion in China.

1760
01:27:05,892 --> 01:27:08,269
[Liz] Fast fashion brands
convince you to buy so much

1761
01:27:08,353 --> 01:27:10,397
because they convince you
that you are not enough.

1762
01:27:10,480 --> 01:27:13,024
You can never have enough.
You will never be enough.

1763
01:27:14,234 --> 01:27:16,027
But instead,
we could realize,

1764
01:27:16,111 --> 01:27:18,530
oh, wow, this thing
called clothing,

1765
01:27:18,571 --> 01:27:20,240
check it off of humanity's list.

1766
01:27:20,323 --> 01:27:21,658
We've made plenty.

1767
01:27:22,367 --> 01:27:25,161
Now all we need to do
is be creative with it,

1768
01:27:25,203 --> 01:27:27,122
and we could actually
enjoy that

1769
01:27:27,205 --> 01:27:30,750
instead of consuming things
for the sake of consuming them.

1770
01:27:32,669 --> 01:27:34,754
[Ayesha] Almost a hundred pair
of human hands

1771
01:27:34,838 --> 01:27:38,299
touches a garment
before it reaches you.

1772
01:27:39,384 --> 01:27:43,221
I think about, gosh, if we had
a label on our clothes

1773
01:27:43,304 --> 01:27:45,557
that told that entire story,

1774
01:27:45,598 --> 01:27:47,183
how you treat
your garment workers,

1775
01:27:47,225 --> 01:27:49,102
how you treat
your retail workers,

1776
01:27:49,185 --> 01:27:51,396
would our relationship
with our clothes

1777
01:27:51,479 --> 01:27:52,689
be fundamentally different?

1778
01:27:52,772 --> 01:27:55,692
[solemn music playing]

1779
01:27:59,279 --> 01:28:00,488
[Sammy] We are a part
of the problem,

1780
01:28:00,572 --> 01:28:02,657
no matter where you live
in the world.

1781
01:28:02,741 --> 01:28:04,576
The fact that it's not
in your backyard

1782
01:28:04,659 --> 01:28:06,453
does not mean
it's not your problem.

1783
01:28:08,371 --> 01:28:10,457
Just because you are
not seeing, you know,

1784
01:28:10,540 --> 01:28:14,127
a beach as dirty as
the one we see here in Ghana

1785
01:28:14,210 --> 01:28:16,379
does not mean
it does not affect you.

1786
01:28:16,421 --> 01:28:18,340
So, like, the question
we need to ask,

1787
01:28:18,423 --> 01:28:20,008
where do I stand
in this problem?

1788
01:28:20,091 --> 01:28:22,093
What can I do to make
an impact?

1789
01:28:24,137 --> 01:28:25,513
[Willow] These clothing
companies will

1790
01:28:25,597 --> 01:28:27,307
keep getting to get
away with it

1791
01:28:27,390 --> 01:28:29,267
and making money,
and people keep buying it,

1792
01:28:29,351 --> 01:28:30,769
and I... I don't
understand why.

1793
01:28:30,810 --> 01:28:32,354
But so many other things
are upsetting

1794
01:28:32,437 --> 01:28:33,605
and don't make sense
right now.

1795
01:28:33,646 --> 01:28:35,440
So, I... I don't really know.

1796
01:28:35,523 --> 01:28:37,108
All I know is I don't do
any kind of work

1797
01:28:37,150 --> 01:28:38,401
with fast fashion companies,

1798
01:28:38,443 --> 01:28:40,737
and I haven't since
I worked with Brandy.

1799
01:28:41,696 --> 01:28:43,782
[Sheridan] I always try my best
to think about

1800
01:28:43,865 --> 01:28:46,451
where things came from,
is it gonna end up in landfill,

1801
01:28:46,534 --> 01:28:49,621
could I do something better,
is there a better alternative?

1802
01:28:50,288 --> 01:28:52,791
[Lee] I only thrift now.

1803
01:28:52,832 --> 01:28:56,586
I mean, there is literally
no reason not to thrift.

1804
01:28:57,671 --> 01:28:59,214
[Ayesha] This is not a sprint.

1805
01:28:59,297 --> 01:29:01,800
This is going to be
a lifelong fight.

1806
01:29:02,634 --> 01:29:04,469
Think of the fashion
as a service

1807
01:29:04,511 --> 01:29:06,388
and a reusable service

1808
01:29:06,471 --> 01:29:09,474
rather than
a disposable product.

1809
01:29:10,141 --> 01:29:11,976
Let's normalize
culture to say,

1810
01:29:12,018 --> 01:29:15,021
"Yeah, you saw me yesterday
wearing the same thing,

1811
01:29:15,105 --> 01:29:16,564
and that's just fine."

1812
01:29:17,816 --> 01:29:22,570
[Claire] I mean, the future is
not shiny without real change.

1813
01:29:24,197 --> 01:29:25,490
It's pretty grim.

1814
01:29:26,282 --> 01:29:27,575
There's a lot of people
that think

1815
01:29:27,659 --> 01:29:29,994
that this is too hard
to solve,

1816
01:29:30,078 --> 01:29:31,538
and it's just not.

1817
01:29:33,373 --> 01:29:35,000
The solutions exist.

1818
01:29:35,291 --> 01:29:37,669
But to me, the best
we can do right now,

1819
01:29:37,711 --> 01:29:39,337
we just have to buy less.

1820
01:29:39,379 --> 01:29:42,424
[dramatic music playing]

1821
01:29:52,142 --> 01:29:54,394
-[music fades]
-[sea birds squawk]

1822
01:29:55,520 --> 01:29:58,773
[funky, dramatic electronic
music playing]

1823
01:31:17,602 --> 01:31:20,855
[music fades]