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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:29,195 --> 00:00:30,655 [producer] Everyone good? 4 00:00:31,239 --> 00:00:34,409 So, let's start with some easy stuff at the beginning. 5 00:00:34,492 --> 00:00:36,745 How did you first hear about Brandy Melville? 6 00:00:37,328 --> 00:00:41,082 I heard about Brandy first when I was in seventh grade. 7 00:00:41,166 --> 00:00:43,501 Everyone was wearing it at school. 8 00:00:43,585 --> 00:00:44,627 You had to have it. 9 00:00:44,669 --> 00:00:46,588 If you didn't have it, what were you doing? 10 00:00:46,671 --> 00:00:48,131 And, um, 11 00:00:48,173 --> 00:00:49,799 I remember I walked into the store 12 00:00:49,841 --> 00:00:53,803 and I bought the star necklace that was all over Pinterest. 13 00:00:53,845 --> 00:00:57,682 And me and my seven friends wore it. 14 00:00:57,724 --> 00:01:00,894 And I felt so cool and accepted 15 00:01:00,977 --> 00:01:03,855 that I had a piece of Brandy Melville. 16 00:01:04,522 --> 00:01:05,899 And... 17 00:01:06,358 --> 00:01:09,652 I remember, um, thinking that 18 00:01:10,362 --> 00:01:15,033 the girls that didn't wear it, they weren't as great as I was. 19 00:01:15,116 --> 00:01:16,326 Maybe they weren't as pretty. 20 00:01:16,368 --> 00:01:17,952 Maybe there was something wrong with them. 21 00:01:18,328 --> 00:01:21,289 It was like the social norm at the time. 22 00:01:22,374 --> 00:01:24,709 [up-tempo, funky music playing] 23 00:01:29,422 --> 00:01:30,882 Ever since I was like, 13, 24 00:01:30,965 --> 00:01:33,093 I've been obsessed with Brandy Melville. 25 00:01:34,386 --> 00:01:36,429 [woman 1] Fashion is identity, 26 00:01:36,513 --> 00:01:38,723 especially for teenage girls. 27 00:01:39,098 --> 00:01:41,226 This is how you show who you are, 28 00:01:41,309 --> 00:01:43,478 what you believe, who you're friends with, 29 00:01:44,187 --> 00:01:47,357 and I think Brandy Melville encapsulates that 30 00:01:47,399 --> 00:01:49,567 better than almost any other brand. 31 00:01:51,235 --> 00:01:54,114 But there's also a dark side. 32 00:01:54,864 --> 00:01:58,243 [music intensifies] 33 00:01:58,283 --> 00:02:00,078 [woman 2] The fashion industry has always been 34 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:02,288 built on the back of exploitation. 35 00:02:03,498 --> 00:02:05,375 [woman 3] When it comes to fast fashion, 36 00:02:05,417 --> 00:02:08,544 it often is a story of abuse. 37 00:02:09,920 --> 00:02:13,216 [woman 4] From the beginning of the supply chain to the end, 38 00:02:13,258 --> 00:02:17,929 we're all being exploited by the same system. 39 00:02:18,346 --> 00:02:20,849 [woman 5] You say you care about human rights 40 00:02:20,932 --> 00:02:22,058 and the environment. 41 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:24,644 What do your clothes say about you? 42 00:02:25,603 --> 00:02:27,355 [woman 1] It's easy to think, 43 00:02:27,439 --> 00:02:29,774 "Who cares a fast fashion brand is bad? 44 00:02:29,816 --> 00:02:31,651 We already know this." 45 00:02:32,317 --> 00:02:34,362 But the story of Brandy Melville is a story 46 00:02:34,446 --> 00:02:36,156 about anti-Semitism, 47 00:02:36,239 --> 00:02:38,867 racism, sexism. 48 00:02:38,950 --> 00:02:42,996 It's a story about this wider system of exploitation 49 00:02:43,079 --> 00:02:44,289 at Brandy Melville 50 00:02:44,372 --> 00:02:47,334 and in the fashion industry globally. 51 00:02:48,043 --> 00:02:50,837 [dramatic music playing] 52 00:03:04,601 --> 00:03:08,313 Hey, guys. I'm back in Brandy. It's because I'm obsessed, 53 00:03:08,396 --> 00:03:10,273 and I wanted to come back and get more things 54 00:03:10,315 --> 00:03:12,400 even though I got way too much already. 55 00:03:12,484 --> 00:03:13,651 It's actually a problem. 56 00:03:13,693 --> 00:03:16,154 But I love every single thing here. 57 00:03:16,237 --> 00:03:18,448 [gentle music playing] 58 00:03:18,490 --> 00:03:21,034 Brandy Melville is probably my all-time favorite store. 59 00:03:21,117 --> 00:03:23,119 So I went to Brandy the other day 60 00:03:23,161 --> 00:03:24,454 and did some damage. 61 00:03:24,496 --> 00:03:27,332 This is the most exciting haul I've ever done. 62 00:03:27,374 --> 00:03:29,292 Ever. Ever, ever, ever. 63 00:03:29,334 --> 00:03:31,336 It's all from Brandy Melville. 64 00:03:31,378 --> 00:03:33,338 Oh! I love it, I love it, I love it. 65 00:03:35,799 --> 00:03:37,591 [woman 6] One day in middle school, 66 00:03:37,676 --> 00:03:39,678 everyone was suddenly wearing Brandy Melville. 67 00:03:39,719 --> 00:03:42,514 Brandy Melville was, like, all the rage. 68 00:03:42,597 --> 00:03:45,058 [woman 7] Feminine, very form fitting. 69 00:03:45,141 --> 00:03:47,018 Like, a lot of the shirts are cropped. 70 00:03:47,102 --> 00:03:49,353 Their stuff was notoriously soft. 71 00:03:49,437 --> 00:03:51,523 This, like, A-line skater skirt 72 00:03:51,564 --> 00:03:53,358 and, like, a T-shirt with a cupcake on it. 73 00:03:53,441 --> 00:03:55,944 [woman 7] A lot of pretty, like, girlie prints. 74 00:03:56,027 --> 00:03:58,863 Like, you see bows, hearts, little cute graphics. 75 00:03:58,947 --> 00:04:01,741 [woman 6] Sort of trendy, like young girl beachy style. 76 00:04:01,825 --> 00:04:05,370 [woman 8] It's like Americana, California. 77 00:04:05,954 --> 00:04:09,541 Brandy Melville was, like, my world when I was a teenager. 78 00:04:10,542 --> 00:04:11,918 [woman 6] The reason why I liked it? 79 00:04:12,002 --> 00:04:14,295 I mean, I think it's just... 80 00:04:14,379 --> 00:04:16,464 because everyone else liked it. 81 00:04:16,964 --> 00:04:19,884 [tender piano melody playing] 82 00:04:19,968 --> 00:04:22,887 [woman 9] It was my sophomore year of high school. 83 00:04:23,304 --> 00:04:25,890 I was 15 years old. 84 00:04:26,391 --> 00:04:29,477 And I went into the Brandy Melville store. 85 00:04:29,561 --> 00:04:33,690 I was immediately approached by one of the workers, 86 00:04:33,732 --> 00:04:36,568 and she asked me 87 00:04:36,651 --> 00:04:40,280 if she could take a picture of my outfit 88 00:04:41,031 --> 00:04:42,907 for "store style," she called it. 89 00:04:42,991 --> 00:04:46,953 Um... And I told her... I told her that she could. 90 00:04:47,037 --> 00:04:49,080 And after she took the picture, 91 00:04:49,164 --> 00:04:51,207 she says, "Oh, thank you," 92 00:04:51,249 --> 00:04:53,418 asked for my Instagram, then I walk out. 93 00:04:53,501 --> 00:04:55,920 And I had a smile on my face for the rest of the day. 94 00:04:56,004 --> 00:04:59,966 Told everybody at school, told anyone I knew, really. 95 00:05:00,050 --> 00:05:01,676 I told... I told everybody. 96 00:05:02,177 --> 00:05:03,428 Everything about it 97 00:05:03,511 --> 00:05:05,805 was just a dream come true to me at the time. 98 00:05:06,264 --> 00:05:09,059 [mellow electronic music playing] 99 00:05:09,768 --> 00:05:12,896 -[car horns honking] -[traffic buzzing] 100 00:05:13,438 --> 00:05:15,190 [woman 1] I spend a lot of time doing 101 00:05:15,273 --> 00:05:16,941 the day-to-day news of the retail industry. 102 00:05:17,025 --> 00:05:19,527 So a lot of, "What's happening with Gap's earnings? 103 00:05:19,611 --> 00:05:20,945 What's happening at McDonald's?" 104 00:05:21,029 --> 00:05:22,614 And then the last couple of years 105 00:05:22,655 --> 00:05:25,325 I've been able to go deeper on these big stories, 106 00:05:25,408 --> 00:05:28,036 which brought me to this brand that teenagers love 107 00:05:28,078 --> 00:05:30,330 that most adults haven't heard about. 108 00:05:31,122 --> 00:05:32,749 Brandy Melville. 109 00:05:33,457 --> 00:05:36,002 The first thing that you hear about Brandy Melville 110 00:05:36,086 --> 00:05:38,546 is that it's one size fits all... 111 00:05:39,297 --> 00:05:41,424 and that size is tiny. 112 00:05:43,968 --> 00:05:46,596 I was like, this is something that doesn't seem 113 00:05:46,638 --> 00:05:49,474 like it should be happening in fashion anymore. 114 00:05:50,141 --> 00:05:52,268 I love you, Brandy Melville! 115 00:05:52,310 --> 00:05:53,937 [Kate] In the last decade, there's been 116 00:05:53,978 --> 00:05:56,773 more and more pushes towards inclusivity. 117 00:05:58,817 --> 00:06:02,570 We have more plus-size, we have more diversity 118 00:06:02,654 --> 00:06:04,030 in bodies that we're seeing. 119 00:06:04,739 --> 00:06:07,283 Brandy Melville just took things in the opposite direction 120 00:06:07,325 --> 00:06:09,327 where it says there's one skinny, 121 00:06:09,369 --> 00:06:12,163 perfect, tiny, ideal size. 122 00:06:15,125 --> 00:06:16,876 This is something that was 123 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:19,170 explicitly part of the business model. 124 00:06:20,630 --> 00:06:24,884 Everything I've been learning about Gen Z teenagers today 125 00:06:24,968 --> 00:06:27,679 is that they wouldn't put up with this. 126 00:06:28,179 --> 00:06:29,305 Kind of weird. 127 00:06:29,347 --> 00:06:32,475 [dramatic music playing] 128 00:06:34,144 --> 00:06:36,938 [woman 10] Here's a thing that me and my friends joke about. 129 00:06:37,605 --> 00:06:39,941 We're like, "Fuck Brandy Melville. 130 00:06:40,692 --> 00:06:44,029 I'm never shopping there again. You couldn't make me." 131 00:06:45,864 --> 00:06:48,658 But like, god damn, the baby tees! 132 00:06:48,700 --> 00:06:52,412 They fit so good. They're so small and cute. 133 00:06:55,373 --> 00:06:57,542 [woman 3] I remember when I saw an article 134 00:06:57,625 --> 00:07:01,212 about the Brandy Melville Instagram 135 00:07:01,254 --> 00:07:06,051 and how it was this phenomenon with one-size-fits-all clothing. 136 00:07:06,551 --> 00:07:08,553 [dramatic music playing] 137 00:07:08,595 --> 00:07:10,472 And that was, like, the first time I ever 138 00:07:10,555 --> 00:07:12,098 heard of this brand. 139 00:07:14,059 --> 00:07:16,519 And then suddenly, I saw a lot of stores popping up 140 00:07:16,561 --> 00:07:18,646 around New York City. 141 00:07:22,567 --> 00:07:25,070 When I was at Teen Vogue, part of my job 142 00:07:25,111 --> 00:07:26,363 as the fashion news editor 143 00:07:26,404 --> 00:07:29,282 was to kind of report on celebrity style. 144 00:07:29,866 --> 00:07:31,618 What is Taylor Swift wearing? 145 00:07:31,701 --> 00:07:33,119 How to get the look. 146 00:07:34,496 --> 00:07:36,414 Sometimes, you know, even the celebrity 147 00:07:36,456 --> 00:07:38,582 would wear a Brandy Melville tee, 148 00:07:38,667 --> 00:07:42,462 and that would be an easy, cheap T-shirt that you can also get. 149 00:07:43,922 --> 00:07:46,800 People are buying into not just a white T-shirt. 150 00:07:46,883 --> 00:07:50,470 They're buying into that Brandy Melville lifestyle. 151 00:07:54,641 --> 00:07:56,685 I think it's impossible to talk about Brandy Melville 152 00:07:56,768 --> 00:07:58,103 and not talk about social media. 153 00:07:58,186 --> 00:08:00,772 Don't need a camera or anything. Just use your phone. 154 00:08:00,814 --> 00:08:02,399 Be like, "Hey, what's going on?" 155 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:03,942 And then they watch it. 156 00:08:03,983 --> 00:08:06,653 [Kate] Brandy Melville started opening stores in the U.S. 157 00:08:06,736 --> 00:08:09,739 at the time that you had a lot of teenage girls 158 00:08:09,781 --> 00:08:13,284 really creating their own content for the first time 159 00:08:13,326 --> 00:08:15,495 without any gatekeepers, 160 00:08:16,746 --> 00:08:19,165 without being filtered through a fashion magazine 161 00:08:19,249 --> 00:08:21,251 or through adults in any way. 162 00:08:21,292 --> 00:08:25,088 -Outfit check with friends! -Gucci, Brandy Melville pants... 163 00:08:25,130 --> 00:08:28,466 [Kate] This was allowing teenage girls to see themselves 164 00:08:28,508 --> 00:08:30,051 and portray themselves the way they want 165 00:08:30,135 --> 00:08:32,721 and push the limits for the first time. 166 00:08:34,972 --> 00:08:37,183 A lot of the Brandy Melville photographers 167 00:08:37,267 --> 00:08:38,977 were teenagers themselves. 168 00:08:39,019 --> 00:08:41,688 All right. We're going to shoot the first look 169 00:08:41,770 --> 00:08:43,648 on the famous white wall. 170 00:08:44,149 --> 00:08:49,237 [Kate] So, it was teenagers taking photos of teenagers 171 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:51,990 to post on social media. 172 00:08:53,324 --> 00:08:54,701 And it was this whole kind of 173 00:08:54,784 --> 00:08:57,037 Brandy Melville extended universe 174 00:08:58,246 --> 00:09:02,375 where it felt genuine because it was genuine. 175 00:09:02,459 --> 00:09:03,752 That taxi driver right there 176 00:09:03,835 --> 00:09:06,504 just let us take a bunch of photos in his taxi, 177 00:09:06,546 --> 00:09:07,881 and they're so good. 178 00:09:07,964 --> 00:09:09,549 [giggles] 179 00:09:12,719 --> 00:09:15,638 [woman 11] I started to notice like, Brandy, I don't know, 180 00:09:15,680 --> 00:09:18,016 was all over Tumblr. I was a big Tumblr girl. 181 00:09:18,099 --> 00:09:20,393 My nickname in high school was "Door." 182 00:09:20,477 --> 00:09:23,396 That's what my parents called me because I had my door closed, 183 00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:25,273 was in my room all day, just online. 184 00:09:25,357 --> 00:09:27,734 [gentle music playing] 185 00:09:27,817 --> 00:09:31,654 They had this dress. The, like, iconic Jada dress. 186 00:09:31,696 --> 00:09:33,239 I... I don't know if you... 187 00:09:33,323 --> 00:09:36,326 But it had, like, this one, like, band across the back, 188 00:09:36,368 --> 00:09:37,744 and it was kinda open back. 189 00:09:37,827 --> 00:09:40,246 I thought it was kinda cool to show off your back 190 00:09:40,330 --> 00:09:41,664 because then they had this bra 191 00:09:41,706 --> 00:09:44,376 that had all these kind of like strips across it. 192 00:09:44,417 --> 00:09:46,795 Now looking back, I'm like, "I would never wear that." 193 00:09:46,878 --> 00:09:48,713 But I took some, like, self-portrait photos, 194 00:09:48,755 --> 00:09:51,466 which I used to do a lot back in high school, 195 00:09:51,549 --> 00:09:53,176 and I posted it on Tumblr. 196 00:09:53,218 --> 00:09:54,886 And I think that was, like, 197 00:09:54,928 --> 00:09:57,055 the biggest post I ever had on there. 198 00:09:57,097 --> 00:10:00,392 I think it got, like, 100,000 reblogs or whatever 199 00:10:00,433 --> 00:10:03,603 [counter clicking rapidly] 200 00:10:05,438 --> 00:10:07,607 [gentle music continues] 201 00:10:07,982 --> 00:10:10,777 I was following the Brandy Melville Instagram. 202 00:10:10,860 --> 00:10:14,864 They were really into hair moving. 203 00:10:14,906 --> 00:10:17,492 And so was I at the time. I don't know why. 204 00:10:17,575 --> 00:10:21,287 I think that was kind of the photo style that I really liked. 205 00:10:21,371 --> 00:10:22,872 Really natural. 206 00:10:23,373 --> 00:10:25,667 You know, like you're following somebody around, 207 00:10:25,750 --> 00:10:28,253 and they turn back and look at you. 208 00:10:28,628 --> 00:10:30,255 A little bit conceptual. 209 00:10:31,756 --> 00:10:35,510 Very bohemian, like, summertime stuff. 210 00:10:35,593 --> 00:10:37,804 [laughs] But I just loved it. 211 00:10:40,724 --> 00:10:42,267 I was already doing basically 212 00:10:42,350 --> 00:10:44,602 what the Brandy photographers would do with their friends 213 00:10:44,644 --> 00:10:46,062 of, like, get a bag of clothes 214 00:10:46,104 --> 00:10:48,148 and go run around and take pictures. 215 00:10:48,231 --> 00:10:51,735 I thought it looked really fun, kind of like a community. 216 00:10:51,776 --> 00:10:54,446 And one of my friends had a Brandy shirt, 217 00:10:54,529 --> 00:10:57,115 and I was like, "Let me take a couple pictures like this. 218 00:10:57,198 --> 00:10:58,992 Maybe they'll post it or something." 219 00:11:01,411 --> 00:11:03,788 They both had really long, kind of blondish hair, 220 00:11:03,830 --> 00:11:06,499 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 222 00:11:09,586 --> 00:11:11,338 in, like, the Back Bay of Newport Beach, 223 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 00:11:21,264 --> 00:11:24,309 They flipped it to the side and put some weird filter over that. 226 00:11:24,351 --> 00:11:26,102 It was so random. 227 00:11:27,896 --> 00:11:30,023 And then that's when I got the email. 228 00:11:32,734 --> 00:11:35,070 It was super short. It was, "Hey. 229 00:11:35,153 --> 00:11:37,364 Let me know if you'd like to work together sometime." 230 00:11:40,367 --> 00:11:41,993 There was no email signature. 231 00:11:42,035 --> 00:11:44,162 There was no, "Hi, I'm from this company." 232 00:11:44,204 --> 00:11:46,247 "I really like your work." Nothing. 233 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?" 235 00:11:54,130 --> 00:11:57,300 I clicked in, and then I saw @BrandyMelvilleUSA.com. 236 00:11:57,342 --> 00:11:59,719 It was... nuts. 237 00:12:01,846 --> 00:12:05,392 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." 242 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, 244 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, 246 00:12:25,078 --> 00:12:28,081 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] 135875

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