Instagram-based clothing brand Brandy Melville is expansively popular among teenage girls, despite the fact that their clothing is only sold in one size: small.
The originally Italian brand has made a successful transition into the United States market, boasting a large number of retail stores around the country with most of them clustered in California. The label is specifically known for their cropped shirts, patterned mini skirts, and all-around contemporary line of clothing perfectly marketed to teenage girls.
While most fashion brands fade in and out of popularity without much fanfare, Brandy Melville has gotten thrown into the spotlight as the international community has sparked a debate over their ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy, which Junior Maddie Hamborg explained as a “clear promotion of a ‘perfect size.” Obviously that policy does not hold true, especially when that one size is unrealistically petite.
On their website, the drop-down menu where a customer would usually pick their size is replaced by a bar reading simply, “Fits size X-small/small.”
Rather than an option, this is a simple statement of fact.
A look at their skirt section specifically reveals that the ideal waist size to fit into a Brandy skirt is around 24 inches, which Healthline reports to be a full 8.6 inches thinner than the average waist measurement of a teenage girl.
One can assume that this complete lack of size range is heavily contributing to a long-held issue plaguing the lives of adolescent girls: body image. Hamborg added, “Teens are already vulnerable, and…this clothing brand…is escalating the self confidence issues of girls.”
The numbers proving the weightiness of body image on a teenage girl’s mind are endless. According to the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health, 78 percent of American girls are unhappy with their bodies by the time they reach 17, and 57 percent of high school girls participate in unhealthy weight loss activities. The same site also reported that 9 out of 10 teenage girls felt like the fashion and media industries were pressuring them to stay skinny.
Swimming in statistics like these, Brandy Melville doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on when attempting to defend their sizing policy. Using their large platform as one of the most popular brands for teenage girls to wave around a banner idolizing an unrealistically skinny body is disappointing to put it nicely, and dangerous to put it truthfully.
Turning the other cheek, the brand refuses to face their criticism or initiate any changes to their line. In the current atmosphere, where body positivity is becoming an international trend, Brandy’s refusal to adjust to the public’s expectations makes them an outlier in the fashion industry.
In light of all of the brand’s blunders, teenage girls who shop at Brandy Melville need to step back and ask themselves if the real pull of the line is the feeling of accomplishment at being one of the chosen few who fit the ‘perfection’ mold.
However, consumers cannot be blamed for the path that Brandy Melville has wittingly carved for themselves. The brand needs to reevaluate itself and seriously consider the effects that their unrealistic size expectations can have on the average teenage girl.
