While perusing the racks of clothing at my local mall, I’m always drawn to a particular brand: Brandy Melville. There’s magic in Brandy Melville’s line: simple designs, trendy pieces, and fabrics softer than the still-developing brains of the sweatshop-ridden children who probably produced them. I often find myself gazing at the semi-affordable price tags of the brand’s oversized sweaters and comfy T-shirt dresses, picturing myself as the type of Trendy Fashionista girl whose outfits are always Pinterest-worthy.
As entrancing as Brandy Melville fashion is, I have a major problem with the company: All their products claim to be “One Size Fits All.”
It’s an easy claim: don’t worry about complicated sizing! Brandy Melville is cool, simple, unfussy. Behind their relaxed façade, however, is a condescension to the entire body-positivity movement that girls, companies, and societies have been trying hard to embrace. If the top doesn’t fit you, you don’t fit in.
Sure, most of the clothes are stretchy enough to cover a variety of different bodies—but that doesn’t mean the brand is inclusive. The tall girl will be able to put on the t-shirt, but it might look more like a crop top than intended. The girl with a big ass can fit into the dress, but if she raises her arms above her shoulders she’s flashing everyone behind her. Let’s be real: the brand was designed with tiny, skinny girls in mind—the kind that litter its website and social media pages. One Size Fits All: Except Fat Girls, Tall Girls, Short Girls, Girls With Chubby Thighs, Girls With Prominent Boobs, Etc.
This type of sly discrimination may have been okay a few years ago, before people realized how big of a role the media plays in people’s self-esteem. However, with the rise of body positivity (and just plain common sense!) in popular culture with campaigns by companies like Aerie and Dove, Brandy Melville’s practice is almost primitive.
Why does the clothing line continue like this? Is it cheaper to only produce one size? Do its executives think being inclusive will get in the way of its brand name? I have little knowledge of how the fashion industry works, but I know that this is bullshit. The One Size Fits All tag puts down the impressionable girls it doesn’t fit.
Beyond that, I think this conversation raises another important question about sizing. Even when clothing lines provide small, medium, and large sizes, there’s a shame that comes with putting on clothes in your size, and realizing they just don’t fit right. How is it that models and celebrities always look perfect in their day-to-day clothes, and us commoners look a little frumpy in jeans that are supposed to fit? If you’ve ever tried on a piece of clothing and cringed at how it looked on you, I want to remind you that Famous People get their clothes custom-tailored to their bodies, no matter the size. That’s why they look amazing in all their clothes, and most of us look kind of weird in predetermined sizes.
Hopefully, one day, people will have easy access to clothes that fit their body perfectly. For now, though, the fashion industry is still catching up—and brands like Brandy Melville have a long way to go.
