Nina Metz: Fast fashion and retailers like Brandy Melville get documentary scrutiny

Fifteen years ago, the clothing retailer Brandy Melville opened in Los Angeles, and in the years since it has become the brand for preteen and teenage fashion for girls — specifically thin, white girls. When some customers complained about the tiny one-size-fits-all approach, the company didn’t expand its range of offerings but chose to modify its labels to “one size fits most.”

But according to the documentary “Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion” which premiered on HBO this week (and can be streamed on Max), that was the least of it. The retail stores are allegedly a toxic workplace for its teenage employees and filmmaker Eva Orner talks to them as well as experts about the broader issues with fast fashion, which has increasingly become an environmental problem as unwanted and unusable synthetic clothing piles up.

is a Los Angeles-based virtual stylist and sustainable fashion educator who has long been an informative presence on social media. She offers insights into the clothing industry itself and why it’s worth rethinking the quantity-over-quality mindset when it comes to accumulating a wardrobe.