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If you’ve watched the bombshell documentary about the fast fashion brand, you might be wondering where Stephan Marsan is now. Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion showcases the uncovered treatment within the brand in the corporation and within individual stores.
Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion is directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Eva Orner and produced by double Emmy Award-winning Jonathan Chinn and double Academy Award-winning Simon Chinn of Lightbox. The Brandy Melville documentary will let viewers in on how the nostalgic clothing brand’s unique social media presence set off unrealistic beauty standards. Through interviews with former employees and executives as well as fashion insiders, viewers will get to hear first-hand accounts about Brandy Melville‘s toxic work environment and discriminatory recruiting practices, too.
Behind the “one size fits most” clothes and impossible-to-reach beauty standards created on social media, there’s a whole story of exploitation within fast fashion and the fashion industry at large. More specifically, viewers will get to learn about the consequences of the increase in consumption and production of cheap clothing. The documentary takes the audience to Ghana to see the mass amounts of textile waste that’s polluting landfills and waters. There’s a lot more to Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion than “Brandy girls” (employees who doubled as models) posing in front of white brick walls.
So who is Stephan Marsan and where is he now?
Where’s Stephan Marsan now?
Where is Stephan Marsan now? Marsan is still the CEO of Brandy Melville and keeps a low profile when it comes to his business. Viterbo News claims that Brandy Melville created “a culture of confidentiality.”
The documentary highlighted the fact that Marsan doesn’t have any sort of public presence. “How do you run this business that’s all around the world – there are over a hundred stores – that is all over the internet, all over social media, and this guy has never done an interview? He doesn’t exist. And that’s very purposeful and crafted,” said Orner.
Marsan is a self-proclaimed libertarian and Trump supporter. He is said to leave his own personal copies of Atlas Shrugged in the New York City Flagship store as props. In 2021, Business Insider reported that Brandy’s in-house brand J. Galt was named after a character from the novel. A whistleblower claims that he would make fun of young girls for being supporters of certain political candidates, including Bernie Sanders.
Employees of Brandy Melville had to pose for their “daily photograph” every morning – photos of their outfits, for “brand research”, and send it over to Marsan and a group of executives in a text thread. An employee also alleged sexual assault of a young girl living in the Brandy Melville-rented Manhattan.
As for the brand’s image, Brandy Melville’s Stephan Marsan reportedly preferred skinny redheads, liked Asian girls, and “didn’t want a lot of Black people,” revealed an anonymous shop assistant. Many women of color who worked in the store would work in the stock rooms rather than at the front.
In 2021, Business Insider made an investigation that Marsan had a group chat with executives where they would share racist, sexist, and antisemitic memes, and fostered a toxic work culture that exploited young women and was openly racist and discriminatory.
Who’s in the Brandy Melville documentary?
Kate Taylor, investigative journalist
Alyssa Hardy, former Teen Vogue fashion editor
Liz Ricketts, The Or Foundation
Sammy Oteng, The Or Foundation
Chloe Asaam, The Or Foundation
Ayesha Barenblat, CEO of Remake Advocacy Group
Matteo Biffoni, mayor of Prato, Italy
Claire Bergkamp, CEO of Textile Exchange
Matteo Mantellassi, Manteco s.p.a. executive
Marco Mantellassi, Manteco s.p.a. executive
Franco Mantellassi, Manteco s.p.a. executive
