User:AveryMcC/Brandy Melville

Brandy Melville is a European clothing and fashion accessories brand, marketing their products to young women. The company was established in Italy by Silvio Marsan but attracted most of its popularity in California. The brand name and logo was inspired by the fictional tale of two people – Brandy, an American girl, and Melville, an English man who met in Rome and fell in love.

History
Silvio Marson and his son Stephan founded Brandy Melville in Italy the early 80s, and opened their first US store in Los Angeles in 2009, bordering the UCLA campus and Westbrook Neighborhood. The business quickly grew wildly popular among young girls, in part due to their Malibu teen aesthetic. The Brandy Melville Instagram page currently has over 3.7 million followers and feature models that are white, long legged, young, and very thin. The stores aesthetics match their brand advertising with a bleached wood theme and muted color palette, to align with the simple, low commitment, and affordable clothes they offer.

The company's products are sold in physical stores across the world, including Europe, the United States, Asia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia as well as on the Brandy Melville website.

Market and Target Demographic
Brandy Melville has been described as trend-setting, relevant, cool and fast fashion and their most prominent buyers are young teen girls looking for trendy fashion from popular name brands. In 2014, according to Piper Jaffrays semiannual report on teen spending, Brandy Melville took the number one spot for up trending brands that year. Brandy's product research team consists of teenage employees, starting at age 15, who attempt to keep the company's styles contemporary and on trend.

The company does not use traditional advertising techniques and instead depends heavily on social media marketing and partnerships. There is very little evidence of Brandy Melville representatives speaking on record, rarely any promotional press, and there has been rumor that the employees are not allowed to discuss the company history or identity of CEO with anyone.

Controversy
During its rise in popularity, Brandy Melville has faced considerate controversy for its "one-size-fits-most", policy as customers began to express distaste for their non-inclusive clothing items. Their clothes are tailored to a 25 inch waist and a 32 inch bust, measurements that are not widely representative of the vast majority of female consumers.

Current operations and franchises
Brandy Melville currently has 95 locations across the world—with 35 of those locations being in the US.