From elementary school up until freshman year, I loved Brandy Melville. Their clothes were so on-trend and popular, what was there to dislike?
Brandy Melville is fast fashion because they have hundreds of articles of clothing on their website and new ones are being posted on a regular basis. One top is around $20 which is expensive compared to other fast fashion brands such as Shein, where a top can retail for around $5. Brandy Melville’s higher price tag does not ensure that their fabrics are better quality or that their workers are being paid more.
Fabrics
Brandy Melville mainly uses cotton and polyester in their products. Cotton is known as a sustainable material because it is biodegradable, but the process in which cotton is grown is terrible for our environment. When planted, cotton is sprayed with chemical fertilizers and pesticides inorder to protect from weeds, insects, and diseases. These chemicals get in nearby waterways and ecosystems. This effects our Earth as a whole because all of our waters and ecosystems are connected. Since the cotton is sprayed with chemicals, this means that we are wearing these chemicals. Since our clothes are in contact with our skin, this can be very bad for our health. Chemical sprayed clothes can lead to brain, kidney, and liver damage in addition to reproductive issues. Fertilizers and pesticides aren’t all that are being sprayed on Brandy Melvilles clothes. A lot of their clothes are colored or have some print on them. This means that dye is being used. Dyes can have toxic and carcinogenic effects, meaning that they can cause kidney, bladder, and liver cancer. Aside from our own bodies, these dyes are also harmful to our Earth because when these articles of clothing are washed, they release micro-plastics which get into our waterways and ecosystems once again. Once done being worn, 100% cotton clothes will take around five months to decompose. The article of clothing is still harming the planet because it is releasing its fertilizers and chemicals back into the soil. On the other hand, polyester is only known for how cheap it is to make. Polyester is super thin plastic, meaning that it is made out of oil. To make the fabric, the first step is to drill oil from the Earth. This process releases harmful pollutants, such as methane, into the air and into the water. The oil industry emits around 8 million metric tons of greenhouse gases into the air per year. The gases disturb and kill land and marine ecosystems. The oil is then refined into ethane and propane. The two are then treated in a heat process which makes plastic. This process also uses a mass amount of water(22 gallons per pound of plastic) and releases harmful chemicals into the air, harming every living thing on Earth. Plastic pellets are then melted and squeezed out through tiny holes, making very small threads. Finally, the polyester is made. The process of simply making the fabric already harms our Earth. This doesn’t account for dying the fabric or putting together the clothes. With your clothing item finally made and now being able to wear it, you will eventually need to wash it. Washing clothes made of polyester releases over 700,000 micro-plastics into the environment. This gets into our oceans and marine ecosystem. This ultimately means that fish will be eating plastic and Humans will be eating fish made of plastic. When the item of clothing is done being worn, it will sit in the landfill for 20-200 years until it is broken down.
Labor
Brandy Melville provides no information about how well their workers are paid now what type of working conditions they’re in. Their clothes are made in China, which isn’t automatically bad, but with their actions in fabric sourcing, it leads me to believe that they don’t care about their workers either.
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