Inside the 'toxic' underbelly of Brandy Melville: Popular brand's former employees lay bare HORRIFYING racism, harassment and 'exploitation' they say they were subjected to - as explosive new doc prepares to lift the lid on truth about 'fast fashion CULT'

A new documentary is set to lay bare the heinous underbelly of wildly popular clothing brand Brandy Melville, as a slew of former employees spoke out about the horrifying racism and exploitation they suffered while working for the 'fast fashion cult.'

Brandy Melville was founded in the 1980s in Italy and opened its first store in the US in 2009 - and almost immediately, it was a huge success, becoming a style staple amongst teenagers throughout the 2010s.

But as thousands of young girls clamored to get their hands on the trendy and chic clothing, behind the scenes, the workers have now claimed that they were subjected to rampant 'discrimination against race, sex, and size.'

An upcoming HBO doc - called Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion, which will premiere on April 9 - is now going to lift a lid on how the brand became one of the biggest clothing companies on the globe, while allegedly harboring an extremely 'toxic work culture' unbeknownst to its loyal and growing fanbase.

A new documentary is set to lay bare the heinous underbelly of the wildly popular clothing brand Brandy Melville

A slew of former employees spoke out about the horrifying racism and exploitation they suffered while working for the 'fast fashion cult' in the upcoming HBO doc

Entitled Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion, the doc will premiere April 9

The teaser for the doc pointed out that the brand used social media campaigns that revolved heavily around 'teenage girls taking photos of each other'

In a trailer for the new film, one ex staffer recalled becoming obsessed with Brandy Melville after noticing that 'everyone was wearing it at school.'

'I heard about Brandy Melville for the first time in seventh grade, everyone was wearing it at school,' she explained.

'But behind the curtain, no one has any idea that a man with sweatpants and sneakers on was running the Instagram that all these teenage girls were fanning over,' explained one ex staffer

'I walked in the store and bought a star necklace and I felt so cool and accepted.' 

But she, and many others, explained how 'behind the curtain,' things were not as they seemed.

In particular, the teaser pointed out that the brand used social media campaigns that revolved heavily around 'teenage girls taking photos of each other.'

'No one has any idea that a man with sweatpants and sneakers on was running the Instagram that all these teenage girls were fanning over,' explained a different former employee. 'This place was not your conventional clothing company.' 

Another woman claimed in the trailer that Brandy Melville 'only hired skinny white girls' for its stores, while using people of color in its factories.

'The girls would go to the factory where the clothes were made and pick out the things that they like,' she alleged.

Another woman claimed in the trailer that Brandy Melville 'only hired skinny white girls' for its stores, while using people of color in its factories

Others said they had to take photos of the outfits that they were wearing at work every day to send to the 'founder of the company' for approval

The trailer also teased one employee discussing 'text messages between the senior leadership at Brandy Melville' that contained 'the most vile, sexual, racist jokes possible'

'And then you'd go into the stock room and you see all the people working there, and they're not white.'

Others said they had to take photos of the outfits that they were wearing at work every day to send to the 'founder of the company' for approval.

While the trailer didn't divulge any other information on the topic, it also teased one employee discussing 'text messages between the senior leadership at Brandy Melville' that contained 'the most vile, sexual, racist jokes possible.'

'Brandy Melville tapped into the worst impulses of being a teenage girl,' said someone else. 'Finally, someone is talking about it.' 

Back in 2020, a former Brandy Melville employee named Callie went viral on TikTok after she accused the company of being 'fatphobic' and 'racist' in a series of explosive videos.

'My second week on the job, someone comes in and they’re like, "Hi I want to work here,"' she recalled in one of her TikToks.

'And I’m like, "OK, give me your resume and let me show my boss." And she gives me her resume and I go in the back and my boss looks at it for like half a second and she had all this amazing stuff on there and she goes, "What does she look like?"'

She claimed her manager asked her 'what race' the woman was, and after she said she was Asian, she was told to tell the woman that they 'weren't hiring.'

She also alleged that an employee that was 'bigger than the rest of them' had to stay behind the register 'so no one could see her body.' 

'Every single girl there was gorgeous. It was so intimidating to be working with,' she said in another video.

'And, yes, the majority of them were white. They were really skinny, they were really tall.

The brand has been fiercely slammed online for its 'one size fits all' policy, which some believe can promote unhealthy beauty standards for young girls

Earlier this month, a woman named Brianna Gomez went viral on TikTok for sharing her experience while working at the chain

She also confirmed that employees had to 'send pictures of themselves every day' to the 'head people,' which included full body shots to show off their outfits and close-ups on their chest

'Clearly it was an aesthetic of that store, which is f**ked up, but if you go onto Brandy in general, you’ll see that they have a certain type of people they hire depending on who that manager is, which is really messed up.'

In an bombshell Business Insider report months later, the publication claimed that if CEO Stephan Marsan 'thought a girl was too heavy or unattractive, he demanded that she be fired' and if 'a Brandy Melville store had too many Black employees, he had them replaced with white women.'

'If she was Black, if she was fat … he didn't want them in the store,' former senior vice president Luca Rotondo said. 

The publication also alleged that there was 'a group text with Stephan and other top executives' that contained 'racist, sexist, and antisemitic jokes, including one photo in which Stephan edited his face on Adolf Hitler's body.'

One store owner named Franco Sorgi claimed to BI that Stephan 'called black people primitive' and once told him that 'he did not want black people to buy Brandy Melville clothing' because 'it would damage the brand's image.'

In addition, the company has been fiercely slammed online for its 'one size fits all' policy, which some believe can promote unhealthy beauty standards for young girls. 

Earlier this month, another woman, named Brianna Gomez, went viral on TikTok for sharing her experience while working at the chain.

She said she got a job there when she was 15 and was not interviewed, but was simply hired because the store's manager 'liked her outfit.'

She worked there for four years and total, and she said she experienced many things that looking back now, she thinks 'weren't legal.'

She also confirmed that employees had to 'send pictures of themselves every day' to the 'head people,' which included full body shots to show off their outfits and close-ups of their chest.

'There were multiple times where I'd be wearing a tank top or a corset, [it felt like we were] sending a straight up picture of our boobs,' she said.

'It was a picture of my chest, going to men ... How is that allowed? And this is for minors too. Most of our staff was under 18. Why did I not think that was weird?'

DailyMail.com has contacted Brandy Melville for comment.