HBO released the trailer for its upcoming documentary “Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion” on Thursday ahead of its April 9 premiere.
The teaser starts with a brief description of the Brandy Melville clothing company explaining how it took hold of young girls’ attention via social media and pop culture.
Girls depicted in the trailer recount their experience first hearing of the brand, purchasing clothes and gaining social status by owning something from the stores that became mainstream in the 2010s.
“I felt so cool and accepted,” one source recalls after buying a star necklace in the seventh grade. “The reason I liked it?” another girl says, “because everyone else liked it.”
One expert in the film asserts that it felt “genuine” because it was genuine.
“And then, kind of behind the curtain, no one has any idea that this man with sneakers and sweatpants on is running the Instagram that all these teenage girls are fanning over,” another voice reveals. “This place is not your conventional clothing company.”
The second half of the trailer dives into the scandals and controversies beneath the brand’s iconic surface, such as the stereotype that they would only hire skinny white girls to model clothing.
“Then you go into the stockroom and you see all the other people who are working there who are not white,” one woman notes.
Headlines about racism, sexual exploitation and more make up a montage as senior leadership text messages containing “the most vile, sexual, racist jokes” are described.
The fast fashion and environmental impact of Brandy Melville will get the spotlight as well. “It’s gonna shock you, what you see entering our waters. I need to be worried,” one man says in the clip.
“Fast fashion brands convince you to buy so much because they convince you that you are not enough,” a voice says, while another concludes the trailer with the words: “Brandy Melville tapped into the worst impulses of being a teenage girl.”
“Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion” premieres April 9 on HBO and Max. Watch the full trailer, below:
