Brandy Melville: Instagram’s First Retail Success

The first thing Lola Yerton did after hearing about Brandy Melville from her older sister Bella last summer was to pull up the clothing store’s Instagram account on her phone. It was love at first sight. There were photos of cool stickers and of clothes she saw herself wearing: T-shirts and sweaters, scarves and beanies. Now, six months later, the 11-year-old visits a few Brandy Melville pages every day—the company maintains different social media accounts for its various locations—looking for items to buy, either online or at the branch in Waikiki, Hawaii, where she lives.

“I like the look of the people that work there,” Lola says, adding that shopping is easy. “A lot of the clothes are one size.”

Brandy Melville is the hottest teen retailer you’ve never heard of—unless you’re a tween or teen girl like Lola or the parent of one. The company has 45 stores in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and it’s growing. It moved into an 8,000-square-foot space in New York City’s SoHo last spring, doubling the size of its previous location.

Brandy Melville doesn’t do any traditional advertising. Storefronts carry discreet signage. The brand’s popularity is fed almost exclusively through social media buzz. It has 2.2 million followers on its main Instagram account, 65,000 followers on Twitter, 218,000 “likes” on Facebook, and a robust board on Pinterest.

The popularity of Brandy, as it’s affectionately known, is noteworthy given the recent poor showing of other teen stores. Delia’s said it will file for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Dec. 5. Abercrombie & Fitch will have closed 60 stores by the end of this year, and Aéropostale is shuttering 120 stores in the U.S. and Canada. “To me, the DNA of these brands has not evolved,” says teen trends forecaster Sarah Owen of WGSN in New York. “The junior girl consumes information faster than estimated, and product and brand images seem to be from 10 years ago.”

Brandy Melville doesn’t have those problems, and by setting trends, not chasing them, it’s winning over the coveted teen demographic. American teens spend an average of almost $3,000 annually—21 percent of that on clothing, followed by 20 percent on food, according to the latest Taking Stock With Teens survey from research company Piper Jaffray. The report shows Brandy Melville gaining favor among teen girls, especially online.

Instead of pushing branded merchandise (think Abercrombie logos on sweatshirts), the company sells clothing—loose T-shirts and long cardigans, flowing summer dresses and jeans—that presents shoppers with an opportunity to define their own look. “Brandy Melville is not a logo-oriented brand,” says Erinn Murphy, vice president and senior research analyst for global fashion and lifestyle brands at Piper Jaffray. “Style is more important,” she says. “It’s very basic styling with a unique approach to layering.” Brandy Melville didn’t respond to several requests for interviews.

Brandy Melville is all about knits. The color palette tends toward neutral: gray, black, white. There are stripes, some floral patterns, and lots of graphics, especially phrases on T-shirts, like “You Can’t Sit Here” and “C’Est La Vie.” The company makes every kind of T-shirt—short-sleeved, long-sleeved, fitted, cropped, tanks—ranging from $16 to the low $30s. Dresses are priced from $23 to $35, depending on the length. Sweaters sell for $40 to $60. There are short shorts for $17 and skirts that average $23. Almost everything in the store, except for the jeans and some other pants, come in one size—what Brandy Melville calls “one size fits most.”

“Millennials want to tell stories and curate what they see,” WGSN’s Owen says. “This group is looking for something more editorial,” she says. The more the brand lets girls build their wardrobes, the broader the demographic they’ll capture, says Tiffany Hogan, a retail analyst with Kantar Retail in Columbus, Ohio. “That’s the big difference today. Twelve-year-olds used to dress differently from 16-year-olds,” Hogan says. But today, more retailers are producing styles that blend together. “There’s no teen style vs. tween style—it’s all one.”

Brandy Melville is notoriously tight-lipped about its business. Press accounts note the company was founded in Italy in the early 1990s by Stephan Marsan and his father, Silvio, an Italian entrepreneur and manufacturing expert. Stephan’s LinkedIn page says he’s the owner of a company called Marsan & Marsan, at an address that’s listed on Brandy Melville’s website as its Santa Monica, Calif., store.

The company opened its first U.S. store in 2009, in Westwood, Calif.—the perfect base for fashion with a casual, carefree, West Coast sensibility. Brandy Melville stores are bright, with white walls and light wood floors. There’s seemingly little effort put into merchandising; much of the clothing hangs shapelessly or sits in tall piles on shelves.

Retail analysts estimate the company’s annual sales are in the range of $125 million and growing from 20 percent to 25 percent each year. The brand has cultivated an aura of exclusivity, in part because of the limited sizing. Teens who are into the brand like the idea that the clothing isn’t for everyone. “One size doesn’t fit most,” says Doug Stephens, a retail consultant who’s written about the future of retailing. “That could turn people off.”

Amanda Groenendaal of Norwood, N.J., whose two daughters are Brandy Melville fans, agrees. “If you’re a girl that doesn’t fit that mold, or the parent of that girl, it’s got to be hard,” she says. Still, Groenendaal won’t stop her daughters from wearing the clothes. “They’re teens, so they might not think about it now, but I would hope that one day it would be on their mind,” she says.

Elizabeth Stewart, a celebrity stylist in Santa Monica who works with Cate Blanchett and Jessica Chastain and is the mother of 16-year-old Ivy Bragin, is also bothered by the limited sizing. “Women come in all shapes and sizes,” she says. “It’s hard to spin that.”

That dilemma could take care of itself. Teen tastes and trends change so fast, even Brandy Melville might have a hard time keeping up. Hogan of Kantar Retail says brands that are hot need a plan for keeping their fans once they’re not. “Exponential growth isn’t usually sustainable for a long time,” she says.