Scroll down the 小红书 xiǎo hóng shū app and you’ll find at least a dozen posts featuring Chinese girls wearing Air Force 1 sneakers, mom jeans, crop tops, and vintage baguette bags. Chances are they’re also obsessively thin, tall, and good-looking. These posts, generally titled “BM style OOTD,” are well-known by teenagers with at least a vague sense of what’s out and about, the trend is not new: BM style is the colloquial Chinese term for the Brandy Melville style, where you can find plaid skirts, floral tank tops, and vintage-print tees in stores tiled with hardwood and painted in a color palette of cream, beige, rose and navy, ostensibly meant to emulate ’90s aesthetics. Founded in Italy in 1994, Brandy Melville began opening up locations internationally in 2009, with its flagship store in Los Angeles, CA. However, today, it’s the de-facto symbol of Gen-Z clothing and the VSCO girl: Who doesn’t have something Brandy in their wardrobe? 

Brandy Melville’s Instagram page, with its 3.5 million followers, mainly features white, blond, skinny girls.

The Cali beach girl fast-fashion brand has been rapidly expanding across Asia and opening stores in Bangkok, Singapore, Bali, Hongkong, Shanghai, and most recently – on May 29 – Beijing. Brandy Melville didn’t become a sensation overnight though. Famous actress and cellist Ouyang Nana, Korean pop stars Jisoo and Jennie from Blackpink, and similar celebrities helped popularize the brand amongst China’s youth. And their marketing team clearly knows a thing or two about the capital, having opened their Beijing store in Sanlitun, undoubtedly the place to chill with friends during a relaxing summer vacation.

Even before the grand opening, the store had already begun to gain clout on the internet. Getting paid or not, bloggers posted sneak-peak photos of the store under construction and mapped out the way to get there (it’s walking distance from Taikooli) on Xiaohongshu. And the first day after it opened, my friend coined the scene a Caishichang, or outdoor markets that locals prefer to shop at. People were swarming into the “market” to take selfies with famous Chinese TikTok stars and fashion influencers (if you want to see the scene for yourself, search “BM北京开业”) while gathering quality content, eager to be the first to post on social media. However, a closer look at Brandy’s management model and their underlying motive to cultivate an Asian market may make you think twice before compulsively purchasing another spaghetti-strap dress.

Three weeks after opening, it’s still a Caishichang.

First, Brandy Melville is notorious for its one-size-fits-most clothing policy. It’s ironic because the size small  (160cm and a 61cm waistline on average) that runs through virtually all their pieces— except for some occasional oversized hoodies and jackets—does not fit “most.” This exclusive benchmark for who is eligible to wear their clothes constructs an insidious hierarchy of body sizes among teens: I’m skinny enough to fit in, you’re not. I reckon most adults would deem this toxic and dismiss it out of hand, but teens nowadays are too easily affected by societal standards of the idyllic petite body image.

You may remember the “backhand belly button” trend or the “A4 waist challenge” that went viral on Weibo a few years ago. These were precursors to the BM style that drives young women down all but one path: an abnormally underweight aesthetic. So, instead of turning away to buy clothes at some other store, young girls develop unhealthy eating habits in an attempt to lose weight until they quite literally fit in. Especially for Chinese people who are used to the constant pressures of self-improvement, young girls can wind up going to the extreme. The one-size ideal, at its heart, engenders controversy because clothes have slowly evolved from fitting people to people fitting the clothes. They reinforce the insecurities of young girls and a self-loathing that has already ruined many teenagers’ lives. It’s not merely about fitting in a skirt anymore; it’s about fitting into this exclusive fashion community. And when Brandy is reigning at the summit, who would resist doing so?

The sizing chart for an ideal BM girl went viral on Xiaohongshu and Weibo.

Brandy Melville also knows its consumers fairly well. While it might be costly for an average teenager to fill their wardrobe with designer brands or high-end street fashion, Brandy sets its prices between RMB 100 and RMB 315. This range is well-suited to 学生党 xueshengdang – a popular term for the Chinese student cohort – who receive limited pocket money but still want to follow the latest trends. Yet, as reported by The Fashion Law, the company netted $300 million in annual sales in 2018.

To make their brand appear down-to-earth and within reach, Brandy neither advertises nor partners with celebrities or supermodels. Instead, they post Polaroid-style snapshots of customers wearing their clothes on Instagram and hire store clerks in much the same way. Simply put, there’s no traditional job interview or application process. Rather, if a customer is attractive enough, they’re hired – even if they have zero retail experience. This illusory inclusivity is a win-win strategy for both the brand and the consumer. “I was asked by the store manager to work part-time [on the spot]” is the top-liked Xiaohongshu post when you search “BM北京 Brandy Melville Beijing” – a subtle boast that has since become the qualification of being a Brandy girl.

Older folks may still give you the eye when wearing a v-neck top on the streets of Beijing

Many Chinese consumers thank Brandy for defying the conservative fashion norm that has long pervaded China by normalizing showing our bodies rather than hiding them. While some elders may still regard tank tops as undergarments and inappropriate clothing to be worn in public, many young women are becoming increasingly comfortable with wearing more revealing clothing. Still, many are convinced that chopstick legs, A4 waists, and slender arms are prerequisites to wearing skinny jeans, skirts, and crop tops without getting scorned. The nuances that lie within the influence of Brandy culture tell us that it’s a daily struggle for Chinese girls to balance self-confidence and self-deprecation.

Yes, Brandy has inadvertently helped girls enjoy a greater sense of fashion freedom in China. But realize that there are other directions we can branch out to create more inclusive notions around beauty – ones that encompass shapes and sizes of all kinds and advocate for true body positivity.

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Images: Cynthia Zhang, Brandy Melville Official Instagram