[2] As reported by The Cut, the brand is associated with "Americana décor and string lights, dotted with beachy wooden signs and staffed with thin, intentionally good-looking, blonde girls".

[4] Brandy Melville generally manufactures clothing marketed as one-size-fits-all, and has been criticized as exclusive of many body shapes; the branding was changed to "one size fits most" in response to public backlash.

[2] The brand has also been accused of copying the work of independent clothing designers, and Forever 21 filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against them in 2016.

[5] After Kate Taylor published an article for Insider about Brandy Melville's alleged malpractice[3] in 2021,[5] the brand issued no apology and faced no financial repercussions.

A viral "BM challenge" in China encourages girls to lose weight so they can wear a Brandy Melville skirt.

[3] Multiple executives allege that Marsan viewed the brand's "one size fits most" policy as a way to maintain its exclusivity, and that he was happy that it was being criticized.

Two former associates of Brandy Melville state in interviews that antisemitic, misogynistic, and racist jokes were sent in a large company group chat called "Brandy Melville Gags," including an image of Marsan dressed as Adolf Hitler and photos of him mocking Black people.

[3] Orner states that she had not heard of Brandy Melville until 2022, when producers suggested the brand as a topic for an investigatory documentary film.

[4] A review in The New York Times noted that documentaries with similar topics have been made before, citing White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch as one example.

However, the reviewer stated that the documentary was set apart by its engagement with the idea that Brandy Melville is in some ways cultlike, although they found that this was "underdeveloped" over the course of the film.

[8] Reviewing Brandy Hellville for NPR alongside two other "eye-opening documentaries", Linda Holmes summarized the narrative as "the story of how social media helped make a juggernaut out of a whole lot of nondescript tiny shirts".

She expressed appreciation for the discussion of "gross in-store culture", also comparing the documentary to White Hot, but noted that she wished for more focus on the brand's involvement with fast fashion.