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Brandy Melville Documentary: What Happened To CEO Stephan Marsan? Latest Updates On The Brand & More
Brandy Melville’s CEO Stephan Marsan has been accused of racism and antisemitism along with other controversies. A new documentary highlighting the same just came out. But where is Stephan Marshan now?
The new Max Documentary Brandy Hellville: The Cult of Fast Fashion brought forth a lot of the allegations against Stephan Marsan, the CEO of Brandy Melville. In a 2021 expose by Insider, a lot of past employees and store owners accused Marsan of racism, antisemitism, and inappropriate behavior against young women. In the documentary, which came out on 9th April, we can also see several formal employees and store owners opening up against Marsan and his brand.
What did Stephan Marsan’s former employees say about him?
Stephen Marsan, who is an Italian businessman, founded the company Brandy Melville in his home country, and opened his first store in the USA in 2009. In 2021, many of the company’s former employees spoke up against the co-founder and CEO in the Insider expose, but the mysterious figure Marsan stayed away from the spotlight.
Franco Sorgi, who used to own 11 Brandy Melville stores, told Insider, “He is not like the typical CEO that sits on a chair and makes a million dollars a year in bonuses while the company is sinking into debt. He doesn't want nobody to know him because he's sitting on a pile of cash.”
The Brandy Hellville documentary also delved deep into a group chat Marsan had with about 30 other men from the company which allegedly included his brother Yvan Marsan and Brandy Melville CFO Salvatore Rianna. Several former employees of Marsan accused the CEO of sending antisemitic, racist, and sexist memes in the group chat. Insider even obtained several screenshots from the text chain and in one of those, Marsan had allegedly edited his own face onto the body of Hitler. The group chat was allegedly named Brandy Melville Gags. One of the other obtained screenshots allegedly show Marsan folding up a t-shirt so the print on it spells Hitler.
"Everybody will laugh at the most stupid joke he made, even if they were not funny. Everybody would kiss his a** like you can't even imagine. I wouldn't be surprised if people ... in the chat would post nasty stuff just to make him happy,” Sorgi has said to Insider about the matter. Another former Brandy Melville store owner who was part of the documentary said, “I don’t know…I don’t know. When I saw him wearing a Hitler outfit, I wasn’t surprised,” when he was asked if he thought Marsan was antisemitic.
Marsan was also accused of racism at the workplace
It was not just the group chat, but according to several former employees and store owners, Marsan also had several rules about the appearance of the employees who worked in his stores. One former employee named Kali said, "The ideal was the White girl, mostly blonde, sometimes brunette,” while talking about the kind of girls that were hired to work in the stores.
One former employee also claimed that in the NYC store in which Marsan worked in the office at the upper level there were buttons by the cash register that would light up when someone whose appearance caught Marsan’s eyes walked into the store. Then the person from the cash register will get that person’s contact info and photo to contact them later. An Italian whistleblower said, “For Stephan, if they were really light-skinned and redhead, that was number one, like the top of the top.” It was also apparently required for regional managers to send pictures of prospective employees to higher executives of the brand before they could hire anyone.
One former employee also said in the documentary that Black employees and other employees of color were forced to usually work in the stockroom or given night shifts. When the number of Black employees increased, the CEO allegedly started letting them go and hired more white employees. A former Italian Senior VP of Brandy Melville also claimed, “If Stephan didn't like some of them, he would send it back to me privately and say, 'Fire her.’” Marsan also allegedly asked employees to send their photos to him everyday which ultimately became only pictures of feet and chests, according to another former employee.
Where is Stephan Marsan now?
After opening the first Brandy Melville location in the US in 2009, Marsan was able to up the number to 36 by 2021. Marsan always liked to stay elusive and did not answer any requests for statements by Insider or the Brandy HellVille documentary.
The Insider expose which came out in 2021 of course put a lot of negative attention onto him and so did the lawsuit by Luca Rotondo, who was a former Senior VP at the company. Another lawsuit against him was filed by Canadian store owners who sued Bastiat USA, which is the company overseeing the Brandy Melville stores in the US. The lawsuit claimed that they were fired because they refused to let go of employees based on their appearance and race. Even though neither Marsan nor his team has said something against it, Bastiat USA denied the claim.
As for now, Marsan still remains the CEO of Brandy Melville and continues to keep a low profile. According to Insider, he also bought a townhouse in NYC in 2021 which allegedly costs $9.6 million.
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