St. Johns Town Center is adding another clothing retailer that chose the shopping center for the brand’s first Jacksonville store.
Brandy Melville, whose U.S. headquarters is in Santa Monica, California, sells casual clothing and accessories designed for teenage girls.
The company intends to build out a storefront between California Pizza Kitchen and Claire’s in the row of retailers anchored by Barnes & Noble.
The city issued a permit March 5 for Insight General Contractors of Jacksonville to build out the 3,958-square-foot space at 4712 River City Drive, Suite 103, at a project cost of $180,488. LGA Partners of Pittsburgh is the architect.
The space previously was leased to tenants that included The Copper Closet, Justice and, temporarily while its permanent space was under renovation, Ann Taylor Loft.
Brandy Melville’s website, US.brandymelville.com, shows it operates 57 stores in 23 states and Washington, D.C. Its four Florida stores are in Delray Beach, Miami, Miami Beach and Naples. It also has stores in Australia, Europe, Japan and United Kingdom.
Its website shows it carries sweatpants and sweatshirts, activewear, cardigans, dresses, skirts, sweaters, sweatpants and sweatshirts along with accessories, intimates and pajamas. It is considered a fast-fashion brand, and its clothing online appears aimed at sizes XS and small.
A Brandy Melville representative did not respond to a call or email requesting comment.
Sage Publications reported Sept. 25, 2025, that Brandy Melville once was the ultimate “it” brand for U.S. high schoolers, popularized through social media and word-of-mouth marketing.
Founded in 1970 by Silvio Marsan and his son, Stephan Marsan, Brandy Melville is an Italian fashion brand “that takes inspiration from a fictional tale of an American girl named Brandy and an English boy named Melville who fell in love in Rome, inspiring the brand name and logos,” Sage reported.
HBO also focused on the brand, with a documentary titled, “Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion.” Throughout the 90-minute documentary, fashion journalists, former sales assistants and senior executives painted “a gruesome portrait of a business where fatphobia, racism and sexual misconduct go unquestioned,” Vogue.com reported April 12, 2024.
A Business Insider report in September 2021 said that while “Marsan has made a fortune selling fast fashion to teenage girls, interviews with more than 30 current and former employees from eight cities suggested a business largely built on the exploitation of young women and discrimination against anyone who failed to meet Marsan’s white, blond, and skinny ideal.”
BusinessInsider.com reported Dec. 28, 2022, that the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles issued a final judgment in November in a class-action lawsuit filed by former Brandy Melville employees in 2016. The companies that own Brandy Melville stores in California agreed to pay $1.45 million to settle ex-workers’ claims the retailer violated California labor laws, according to the report.
Brandy Melville denied all wrongdoing, VanityFair.com reported April 9, 2024.
“The revelations haven’t made much of a dent in Brandy Melville’s revenue,” the site said.
In its April 2024 report, Vogue.com said it had become popular for production companies to commission feature-length documentaries about the business practices of fashion brands. “Brandy Melville,” it said, “is quite unlike its forebears. The brand is still successful, still expanding, and still selling an American dream.”