"Wearing This Outfit Like Jennie?" One Size Only, the Place Z Generation Is Crazy About [Dito Society]

⑥Admired by Generation Z... Jennie's Particles Also Popular Domestically
Promoted with Slim Body, Blonde Hair, and White Identity
Weight Charts Trend in China Alongside Eating Disorders

Editor's NoteThe Seoul National University Consumer Trend Analysis Center has identified 'Ditto consumption' as one of the top 10 keywords for 2024. Ditto, derived from the Latin word meaning 'the same,' refers to the tendency to imitate celebrities' tastes and trends when purchasing products or consuming content. This article analyzes the blind 'Ditto' phenomena in Korean society, such as the lowering age of luxury consumption and the increasing trend of trend-chasing investments.

If luxury brands symbolize wealth, recently brands symbolizing slimness have gained popularity among young people. A representative example is the clothing brand Brandymelville, which sells only S (small) single-size clothes designed for petite women. Because there is a social atmosphere that wearing this brand's clothes certifies a slim figure, concerns arise that wherever the brand lands, it encourages excessive dieting among Generation Z.

Headquartered in Italy, Brandymelville opened its first store in Los Angeles, USA, in 2009 and has shown steady growth since. Last year's sales reached $212.5 million (approximately 300 billion KRW), a 25.3% increase compared to $169.6 million in 2019, five years ago. Currently, it operates about 90 stores in the US, Europe, and Australia, and five stores in Asia, including China, Japan, and Hong Kong. A store is scheduled to open in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, in the second half of this year.

On social networking services (SNS) such as Instagram, posts tagged with #Brandymelville and #Brandyusa have surpassed one million, showing great popularity. In Korea, the brand gained recognition as celebrities like BLACKPINK's Jennie and Ros?, and Red Velvet's Seulgi wore its products. Although the Korean store has not yet opened, posts offering proxy purchasing services for Brandymelville products frequently appear on portal sites and SNS.

BLACKPINK's Jennie wearing a product from Brand Melville.
[Image source=Jennie SNS capture]

The most famous products are short-length cropped T-shirts and low-rise pants worn hanging on the hips. These items have gained popularity as they align with the recent Y2K (late 1990s to early 2000s millennial fashion) trend.

The brand's strategy differentiates it from others. Unlike other brands that respect 'Body Positive' and increase clothing size options for various body types and employ models of diverse races, Brandymelville sells only one single size that only slim people can wear. It does not hire famous models such as idols or celebrities. Instead, it promotes the brand by creating content featuring employees' daily looks, mainly showcasing slim, blonde Caucasian women. Even when posting photos of ordinary people on official accounts, slim, blonde Caucasian girls are preferred.

As a result, the brand has been criticized for accelerating appearance-based discrimination and promoting racial discrimination. Brandymelville was involved in a discrimination lawsuit in the US over employment guidelines instructing to 'fire employees who do not look like typical white teenage girls.' According to a March report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Luca Rotondo, who worked at Brandymelville's US branch, revealed that after refusing to comply with the instruction to fire employees who did not fit the typical white teenage girl appearance, the company terminated her and she filed a lawsuit.

[Image source=Brand Melville USA SNS]

In China, where Brandymelville entered before Korea, excessive dieting to wear the brand's clothes became a trend. On SNS platforms like Weibo, a weight chart called the 'BM Girls' Ideal Weight Chart' spread like a fad. BM stands for Brandymelville, and the chart guides the ideal weight for women to wear the brand's clothes. Some women developed eating disorders trying to reduce their weight according to this chart, causing social problems.

According to this chart, a woman who is 160 cm tall should weigh 43 kg to be an 'ideal BM girl.' This corresponds to a body mass index (BMI) of 16.8, which is classified as underweight. Considering that the average height and weight of Korean women in their 20s are 161.8 cm and 58 kg (Statistics Korea health examination statistics), this idealizes an excessively thin body. As the 'BM style' became popular, a culture of wearing children's clothes from other brands and posting certification photos also spread on Chinese Weibo.