While fast fashion has been around for decades, arguably no brand has made its mark on the world as quickly as SHEIN. In just a few short years, SHEIN took over social media, latching onto trends and selling them faster than you can even realize they are happening. The brand doesn’t have stores like its predecessors Zara and H&M, but still has thousands of styles that are curated through expert data collection and are available right at your fingertips within days of seeing a similar look on a celebrity. SHEIN hauls, where people spend a few hundred dollars on a box filled with dozens of clothes, took over TikTok, and the rest is, well, recent internet history.
With that meteoric rise into the culture, however, came plenty of controversy and questions over their labor practices. For starters, the brand makes clothing at an almost inconceivably fast rate, boasting that they create upwards of 1,000 new styles daily. Though the problem is not specific to SHEIN, clothing waste is a significant polluter and often ends up in landfills or burdens communities throughout Africa and South America. On the design side, many artists have accused them of copying and selling their work at significantly lower prices.
The absurdly low prices (sometimes the retail price of a shirt can be as low as $2.99) have also raised questions about the brand’s labor practices. An investigation by Bloomberg found that SHEIN uses cotton from the Xinjiang region of China – which the United States Department of Labor officially called out for using forced labor by a detained Uyghur minority population. (They company didn’t directly dispute the findings and told Bloomberg that they work to “to ensure we comply with local laws and regulations.” The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to the CEO of SHEIN in early May asking for much more transparency about their supply chain. An interim report from the committee released last week accused the retailer of utilizing an import loophole to avoid customs enforcement. (According to the New York Times, the company said “it provided detailed information to the House committee and will continue to answer its questions.”). What’s more, a UK undercover investigative report in 2022 also found workers were making less than two cents per item while working 18-hour days. (The company, after its own investigation, said they found workers in the spotlighted factories were working longer hours than local laws allowed, though “significantly less than claimed [in the report.]”)
It’s no surprise, then, that when a group of influencers posted about a trip to China to see a SHEIN facility there were some questions about the brand’s motivation for the tour.
SHEIN appears to be using a playbook that the fashion industry has perfected: use the trust and clout from celebrities and influencers to deflect backlash and concerns. But the controversies surrounding the brand are significant, and the trip was instantly called out as a way for SHEIN to overwrite the narrative of legitimate questions about its supply chain.
In a statement to Teen Vogue, a spokesperson for SHEIN said the trip was to the brand’s “innovation center” (the facility was in Guangzhou, China, a manufacturing hub, and the same city that houses the brand’s factories mentioned in the UK investigative report), and that it reflects “one way in which we are listening to feedback, providing an opportunity to show a group of influencers how SHEIN works through a visit to our innovation center and enabling them to share their own insights with their followers." The brand added that the videos and commentary from the influencers are "authentic," further noting that they look forward to providing more transparency around the business model.
And the examination of the ethics of fast fashion isn’t just about SHEIN; it speaks to questions about the industry in general. Putting aside labor practice concerns, the fact remains that the brand, like many of its peers, is churning out large quantities of clothing that will likely end up in landfills. And the more influencers peddle the brand’s wares, the larger they’ll likely grow, and the more clothing—often hyper-trendy fads—will be made and soon discarded.
Want more like this from Teen Vogue? Check these stories out:
- Bella Hadid Wore a $16.99 Dress, But Should Celebrities Promote Fast Fashion?
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