Shein: the unacceptable face of throwaway fast fashion
Fast fashion is engineered to fit in with busy lives. Low prices invite low maintenance (cheaper and quicker to chuck than to launder and iron), low risk – or so it appears (buy in haste, no need to repent if it doesn’t look right), and the convenience is unrivalled (swipe, click and answer the door).
The pressure to look on trend is capitalised on by thousands of affiliates and celebrities who have the ears and eyes of millions of followers on social media.
The enticement to buy is immense and, for many, irresistible. Aggressive marketing combined with the use of algorithms, which scan social media for micro trends, enable brands to cut production to as little as 10 days. The designer is obsolete and, instead, engineers and sophisticated software allow the production of clothes that are fit for the screen, designed for obsolescence, destined for landfill.
Shein is at the forefront of this new business model. Last week, the e-commerce giant was valued at $100bn, making it worth as much as Zara and H&M combined. Shein has risen from relative obscurity to dominate this market, taking revenue from $2bn in 2018 to $15.7bn in 2021. Its model of manufacturing garments, plus our demand for them, means it churns out up to a staggering 10,000 new products a day. The constant, timed mark-downs, shown in hours and minutes, perpetuate the idea that you need to buy now and can’t wear anything twice.
The Guangzhou-based business was founded in 2008 by Chris Xu and has 7,000 employees. Predicated on the “test and repeat” model, made famous by Inditex and H&M, just 6% of Shein’s inventory remains in stock for more than 90 days. It relies on third-party suppliers in China to produce small batches of clothes, about 50-100 per item. If an item
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