A Perspective on the Climate-Fashion Relationship

Quality clothing has never been more accessible than today, and yet, most people will still prefer to buy large quantities of cheap, low quality, unsustainable pieces for their wardrobes. Shein is a relatively recent development in the game of fashion that already sells more than Inditex (Zara’s and H&M’s parent company).

Shein isn’t any other fast fashion retailer, they are actually a tech company. Founded by Chris Xu, an SEO expert, Shein first sold cheap Chinese wedding dresses under the name SheInside, and inadvertently created a global brand. Shein original business model worked by adding as many designs as possible to their market, and then buying them wholesale after orders piled up. In recent years, Shein’s growth allowed for a few changes in its business model. Traditionally, designers try to guess which of their designs will be most liked by customers before sending them to stores. What sets Shein apart however is the fact that they still add hundreds of new designs every day, and then simply analyze customer buying patterns to determine which products are more likely to be bought in larger quantities in the future. But the reason they are already competing, and winning, against conglomerate giants such as Inditex, is their speed.

Normally, designing a trendy piece, manufacturing it, and delivering it in stores takes at least a couple of weeks. However, Shein can cut this time to just one week because of a new concept: real-time fashion. So, it’s obvious that with a wide catalogue to choose from, and an average price of $7.90 per item, Shein became a fan favorite online shop.

So what’s the problem, all of this sounds like a dream: affordable fashionable clothing that takes a couple of days to arrive. Well, even if it is comfortable, these are low-quality clothes manufactured in legally gray areas. This means that the amazing top you just received, could have been made by someone working 12 hours days in an improvised factory (Public Eye).

You may ask yourselves why is this alarming, after all, most of these problems are being solved at a very high rate. You aren’t wrong, but Shein doesn’t seem to be doing too much to fix its shortcoming. Shein became more than another retailer, and even is the hype is slowly dying, the consequences will stay with us since in 2021, the platform, reportedly, has over 43 million shoppers and generated almost $16 billion of revenue.

This is especially dangerous as, the transition from an age of fast fashion to one of conscious brands and consumers, could be catastrophically disrupted by companies like Shein. So what should you do? Well obviously opting for the full-priced environmentally friendly alternatives isn’t feasible for most people, but that still doesn’t mean you have to buy poor quality clothing from these shady companies. Instead, try looking for deals in outlets and second-hand stores, that way, you can help the environment by not taking any more new resources for things that we already have, and even better, you get better clothing to add to your collection.