The Toxicity of Shein
Shein, a fast-fashion clothing company based in China that has amassed popularity throughout recent years. The brand currently holds 17.7 million followers on Instagram, meaning popularity is an understatement. Shein clearly has had an international audience in mind since the website launched in 2008, producing their advertised five hundred new items a day of stolen designs from designers all across the globe. Which appeals to many teens due to it’s trendy fashion and extremely low prices. Many of my friends and peers have at least attempted to purchase an item from the website to see if such circumstances are too good to be true. Shein mainly markets their brand online, specifically through young trendy celebrities, or social media influencers. Their support for the clothing brand, encourages their personal supporters to want to purchase. But with the company choosing to conceal many aspects of their system, questions may be raised about the ethics of their brand. Fast-fashion is never beneficial for the environment, and clothing mass produced emerges all over landfills. With prices being so low, what are the conditions of the labor involved? Logically we can understand they are not stellar.
Shein which ideally arose as a low budget option for trending clothing in the United States quickly became popularized by influencers, or privileged upper class individuals widely spreading the company’s clothing across many borders. Representing an imbalance in the teens supporting the company to the laborers, and children in sweatshops making the clothing. With support from the ‘faves’, buyers disregard the heavy implications their purchases contain, and the negative effects globalization has on systems appealing to the privileged, and wealthy at the expense of human decency.
To take a deeper look, social media influencers are often being sent clothing through public relation packages, and these average but famous teens are collecting large amounts of clothing, and simultaneously being paid for it. This promotes an emphasis on possessing quantity over quality. Content creation urges influencers to refrain from rewearing outfits, to always promote the new latest trend. Normal teens cannot afford these vast amounts of clothing from more ethical, or expensive brands, and must resort to Shein. In addition, educational content is becoming more and more popular on social media platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram to avoid ‘gatekeeping’ (keeping secrets of success all to yourself). These content creators are releasing ‘educational’ information that is largely biased, and based off of personal opinions over facts. Outside research, critical thinking and fact checking becomes an afterthought, and the implications of fast fashion on chinese labour, and the environment is undermined.
