Ultra-fast fashion retailer Shein has launched a new clothing line called evoluSHEIN even as criticism of the China-born unicorn keeps mounting. Except, that the new line does not describe itself as 'sustainable’, but "a purpose-driven collection."
Announcing the line, which went live today, Shein said in a rhetoric-laden statement: "With inclusive sizing, responsibly sourced materials, and the collection supporting women's empowerment projects worldwide, the new line will be an affordable option for customers seeking to make a positive impact with their product choices."
Shein's new line comes in the immediate backdrop of it joining Textile Exchange, the UN Global Compact and Canopy Style — organisations working to drive positive impact on climate change across the global textile industry.
Earlier in April, Shein was reported to be valued at $100 billion after raising between $1 billion and $2 billion in a new funding round. It was reported to be worth more than the combined market capitalisations of European rivals Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) and Zara owner Inditex. At $100 billion, Shein was tied for the third-most valuable private company in the world, according to The Crunchbase Unicorn Board. It was only behind ByteDance and Ant Group, and tied with SpaceX.
Even though Shein has had been under the radar for a while, the report about its valuation has triggered a fresh round of criticism from activist groups and other critics.
The Guardian alone has carried at least three pieces on Shein. Dilys Williams, director of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion, UAL, described Shein as the unacceptable face of fast fashion (as if the other faces are acceptable), and concluded: "We should be under no illusions: ultra-fast fashion has little to do with democratisation and much more to do with profit and wealth for those at the top."
The article very assiduously skirted the fact that Shein products, irrespective of whether they make money for the owners (or not), are indeed affordable. That's why it is popular not only among teens in affluent Western countries, but also among all others in the 150+ countries where it sells.
Activists who dump the word "cheap" over "affordability" needlessly diss ordinary people. Only a week ago, with inflation shooting through the roof, news about a California couple keeping their wedding under $500 went viral. The nuptial ritual could be kept within the budget thanks to a gorgeous wedding dress that they got for a paltry $47—from Shein.
Another Guardian report was about TikTok going berserk over Shein recently whacking a Zara design. While the newspaper waxed eloquent about how Shein is a serial offender and why it keeps getting away, it just as diligently has failed to report on how Inditex has been hounding a one-woman store in the US only because the name Tara sounds similar to Zara.
The truth is that Shein has beaten the giants of the Western world at their own game. It has left Amazon behind in numbers and reach, it has turned the Zara-H&M tables upside down. It acts as pricey for the media as Amazon has historically had in building that mystic aura. And now, Shein's marketing messages are laced with the same politically-correct terms as in vogue in the West.
So, how did it come to this?
Much has been documented about the environmental and social side-effects of fast fashion. Yet, at a time when countless surveys in Western countries keep parroting about how deeply people (especially the young) care about sustainability and how much they are concerned about climate change, the phenomenal success of Shein belies all those surveys and the numbers.
The Shein story should also be a wake-up call: that the campaign against fast fashion is simply not working. Campaigns that are patronising in approach do not work, and neither do those that rest the blame squarely on ordinary people with that sniggering ultimatum: you are with us or against us. The same Bush-ist logic of 2001 which has kept the world cleaved asunder ever since.
If you want mass campaigns to work, you need to have people on your side. Dissing people boomerangs, but humility can work.
