One thing about consumers – we are sharpening up. No longer fooled by the artful deception of fast fashion, we are demanding much more from corporate companies that continue to contribute heavily to climate change and human rights abuses. Among these companies, SHEIN stands out as the most villainous and contested. A fast-fashion retailer in China, SHEIN has a number of L’s to their name; labour abuses, intellectual property infringement, strenuous environmental impacts and lack of transparency in their supply chain. While they’re certainly not the only culprits in the vast web of the fashion industry’s rampant misconduct; they are behemothic in comparison to their competitors, with their production output making Zara and H&M look like bespoke boutiques in contrast. According to research done by market analysts, SHEIN launches around 9000 new products a day, and hosts around 600,000 items of disposable clothing on their site at any given time. To achieve this, and keep their costs exceedingly low (some pieces sell for as low as $3), there is literally no way that vast, systemic exploitation does not feature within their supply chain. Consumers have been sceptical for a long time, and SHEIN has been relegated to a kind of curse word in fashion. 

So, when last week influencers reported to their audiences from a PR trip paid for by SHEIN in China, the internet was up in FLAMES. In now deleted TikTok videos, a number of influencers walked through a perfectly curated factory facility, known as SHEIN’s ‘Innovation Centre’ offering their seemingly ‘scripted’ perspective to audiences as to what they saw. In what is clearly a SHEIN sampling factory, their ignorance of the multiple manufacturers a company like SHEIN has to outsource to was notwithstanding; let alone the fact that this being a paid trip is inherently unethical, and they would be contractually obliged to present a curated and positive portrait of the trip. One of the influencers who has received a lot of the heat, and doubled down on her sentiments many times, is Dani Carbinaro implied that the ‘west’ has spread propaganda about SHEIN; contrary to the fact that criticism of SHEIN has come from people in China and across the world. Dani refers to herself in the video as an ‘investigative journalist’ as Insider reports, “The Los Angeles-based creator, who has nearly 500,000 followers on the platform, said that the Shein handlers who guided her on the trip allowed her to interview a woman working at the centre who answered “honestly” about the “rumours” surrounding its working conditions at Shein. While Carbonari didn’t specify what rumours the woman was referring to, the brand has been widely and publicly scrutinised over its poor labour practices and lack of transparency over the years.” You can watch here for a reload of one of Dani’s videos. Another comment that left audiences in disbelief was Destene Sudduth’s comment that, “they weren’t even sweating, we were the ones sweating walking through the whole facility” – implying it can’t be a sweatshop. I mean, I don’t even know what to say to this level of ignorance.

The Shein Influencer Trip attendees Destene Sudduth, Kenya Freeman, Aujené, Dani DMC, Marina Saavedra, and Fernanda Campuzano. 
Credit: Mashable Composite: Shein, Panos Pictures / Public Eye

Everybody wants to get paid and influencers with questionable brand deals is no big news, but the level of ignorance and malignant mistruths that these influencers presented to their followers (who trust them and value their expression as influencers) is offensive.The backlash has been intense and potentially their reputations ruined – at least for now. SHEIN is going to stop at nothing to try and deflect any ill-practices ascribed to them, and are going to play on the vulnerability of influencers. Its not surprising that the five influencers ranged from Black and Women of Colour and plus size women; all marginalised women. If there are any misconceptions about SHEIN and their attempts at transparency were honest, they would invite actual journalists to visit multiple parts of their supply chain – instead of like when two journalists from UK’s Channel 4 went undercover in two Guangzhou factories, as described by The Cut, “In one factory, Channel 4 found that workers receive a base salary of 4,000 yuan per month — roughly $556 — to make 500 pieces of clothing per day and that their first month’s pay is withheld from them; in another factory, workers received the equivalent of four cents per item. Workers in both factories were working up to 18-hour days and were given only one day off a month. In one factory, the outlet found women washing their hair during lunch breaks, and workers were penalised two-thirds of their daily wage if they made a mistake on a clothing item.” These findings violate China’s own labour laws. 

If anything is to be taken from this story, it’s that the backlash from audiences on social media is truly hopeful. SHEIN cannot deny the disaster this has been, and the message has been received: we see you and we are tired. We are no longer buying into ethically-oriented platitudes – and this might just be our world’s saving grace, if corporations can act quickly and genuinely enough.

Featured image courtesy of  WWD

For more news, visit the Connect Everything Collective homepage www.ceconline.co.za