To Buy Shein??

[GarthElgarsGlasses]

Hi, tempted to make some purchases from Shein and wondering whether anyone who’s bought from them would recommend their clothes or not?! Money’s right but really need some new winter clothes, however as Shein is so cheap I’m sceptical! Any experiences of their clothes welcomed! Thanks!

Charity shops are absolutely swamped with crap second-hand fast fashion that takes up storage space, hanger space, and doesn’t sell well.

I have never seen that. They sort it, the crap you describe gets sent to homeless shelters or landfill where i live. It has been well known for a long time that charity shops won't stoc, say, Primark t-shirts because they don't sell.

That’s exactly what I found. Looked really nice stylish and quite unique in the pictures.
What arrived was cheap tat. Terrible quality fabric that all looked like cheap teenagers clothes. Like the worst of Primark or those shops that sell really cheap non brand clothes.
Most looked nothing like the pictures. I kept one pair of black trousers. The rest was beyond bad.

No no. My argument acknowledges, explicitly, that all of us who lead these comfortable western lifestyles do so on an unfair and unethical basis. So your post said nothing I didn’t already say.

You seem to extrapolate from that a suggestion it should be fine for us all to just ignore it and do what the fuck we want rather than to try to mitigate our impact.

I really can’t believe you think not being able to do my job anymore because I don’t have a mobile, therefore being evicted due to insufficient income, not being able to feed my children etc is in any way a useful comparison to wanting to buy high fashion items you don’t need at a cheap price produced by slaves.

Its a shameless attempt at deflection, by saying if others aren’t perfect it’s fine for me to be absolutely appalling. It isn’t.

Ive said that we have to be realistic and I’m not judging people who are doing what they need to do to survive (no one needs 8 new maxi dresses from shein to survive). I think it’s incumbent on us all to look at our lifestyles and try to be better, to reduce the harm that all of us do. Some of those changes will be harder than others, some will be too hard for us to be willing to do, some will be impossible. Some will be really fucking easy and not buying shit loads of unnecessary clothes from Shein falls into that category.

I think people just think it looks flashier to have 7 dresses rather than 1 - even if the 7 are cheap and the 1 is quality.

it doesn’t.

'and the only place selling what they need at a price they can pay is shein, and the alternative is their kid goes to school in bare feet'

Yes. People are allowed do make their own choices based on their own need. Stop judging others unless you're living a 100% ethically sourced life yourself.

They're very hit and miss. The trick is to scroll down and look at the tags and see what material is listed. If it has a high percentage of spandex give it a miss. Some of their stuff is like swimming costume material. Also go by the measurements, not the sizes.

Quite, @Cantanka . We're all flying and driving and using mobile phones based in China so fuck it, why bother with taking any action at all? Bring on the piles of cheap tat and plastic clothes!

More supporting evidence of the unethicallity of buying anything that is likely to have been made in Xinjiang by forced labour.

The UN confirms use of forced Labour https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch5Td9nMrqt/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

The UN confirms conclusive evidence of atrocities against Uyghurs

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch-WYjOsupZ/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Ds did a lot of research into this and raising the profile of the genocide while he was a student but has had to step back a bit while he's in the probation period/settling in to his new job.

He's very careful about where he buys clothes from: M&S are apparently ok as although their jeans are made in Bangladesh, they're made in decent working conditions.

Some of the responses to this thread are making me feel sick.

I don’t want to be deleted but I’ll just say that an awful lot of people are coming across as a bit hard of thinking here. And that’s being kind.

@GoingThatWay im glad you’re not my children’s grandma.

Yup, makes sense. No one can ever get everything right, so let's not bother trying to get anything right. Makes total sense 🙄

but we keep coming back to the same point: we all have different values or lines in the sand, and that is fine.
Nobody will be able to live this perfect sustainable lifestyle, and for those who are interested in mitigating the absolute disaster that we are building up to, will do what they can in the ways they can.

TBH i think that governments need to nudge more. Plastic bag tax? No. just ban plastic bags. Paper bags aren't much better, but they are better. Reusable bags, trolley bags, boxes whatever, are all a step in the right direction.
Selling fruit and veg loose is better than selling it in plastic packaging. it is easy enough to bring your own net bags or whatever to weigh them in. Deposits on bottles and tins, all easy wins that can be handled relatively easily. ETC ETC

Clothes are a huge polluter. Cotton is bad for the environment but at least it lasts longer and is generally biodegradable. We have to weigh up the pros and cons. Polyester clothing etc, and clothing containing microplastics? well microplastics are a massive problem we need to address. Polyester? isn't it a by product? so we need to find a way to use it effectively. And so on and so on. Make linen fashionable - or is flax as bad as cotton?

The other huge problem is this: the developed world needs growth. Apparently. And that comes via consumption. And the more we consume the worse the crisis is. We're fucked, but we could be less fucked by us all making a few small changes on a personal level, and pushing governments and companies to do their part too.

@mondaytosunday

I have a few things from there and they have been fine and worn well (so not 'fast fashion'). Their sizing is hit or miss though.

They absolutely are 'fast fashion'. The term isn't about the quality of the product, here's a definition:

Fast fashion is a term used to describe the clothing industry's business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail stores quickly, while demand is at its highest.

You have some points in there, namely it is incredibly difficult to buy ethically, all the time. If we all try the best we can it's s step in the right direction.

Comparing a phone however to a tonne of clothing from Shein isn't a great comparison though. The phone I'm on is reconditioned and while I've had it for 2 years it's probably getting on for 5 years old. I'll keep it until it either stops working or I accidentally drop it down the loo AGAIN whichever comes sooner. At which point I'll buy second hand reconditioned so I'm not actively part of the "new phone " cycle. I try and do this with appliances, cars and books.

Now compared to someone who buys a tonne of clothing from Shein several times a year they definitely aren't the same.

Oh I get it now! There is no daylight at all between being perfect and 100% ethical and being a totally selfish cunt with zero regard for others. Got it.

Im not perfect so I’d better not judge rapists and murderers etc because unless I’m 100% perfect in my behaviour I shouldn’t judge the way others choose to behave.

This requirement of perfection before you can think others are behaving badly is such an intelligent well thought through idea Liila - it totally justifies prioritising having four new pairs of cheap shoes for this summer over giving a shit about slavery and trying to reduce our consumerism, so you carry on and don’t you feel guilty sister!

Pissing myself laughing that Boo Hoo have appointed Kourteney Kardashian as their "sustainability ambassador ".

Two brands which have zero fucking idea what sustainability is.

So many people looking for so many reasons why they don't need to try. The one I can empathise with is the PP that said life's tough, sometimes you just want one thing that's new for your kids. I can see that. Been there years ago.

///

Absolutely this.

But then the argument of "it's not fast fashion because they take it to a charity shop after" falls apart if the charity shop put it in landfill anyway!

@WowStarsWow So am I, because I'd rather buy mine what they want, rather than what I think they should have.

So unless it's 100% sustainable living don't bother?

Like FFS, Ive been on there and all the clothes are so ugly.

That poster was me - I wasn't "piling on", was genuinely curious as to how people navigate this issue with their teens seeing as lots of parents DO care, and I'll be there in a few years! Also didn't mean to "slate" anyone, but there is a hypocrisy of denouncing slavery in the old days, but turning a blind eye to it when it's still happening now.

But then the argument of "it's not fast fashion because they take it to a charity shop after" falls apart if the charity shop put it in landfill anyway!

Well we don't send it to landfill, but 95% of Shein, Boohoo etc is certainly not fit for sale. So it goes off to recycling which yes is better than landfill but still doesn't wipe out the energy and resources used to make it in the first place.

So many people have forgotten that recycle only comes AFTER reduce and reuse.

'Now compared to someone who buys a tonne of clothing from Shein several times a year they definitely aren't the same'

Yes we've established some people's unethical choices aren't as bad as other people's unethical choices. Just because apparently.

No one buys 'a tonne of clothing several times a year'. They probably buy the same amount as they usually did just for cheaper and as I posted upthread places like Zara that charge far more also have had questions raised about their production.

'So unless it's 100% sustainable living don't bother?'

Don't bother lecturing others.

My young cousin has a very small fashion business printing T-shirts that's she designed and they've stolen all of her designs.

She's heartbroken.

I made an order once and sent everything back. Clothes are cheaply made and poorly sized.