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!

No I don't.

I can only imagine the working conditions for the people who produce these products.

I do buy some things in Primark.

Or for events you take a leaf out of Carrie Johnson's book, and hire.

Is there a difference between shein and primark in terms of working conditions

If money is tight buy second hand!
charity shops have so much stuff that should be used before buying rubbish quality clothes from dubious sources. And the carbon footprint of delivering it. Then of course it doesn’t fit and you send it back where it came from. Ridiculous waste of resources!

Wouldn’t buy from them because fast fashion is so bad for the environment - get yourself on Vinted!

I ordered some stuff from Thrift+ recently and was impressed with that. They had a 75% off sale so it was ridiculously cheap (under £2 for a Boden dress) but even their usual prices are pretty good. I've just ordered some jumpers for my husband - brands like Zara, Next, White Stuff - about £10 each. I don't know how that compares to Primark/Shein etc but it seems pretty reasonable to me.

Charity shops
Vinted
eBay
Car boot sales
Thrift Pluse
more ethical retailers - e.g. Patagonia, Lucy and Yak. many high street retailers have a "modern slavery statement" on their website so you can have a look and see what you think. Most aren't perfect but most are a lot better than Shein.

Patrick Grant - Sewing Bee - has a company called Community Clothing. Look them up. Not cheap but long lasting.

Community clothing is indeed lovely. But REALLY expensive. It's like one extreme to the other. There's a whole world between a £1 top from Shein and a £25 t-shirt from Community clothing.

@stickybear
It is just a fact. If everyone stopped buying Shein, those that work producing the clothes would not all of a sudden be living free, productive, fulfilling lives with their freedom back. Which is what I were saying.

For clarification I own perhaps 7 items from there, and at least 90%
of my wardrobe is second hand.

I'd say, having read through this thread and other threads about clothes, my carbon footprint/ethical choices are much better than the majority. As people have pointed out, M&S, Boohoo, Primark, H&M etc (and I'd need a long night free to make an exhaustive list) also use sweatshops. I never shop on the high street, ever. I use hand me downs, ebay and charity shops. I am yet to try vinted. A lot of my clothes are old, some older than me! I have a few bits from shein, and some designer things but not many.

I am hardly the 'root cause', I'd dare say those slating me are less ethical. Point fingers when your hands are clean.

Apologies, some of that response was in reply to @TruffleShuffles

Community clothing is indeed lovely. But REALLY expensive. It's like one extreme to the other. There's a whole world between a £1 top from Shein and a £25 t-shirt from Community clothing.

I said they weren't cheap. They cost what they cost because that is the actual real cost of producing the garments. And yes, many many people can't afford them. But it is a start.

Yes but it's unrealistic to expect people to go from buying Shein to buying from those sort of ethical retailers. From one extreme to the other. It's more realistic to push people along the curve a bit - from Shein into one of the retailers which do promise to adhere to ethical manufacturing and not using sweatshops, like Uniqlo.

Thank you @CakeCrumbs44 for the list of shops.

I don't actually need any clothes at the moment, having just bought about 4 new pairs of jeans (which I live in!) I wouldn't fancy those second hand anyway, tbh. But if everyone buys secondhand, the charity shops etc will run out of stock!

My jeans were from Bon Marche & George @ asda - hopefully they are ok! I lugged about 5 sacks / boxes of stuff (clothes, books, household goods) down to a localish charity shop last week, I hope everyone else on this thread does the same & doesn't bin / skip stuff with a useful life left in them. :-)

£25 is what a T-shirt probably should cost. We've just spent years undermining the skills and materials it takes to make things.

Some products are very thin / poor quality, but they are ok - I’d say wouldn’t last long though

If money is tight buy second hand!
charity shops have so much stuff that should be used before buying rubbish quality clothes from dubious sources

Charity shops do, yes, but I went in my local one's looking for a coat and although they had a few in my size, they were just ugly to me and not something I would wear. I will buy second hand if I find something I actually like and would want to wear