To think Shein has upped it’s game

[Ikeasucks]

Their stuff looks lovely (online on skinny models anyway) - have heard a few good things recently as i had written them off a few years ago. Anyone use them and happy with the product, quality, returns etc

i hate online clothes shop but the high street/town centers are dead in many places now so options are really limited often to just M&S, Next, H&M or Primark

See, I think it's the other way. I've found Shein to be better both quality/delivery wise to Temu.

Shein is rubbish..the "good" designs they have are rip offs. Keep buying all this chinese crap and watch western economies deteriorate.

I will never ever buy anything from Shein

China uses cotton picked by Uighurs that they're currently ethnic cleansing. They use child labour and people don't have human rights, never mind labour laws.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/nz0g306v8c/china-tainted-cotton

Alternative clothing for me is buying from small, independent stores.

Unless the view of alternative clothing is basically mass produced Hot Topic? Hardly alternative when buying from Shein.

Have they stopped using child labour and slaves? Have they stopped ripping of other people's designs? Have they stopped flooding the planet with their poorly made tat?

I would never buy from this company and judge people who do as shallow and too dim to see the massive ethical concerns about a company churning out so much stuff, unethically, and killing the planet in the process. All so you can have some "nice bits".

My suspicion is that a lot of U.K. High St brands use Chinese manufacturing that is just as poor. I don’t buy from any of them, but I also recognise that some people can’t afford to spend more then they have to, so if Shein is cheaper than Primark, I suspect the additional cost just goes to the middleman.

Slave/indentured labour

Toxic chemicals harming the worker the wearer and the environment of both

poor quality, throw away fashion that is an ethical nightmare

it’s grim - my DDs but from there occasionally (much to my irritation) and the quality is always dreadful.

here are plenty of children's wear items including pyjamas etc sold in UK based high street stores and supermarkets that would also set alight if a naked flame were held to them.

This is just not true. Children's nightwear sold in proper UK shops like Asda, Next, M&S all have to conform to strict standards, as do dressing up costumes.

Cheap shite from China does not have to conform to any standards.

Not good enough is an interesting app for getting insight into ethics of clothing companies.

it ranks shein as 1/5 (“we avoid”) and Primark as 3/5 (“it’s a start”) Zara, M&S, Cos, Massimo Dutti, Mango, John Lewis,

baukjen rates as 4/5 (“good”) as does Joanie, Nobodies Child, Iro, Uniqlo and Reformation

I still remember the public service adverts from the 80s about the importance of wearing only compliant nightwear and fancy dress costumes (which under U.K. law are all required to be flame retardant)

IIRC dressing up costumes don't, because they are classed as toys rather than clothing. There was a news thing about it a few years ago because the combination of Hallowe'en pumpkins and costumes can cause a problem if unaware. However perhaps some of the items were from these sites.

I think any clothing will burn - e.g. bonfire Guys, or the advice to "stop, drop and roll" to extinguish clothing fires. But it shouldn't be burning with black smoke or at a rate which would be overly dangerous.

Everything which is sold in the UK, including cheap shit from China, is supposed to conform to the same standards. The problem is this business model which is now very easy for people to set up - you get a line in a factory for example producing clothing for some high street brand or a part for a major electronics manufacturer, and the owner of the factory can cheaply rent it out on the off-hours to produce essentially identical items but with lower grade materials. Some of those materials won't meet safety standards, but when the focus is price and nothing else, they don't care about that. This is how you get several identical items on Amazon with incomprehensible names. When an item gets reported for being dangerous, that company gets blocked but they just pop up again with a new name. Nobody can trace them and nobody tries.

Lots of goods are produced in China, it's not being produced there that makes them dangerous, it's whether the company commissioning the item cares enough about their reputation to ensure they are following standards from the relevant country they are importing to.

If we still had watchdog I swear no one would buy this shit.
there’s some brilliant documentary’s on temu and shein where they test clothes, baby clothes, jewellery and homewares and show how it’s full of toxic banned shit. Baby clothes not made to safety regs like hairbands which could strangle your child.
it’s partly why it’s so cheap. It doesn’t have to conform to our regulations

It’s not the Chinese manufacturing that’s the issue. It’s that the retailer doesn’t have to comply.

Pretty sure I had my card details given out after shopping with them. So it’s a no from me. Plus the stuff I’d bought was awful quality.

I love SHEIN (in fact everything I'm wearing as we speak is from SHEIN )

Prices are literally unbeatable. Great quality (stuff I've purchased anyway) and looks good. Takes a week approximately to arrive , never had to return anything.

I only ever buy from other shops in a sale now. It's the big giants fault why people are turning to SHEIN. You can pay £65 for a pair of trousers from River Island (a more middle tiered priced shop) or you can pay £4.79 from SHEIN. It's a no brainer. Retailers here have gotten greedy and used to upping the profiteering. Now they're being pushed out of business. Some of that is their own fault .

People talk of the ethics. But all clothes shops are at it to various degrees. And I'm not ultra wealthy or terribly middle class and I have to pick my 'save the world' battles. Most everyday people aren't in that privileged position to take a stand of big problems outside of their control.

The material is rank. Shiny, thin, crap polyester. Wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of it is insanely flammable either. I got passed on a Shein blouse a while back. Thought I’d try it. I have never sweated quite like it in my life!

That's all very well (and predictable that it'd be bought up ) but not everyone is middle class on here and has the ability to take on big world problems.

It's a no brainer

Quite literally.

Only those with limited thought processing abilities can see no issue with a pair of trousers shipped half way across the planet for less than a fiver.

I also disagree that consumer shows would make any difference in people's consumption habits. They just don't care that stuff may be made badly, made by slaves or children, potentially dangerous or ripped off from other designers. As long as it';s "cute" and cheap. Preferably both.

You know that movie Wall-E? That.

Why can only middle class people try and shop more responsibly? I shop almost exclusively second hand, so River Island jeans (your example) would cost me less than a fiver. There's an enormous middle ground between £65 and £4.79 of entirely unknown provenance. You don't have to be a perfect environmentalist to make a bit of effort.

You yourself are the awfully ignorant judgemental one.

Ever mixed with anyone that isn't middle class ?

You do realise some people do not have the ability to take on big world ethical problems?

And some people that have little in the way of excessive cash would rather dress their children in new clothes than charity shop second hand stuff. I think they deserve that choice.

It's lovely that you have that much free time (and cash ) to treat buying from SHEIN as akin to genocide. But there are people in this country that do not have that time and cash.

I personally think it's one of those "easy target" things to bully lesser well off people with.

Do you reserve the same indignant vitriol for child murderers ? Rapists? Or is it just the working class people buying off SHEIN that you feel comfortable bullying and judging ?

Actually most of my wardrobe is second hand. The hyperbole about rapists and murderers is just ridiculous - the lengths people go to in order to justify their spending.

Every single UK retailer - even Primark and the supermarkets - is a more ethical choice than Shein. Sales on currently, bargains out there. Or BNWT from Vinted.

I do not accept that “poor people” have to shop at Shein or go naked.

Yes, people do talk about the ethics because we know that SHEIN etc have none. It's not true to say that all clothes shops are as bad as each other. They aren't and it's not true to say that people on lower incomes have no choice but to shop at places like Shein.

Like I said earlier, this is forum principally for parents. Does the fact that the cheap clothes you are wearing have likely been made by child labour being paid absolutely nothing not bother you, at all?

@SquishedMallow You sound like someone desperately trying to justify the unjustifiable and finding that you actually don’t have any proper arguments.

What has class got to do with anything? I’m not middle class or wealthy and can’t afford expensive clothes but I won’t buy from Shein so I find a middle ground. The easiest way to reduce the impact of our consumption is to reduce our consumption. Have you tried buying fewer clothes?

You say that you buy from Shein because you don’t have the money or time to do otherwise. What does time have to do with it? Does placing an online order with Shein take less time than placing an order with a different retailer?

Weird to bring up rape and murder- are they the only two issues people are allowed to care about? I imagine everyone on this thread is outraged by rape and murder. Many of us are also outraged by rampant consumerism and environmental destruction, as we have the ability to be concerned about lots of different things all at once.

You have convinced yourself that the world’s problems are all someone else’s problems and nothing to do with you. It’s understandable cognitive dissonance. It’s very easy to point over there and blame China and billionaires because it means you never have to examine your own behaviour to see whether you might be part of the problem.

Good grief. I am indubitably working class in a working class job, and I take care where I buy clothes. I can't afford new River Island trousers, either, but I can afford those trousers on Vinted when someone lists them as barely worn.

It isn't compulsory to buy new clothes every five minutes, so why would I spend any money on Shein or Temu?

I mean, I didn't buy from Shein during my period in my lowest paid job to date, minimum wage in the UK warehouse of a well known high street retailer.

In fact, that job made me more fierce about boycotting Shein etc, because it was an awful job. The only thing that made it bearable was UK employment legislation, and the efforts of the local union. It's harrowing to think of what it would have been like there without either, and I will not knowingly support companies that make their money by abusing their workers.