To ask why SHEIN clothes have increased in price?

[sodoffbeforemycupofcoff]

The whole point of shein is cheaper clothes with poorer quality. If we’re honest?
I have gd a browse this morning at their woman’s winter clothes section and I have noticed the prices have massively increased. Why would that be?

Oil?

yes, perhaps.

A penalty for being so awful for buying from them?

Well it's unlikely to be because the poor sods making them are being paid a living wage. Their are alternatives to likes of Shein if you don't have much to spend on clothes.

Trump (oil, trade…)? Like everything. But transport costs are probably a bigger proportion of overall costs where cheap clothes are concerned.

New marketplaces always start of with low prices to get people used to using them and killing off the competition, then they start to raise the prices.

Still half the price of Zara and they seem to sell the same stuff these days. They’re either buying clothes from the same manufacturer or Zara just buys their stock from Shein. 🤷‍♀️. Dont tell me Zara quality is better because it’s equally shit.

It didn't take long for the self-righteous Shein-hating brigade to turn up!

Where do you buy your clothes from?

That's not very nice.

Shein are very much deserving of the criticism they receive.

Anyone that cares to think about the bigger picture will recognise this.

This shows one of the fundamental misunderstandings here about how things like Shein and Temu work.

Yes, they often sell things that are identical or very similar to brand names.

This is either because they're made in the same place or because Shein / Temu are ripping off the design. The latter has happened to me and many other independent Etsy sellers too, it's not just big name brands.

The key difference here is that brand names like Zara are subject to UK / EU safety standards on their imports. They won't be using cheaper dyes which burn your skin. They won't be using toxic chemicals (there is a surprising amount of lead in clothes from Shein / Temu). They won't be using fabrics which are dangerously flammable.

https://chemtrust.org/news/report_finds_hazardous_chemicals_in_shein_clothing_above_eu_limits/

There is no good reason to shop at Shein / Temu. The cheap price only means you're paying with your health and your personal data. And your morals, depending on where you stand on slavery and ripping others off.

I wouldn't be caught dead supporting Shein. There are other things beyond 'cheap'. Not only is it not good for you physically, but supporting something that is well-known for slave work especially kids does not sit well with me.

Agree. Bought a Zara dress off Vinted and had to check the label didn't say Shein. I chucked it in the bin. Thin, unlined see through rubbish.

Good. Nobody should be buying from Shein, BooHoo, Temu etc and nobody needs the huge amount of disposable clothing people buy. Such companies are horrific on so many levels

Much less, better quality clothes that aren’t made out of plastic are what we should all be buying.

It’s cheaper to buy one clothing item that lasts years than a continual diet of plastic crap that ends up in landfill.

I’ve just read Less by Patrick Grant. It’s horrific what these companies are doing to the planet and society .

The cost of manufacture and infrastructure has risen. Materials, machinery, improved health and safety regulation, shipping, labour: living standards and expectations in the places these things are manufactured have increased exponentially over the past couple of decades, economies are better, fewer people are willing to work in factories being paid pennies. All this is reflected in sale price.

What are the alternatives please?
I have a production coming up, I need a dirndl, a couple of false hair pieces, a wrap around white cloak, some flower hair pieces and a bunch of accessories. I have priced them up on shein and Temu at just under £30 for the lot, but if there is an alternative that is just a cheap, I would love to know. (I scoured vinted for the black funeral dress and my 1930s church dress so I have already secured them)

Make them. Schools continuously do productions very much like making stone soup with zero budget. You send alerts re specific items and then use your initiative to make what you can’t borrow out of what you have.

Absolutely!

Cheap tat has lowered our understanding of quality.
We expect cheap prices.
Our high street is ruined. No customers, no shops.

No choice now but to pay higher prices for rubbish. (Or buy vintage/seek out decent British brands).

Interesting that the high street in Europe hasn’t suffered in the same way.

So I don’t have time or the raw material to “just make them” that would require a visit to our nearest big city (about an hours drive each way) to find material. Which would cost way more than £30 for just one dress. If I had a sewing machine, and I knew how to use it, fantastic, but I don’t and I can’t even sew on a button.
So I’m still short a dirndl dress and a white cloak/cape and I need some false hair pieces and some accessories (fake flowers particularly - as the ones we have in stores are now extremely old and no longer look good: I tried steaming them last week and the petals just wilted they are awful)

Why can't you make them? I cut my teeth doing costumes for GCSE drama out of old costumes, bedsheets, and charity shops.

I just read this too. He lays out in detail how items were made with such care and skill, now largely gone.

This.
it’s just starting with the motor trade now, huge subsidies for Chinese companies to move to manufacturing vehicles. At some point those subsidies will stop and it will be survival of the fittest for the brands.

Because they've hooked millions of customers in and know that we are creatures of habit, same as Primark did. Still unethical, still paying their workers jackshit and still full of nasty chenmicals

👏🏼🤣

Then the production isn't viable with the budget you've been given.