How come Shein has a such pretty clothes?

[Ihatesundaysandmywork]

Please note I’m talking about the patterns and style- NOT the quality.

I get lots of adverts on FB and Insta and I must say I love lots of their clothes how they look- I hardly ever shop there, very rarely, as I know the quality is not good.
How come the clothes look so pretty?
All these patterned quilted jackets, denim jackets, bright t shirts, dresses, lots of different bags…
If I walk into any high street clothes shop, all I can see it boring oversized or cropped hoodies and ugly bottoms, all in boring minimalist colours like black or grey or white.

I actually think it’s really hit and miss. I try not to buy fast fashion (and when I do, it’s not fast fashion I keep items for years), but I have bought the odd thing from Shein or Cider when I haven’t been able to find comparable elsewhere.

Some stuff is absolute tat and gets sent back, but I have 3 or 4 items I can think of on my wardrobe that seem really well made, do not feel like cheap fabric and that have got my more compliments than the more expensive things I own. I’d say particularly anything in corduroy (although polyester) has come up quite good quality and has lasted and washed well in the few years I’ve owned it.

I wish there were more ethical ways to buy some of these things, as I’d happy have paid 4-5x for the exact same piece.

I have no qualms about buying bits and pieces from Shein. I cannot monitor the whole fashion industry and it seems that Shein is just on the radar now for various reasons.

Remember back in the days of Covid. Where did it originate in Europe? Yep, Milan - that oh so chi chi centre of fashion. And why did it start there? Well the majority of workers in the high end fashion industry there were low paid Chinese who returned from China after New Year. Never heard any more about that did we?

Sour grapes from other fashion industry exploiters, and I think they doth protest too much.

People always go “returns are so easy” so they’ve buy absolutely tons of this shite - it’s easy because it goes straight into landfill.

They aren’t there was a program on recently where they had some tested and found awful contaminants

Shein is such a behemoth though and that's part of the problem. In Patrick Grant's book he says Shein launched 1.5 million products in the US in 2023, compared with say H&M launching 23,000. They encourage disposable clothes using cheap, polluting materials. I get that not everyone can afford more expensive, ethical clothes, but I would draw the line at Shein.

This blog has more reasons: ethically-dressed.com/6-reasons-you-should-never-shop-at-shein/

Sadly many industries are compromised due to issues like pollution, treatment of staff, non adherence to employment laws, unregistered (cash in hand) payments, safety breaches and so on.

Selecting Shein is ridiculous. Blasting them out of it is taking the spotlight off other non Chinese "behomoths" in many other industries all over the developed world who also may have questions to answer.

Cos the clothes are awful polyester, they feel gross and they fit awfully.

ive seen it - it’s truly awful isn’t it?
such a bleak watch. The part about end of life accountability for products was particularly fascinating though.

i used to have a great range of shops locally that i could source most things you’d turn to amazon for but the high street has died and it’s getting harder to avoid.

I tend to buy from H&M or charity shops. I saw a dress in a charity shop that looked nice from a distance but up close was really skimpy and the material felt all scratchy. It was Shein. So no, I won't be buying from them.

Nothing wrong with sheins quality at all I have some beautiful things from them high street would have cost me £70 straight up

Love H&M, surely they use the same save labour and are not very environmental? It's called fast fashion.

H&M do claim to try to be ethical. Could all be greenwashing, of course.

I buy mostly from vinted, I don't buy from the actual shops if I can help it as it's so overpriced for what it is.
I buy from Shein occasionally, mainly for holiday and shoes or for a night out, a lot of their stuff is shite but a lot is fine.
People buy what they can afford and a lot of people can't afford to shop for a whole wardrobe on the high street. There's no point telling them don't buy from there it's exploitative when they're struggling to pay the electric bill.

I think people who try to convince themselves that all high street fashion is unethical so Shein can't be worse than the others are just trying to make themselves feel better about contributing to modern slavery. We are living in a golden age of resale (vinted etc) - there is literally no excuse to order from sites like Shein.

I’ve got a few things from SHEIN I admit . Including my black chiffon shirts that I wear over absolutely everything - I don’t like their model, very aware of it but there’s no denying they have the styles and colours that are often very. Wearable, - especially if you aren’t the build that looks good in a bin bag

I see their stuff all the time when searching for particular items. I never buy - but the designs always look beautiful and exactly what you’re looking for. I just wish that the conventional high street - where I can try things on for fit and quality- would produce such lovely designs.

I was sad to hear recently that my local River Island is closing. I have been finding stylish nicely designed clothes there for a couple of years now - often in good natural fabrics.

Can you link examples?

I don’t think we are living in a golden age of vintage. You can’t return eBay or vinted clothes and if you hate waste and don’t want the faff of reselling, it’s just wasteful.

Additionally I’m greatly put off by the fact that most visuals don’t show the clothes on a person - you can’t tell from a dummy / hanger or - even worse - gross depictions of clothes lying flat on a grotty looking unmade bed! And many of the clothes depicted have clearly never seen an iron or steamer engendering some suspicions in my mind about the cleanliness of the items and worries about bedbugs etc. ..,,

They won’t contain toxins that are banned in this country. Unlike shein and temu

I’m this demographic and I don’t buy from shein or temu. Underwear and shoes are problematic, I do a lot of factory sales and outlet shops for those.

I had seriously thought at one point opening a shop and using SHEIN as my ‘model’ of what kinds of style of things to stock . It’s not just price, it’s the fact a lot of things are very wearable and attractive for us non 5ft 9 fashion model looking women - although the sizing is very suspect !!

I have never had any problems with size.

@Iloveeverycat it’s probably because I’m overweight ( although losing ) everything seems a bit small apart from one random top that would have fitted Dawn French at her biggest ( and I’m a 16)