France is at war with Shein. We should copy its tactics to defeat fast fashion | Nicole Lipman

Paris is the style capital of the world – a paradise of couture and craftsmanship stretching again centuries. The town’s very identify connotes luxurious and glamour. However final Wednesday, 5 November, a sprawling Shein outlet opened on the sixth flooring of the BHV Marais, the historic division retailer immediately throughout from Paris’s metropolis corridor. It’s the Singapore-based ultra-fast-fashion retailer’s first everlasting bricks and mortar retail house, and the primary of a number of everlasting outposts Shein plans to open in France within the close to future. Many Parisians aren’t completely satisfied about it.Shein – launched as SheInside in 2011 in Nanjing, China – is the reprehensible paragon of the ultra-fast-fashion trade. The corporate sells clothes (and residential items, toys, stationery, cookware, blankets, pet provides and extra) at an unfathomable scale: as we speak’s “new in” web page alone lists greater than 1,300 gadgets, from shiny gold shirts in its “Manfinity Mode” class, to plunging, plus-size swimsuits beneath the sub-brand “Slaysola”. Almost every part on the positioning is manufactured from plastic, designed for single-use disposability, and it’s all shockingly, disturbingly low-cost.Shein is an financial affront to France’s trend trade and labour market, and the French authorities has been going after the corporate for years. In 2023, on the urging of two French MPs, the French department of the intergovernmental Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Improvement (OECD) launched an investigation into Shein’s human rights, labour regulation and environmental violations, discovering in 2025 Shein did not uphold OECD customary in these areas. (Shein rejected claims it had breached any EU laws, and questioned the neutrality of the investigation). In 2024, the French decrease home of parliament accepted a invoice penalising quick trend corporations for environmental impacts; this June, the Senate handed a modified model of the invoice, singling out Shein and different ultra-fast trend corporations as notably egregious offenders. Previously three months, France has fined Shein practically €200m for shopper safety violations and “deceptive reductions”. (Shein contests the fines.)Most importantly, final Wednesday – motivated by the invention of each “childlike” intercourse dolls and weapons on the market on Shein’s web site – France’s prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, moved to dam the corporate’s e-commerce completely. Instantly, the federal government suspended all Shein deliveries and flagged greater than 200,000 packages for customs investigation. Deliveries have been resumed by the weekend after Shein eliminated the offending merchandise, though the PM famous that “Shein will stay beneath shut surveillance by state companies.” The concurrent timing of the assaults on Shein’s e-commerce and the brand new BHV Marais storefront appears intentional: it’s a strategic and efficient method designed to hobble the corporate in any respect factors.The presence of Shein in France is greater than an financial affront – it’s a cultural one, too. Shein stands in direct opposition to values the French stereotypically maintain expensive: artistry and sturdiness, sustainability and chicness. BHV Marais employees, bolstered by help from the main French commerce unions, have staged quite a few strikes and demonstrations in latest weeks, and a number of other unbiased retailers have pulled their merchandise from the division retailer in protest. Greater than 100,000 French residents have signed a web based petition opposing Shein’s presence within the metropolis. And on opening day, protesters with anti-Shein indicators have been forcibly faraway from the shop by police. The French concern Shein’s impression on the financial system and labour markets, but additionally what the model stands for: dirt-cheap clothes, on the expense of ethics.But for all of the protests, fines and resistance, there’s a purpose Société des Grands Magasins (BHV’s proprietor) has leased its retail house to Shein: it is aware of Shein’s shoddy, ultracheap and unethical garments will promote. Shein is the fifth-largest clothes retailer by quantity in France, celebrated as an accessible retailer for stylish trend. Behind the rows of protesters on Wednesday carrying indicators studying “SHAME ON SHEIN” stood lots of of Parisians, ready patiently in line to enter Shein’s new, everlasting, super-cheap emporium. They left carrying bulging buying luggage of polyester sweaters and shimmering going-out tops, muted pastel workwear and plastic, faux-leather winter coats. Most probably, they felt that they had scored a cut price.Behind these low costs are monumental, insurmountable prices. There are the prices to the surroundings. There are the prices to garment employees: paid pennies to toil, unendingly in factories that provide Shein merchandise the world over. There are the prices to unbiased designers, whose work has often been ripped off by Shein. And there are the social, cultural prices, too: the lesson that clothes is price so little, and the expectation that our clothes are momentary.France’s regulatory assaults on Shein – and labour’s decisive, united opposition to the corporate – are highly effective, essential measures. By making it more durable to buy from Shein via company regulation, we will discourage the expansion of ultra-fast trend and restrict its energy out there. Social strain, led by employees arm-in-arm with shoppers, could also be an much more highly effective weapon – when shopping for from Shein is broadly thought of shameful, nobody will wish to be caught in a Slaysola bathing swimsuit.Nonetheless, the combat in opposition to quick trend is finally a sluggish one. To really defeat Shein, we should radically re-evaluate and reorient our relationship to clothes. We should be taught to like the garments we have already got. We are able to dampen the environmental impression of textile manufacturing by committing to purchasing solely secondhand. We should be taught to fix issues and make investments care in our garments, as an alternative of disposing of them on the first indicators of injury. Alongside the best way, we should combat for higher working circumstances and higher pay for garment employees in every single place.skip previous publication promotionSign as much as Issues of OpinionGuardian columnists and writers on what they’ve been debating, serious about, studying, and morePrivacy Discover: Newsletters could comprise details about charities, on-line advertisements, and content material funded by outdoors events. In case you do not need an account, we’ll create a visitor account for you on theguardian.com to ship you this article. You may full full registration at any time. For extra details about how we use your information see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.after publication promotionFrance’s ever-growing opposition to Shein, and ultra-fast trend extra typically, is an encouraging mannequin for governments and citizenry in every single place. As people, we do not need to simply accept the domination of quick trend; as collectives, our voices are much more highly effective. A greater world – and a greater outfit – is feasible.