'A moral stigma' French fashion industry frets at Shein's rapid rise

Hours before Shein opened a popup shop in Dijon this summer, the words “Shein kills” and “exploitation, forced labour, slavery, pollution” were found graffitied in French on the outside wall.

- Alice Pfeiffer

The fierce backlash to its temporary outlets in Toulouse, Montpellier and Marseille has not deterred the Chinese fast fashion brand from choosing France for its first permanent stores. This week it announced a plan to open shops in Galeries Lafayette department stores in five cities and Le BHV Marais in the capital.

“In front of the Paris city hall, they are creating the new Shein megastore, which - after destroying dozens of French brands - aims to flood our market even more massively with disposable products,” said Yann Rivoallan, head of the fashion retailers body Fédération Française du Prêt à Porter Féminin.

“The ultrafast model is a paroxysm of disposability,” said Sophie Abriat, an author and fashion reporter for Le Monde’s magazine M. “It is built with ephemerality, with aggressive marketing.” But, she added, France’s distaste for the trend goes even deeper: “It differs from French culture’s tradition of keeping objects, of savoir-faire - Shein holds a stigma that is moral as well.”

Despite such antipathy - a petition to ban Shein in France has passed 270,000 signatures - the country has not been immune to the brand’s rise over the past five years. Its model, based on shipping orders of cheap clothes directly from Chinese factories, reportedly brought in $1bn (£740m) net profit last year, making it one of the most lucrative ultrafast fashion companies.

It has faced criticism for its environmental impact and working practices, including allegations of forced labour that the company has denied and cases of child labour that led to supplier contracts being terminated.