France's battle with Shein points the way to defeating fast fashion

Paris is the fashion capital of the world.

- Nicole Lipman

The city’s very name connotes luxury and glamour. But on 5 November, a Shein outlet opened on the sixth floor of the BHV Marais, the historic department store. It’s the Singapore-based ultra-fast-fashion store’s first permanent bricks and mortar retail space, and the first of several Shein plans to open in France. Many Parisians aren’t happy about it.

Shein - launched as SheInside in 2011 in Nanjing, China - is the reprehensible paragon of the ultra-fast-fashion industry. The company sells clothing (and home goods, toys, stationery, cookware, blankets, pet supplies and more) at an unfathomable scale. Nearly everything on the site is made of plastic, designed for single-use disposability, and it’s all shockingly, disturbingly cheap.

Shein is an economic affront to France’s fashion industry and labour market, and the French government has repeatedly fined and investigated the company for environmental and labour violations.