I’m a middle aged journalist and single mum with a love of luxury fabrics like silk and cashmere. I’m definitely not a typical customer of the Chinese fast fashion company Shein, which has become hugely popular among Gen Z. 

But for the next three months I’m going to be wearing exclusively a small collection from Shein to find out if Shein’s clothes — many of them cheaper than a takeaway latte — really are disposable fashion. 

I have to admit I’m intrigued by the brand — intrigued and a bit fearful. With its meteoric rise and international expansion, enthusiastic haul videos on Tiktok and YouTube juxtaposed with reports of human rights abuses and unsustainable environmental practices, Shein is fast fashion taken to the extreme. 

More than half of the clothes produced by the fast fashion industry are discarded within a year, according to McKinsey. The consultancy finds that out of every five garments manufactured each year, three end up in either a landfill or an incinerator. That’s terrifying when you consider that something in the range of 80mn to 150mn garments are produced every year. And as one of the biggest fast fashion companies globally, Shein is a big part of this. 

What is Shein and why is it problematic? 

Founded just 16 years ago, Shein has become a vast online marketplace, collaborating with approximately 6,000 clothing factories in China under its brand umbrella. It controls over a quarter of the fast fashion market in the US. Every day, it launches thousands of new, unique styles. Sales reached as high as $100bn in 2022, according to Bloomberg. Given its average selling price as of 2021 was $7.90, that works out at something like 12bn items sold. 

Like other fast fashion companies, Shein churns out an astonishing volume of items daily. It’s environmental impact doesn’t stop at the sheer volume of production; this rapid manufacturing process heavily relies on virgin polyester. 

On top of that, there is the human cost of its production.  Shein faces significant scrutiny regarding its treatment of workers in Chinese factories. Investigations by Wired and Channel4 revealed harsh working conditions, including excessively long shifts and minimal time off for employees.

Despite these controversies, Shein’s popularity continues to surge globally. This is largely driven by a canny marketing strategy lies in leveraging influencers and their #SHEINhaul videos. Shein collaborates with numerous micro-celebrities, fashion bloggers and reality TV personalities, who showcase their Shein purchases to their followers. That’s why social media channels are flooded with videos featuring appealing and generally youthful influencers showing off their Shein hauls. 

Are Shein clothes disposable? 

The price of clothing has been dragged inexorably down over the last few decades, so that an item that used to cost a month’s rent is now no more than a takeaway pizza, and it’s often been said that fashion is becoming disposable. 

As I researched Shein and immersed myself in haul videos I couldn’t stop cycling back to the information that at least half of those enthusiastically modelled pieces would presumably have become landfill or gone up in flames by now — and either way be emitting toxic fumes into the atmosphere, but not keeping a human warm or stylish, which after all is the whole point of clothing.

Looking at some of the items modelled in the Shein haul videos it’s hard to escape that this might be true. In one, the model is standing in a pair of olive green PVC jeans. But can she sit down in them? Aren’t they going to be too clammy to wear for more time than it takes to shoot the video? Is the influencer in the scratchy-looking, split-to-the-upper-thigh dress ever going to find an occasion to wear it?

Even before reading McKinsey’s statistic, the sheer volume of Shein clothes and accessories on resale site Vinted marked BNWT or never worn, indicates that a lot of what Shein sells simply isn’t getting worn. 

And even if they do manage to find occasions to wear all the clothes in the hauls, will these influencers, and the millions of other customers that have been influenced, find they serve them well for multiple wears over many years or will they, as some reviews suggest, fade, shrink or fall apart after just a few wears?

Putting Shein to the test

Or is that just an urban myth? That’s what gave me the idea of putting Shein clothes to the test by wearing only a small — very small, just two or three of outfits on rotation — collection of basics from the fast fashion retailer for an entire season to see how they stand up not to a single wear in an Instagram moment or a 30-second TikTok video, but to daily wear over a period of three months. 

Other people before me have gone beyond the thrill of unboxing (or in Shein’s case un-bagging) and tested the longevity of the company’s clothes. Journalist H. J. Hayes wore the same Shein outfit for 10 days running. She kept it on for a minimum of six hours a day, finding deciding by the end that she was not impressed by the clothes (though she did get a lot of compliments on the outfit). Blogger Whimsy Soul bought a collection of Shein clothes for her holiday, reporting that almost everything had disintegrated after one or two wears. 

I decided to go further. I have put together my small collection of Shein clothes — including some of those unworn but unwanted ones posted for sale on Vinted or eBay — and plan to wear them and nothing else for three whole months. 

I’ll photograph them after each wear and document … well, document whatever happens. I envisage photographing them gradually falling apart, their shapes distorting, their colours fading, and documenting this meticulously to raise awareness about how fast fashion’s shoddy manufacturing processes damage the environment and make its consumers poorer and worse dressed. 

Or perhaps they will bear up beautifully, and I’ll end up looking a bit of an idiot as well as wasting my money and a little bit more of the vast amount of global resources of oil, water, cotton, chemicals and other inputs that go into the fast fashion industry.