The story of the implosion of the Titanic submersible was short-lived in the media cycle as the world focused on the second most fashionable thing to hate after billionaires – fast fashion. Last week the internet was set on fire after several hand-picked influencers posted content on social media about a brand travel courtesy of Sheina Chinese fast fashion online retailer that exploded in popularity in the late 2010s, establishing itself with a Valuation of $66 billion in May. (Though that’s down from $100 billion in April 2022, *insert a sad tune from the world’s smallest fiddle*.) While surprisingly accessible with its penny-priced clothes and plus size, Shein was heavily criticized for “credible allegations» Uyghur forced labor, multiple violations of human rights and labor practices, environmental pollutionAnd lead-contaminated goods.
The deluge of TikToks and memes started when, in a bid to clean up its image, Shein selected six social media influencers for an all-inclusive brand trip to China to visit one of the company’s factories, “innovation centers” and warehouses. packaging and shipping. It went as well as you can expect. To be fair, we were spoiled with the most memorable influencer lingo of the year, including but not limited to: influencer Destene Sudduth saying “they weren’t even sweating,with respect to the sweatshop allegations; Sudduth admitting that she “expected this establishment to be so full of working people” in the same video; and my all-time favorite “trust activist” Dani Carbonari (known online as Dani DMC) calling herself an “independent thinker” and “truth seeker” while speaking and filming a Shein employee in front of her superiors.
However, I’ll leave the meme to the pros, so without further ado, a selection of the most hilarious drags dripping with brutal sarcasm:
Starting with the best, we have a TikTok of a branded travel parody of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a clothing factory that burned down over 100 years ago in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, killing 146 of approximately 500 workers. clandestine workshops. Exit and stairwell doors were locked to prevent garment workers from taking unauthorized breaks, leading to dozens of fatal jumps or falls from factory windows. While I think this tongue-in-cheek TikTok hits the nail on the head, the unmistakable parallels between the violations at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory and the alleged conditions at Shein really underscores the grim truth that not much has changed.
This version of a branded travel parody was a bit more on the nose than the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory reference, but it’s hard to discern which element caused the deepest burns: the scathing call commentary or the actual renditions. from Hell on Fire.
That bit of choreography of scripted talking points and vague commentary on Shein’s ethics and professional standards was pretty good to me.
Some behind-the-scenes footage from the site visits that leaked on Instagram:
I’m going to pump the pauses for a second and note that it’s almost impressive, if not brilliant, that everyone is going after influencers for selling out and centering most of the comments on them while Shein’s business practices are reduced to a background humorous fodder. This strategic selection of diverse but pinheaded influencers (perhaps affected by the lead-riddled polyester) to take the fall of something so gigantic keeps Shein going about business as usual while specific individuals are torn to shreds.
The clothes will still sell, the whistleblowers will ring, and people will condemn the practices of Shein and these influencers on Twitter with one hand while filming transport videos for TikTok with the other. But if a myriad of human and environmental health violations and an elaborate scheme that shifts corporate shame onto the loud but inherently powerless and irrelevant individual aren’t enough to dissuade you from buying this neon cut-out bodysuit at $11, maybe the next picture be the straw breaking the camel’s back.
