Shein Announces Physical Stores: The Future of Fast Fashion

By: Eliza Brown, Staff Writer Edited by: Maya Merante

Preceding Paris Fashion Week, Shein announced its expansion into the physical retail space. Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) reported the first store will be opening in Paris, France—a notable fashion capital. Shein will open an additional five stores in other cities in France. The retailer claims this next step aims to increase diversity in the fashion capital, but with Shein’s controversial reputation, this definitely raises questions. How will Shein’s role change within the fashion and retail space? Alternatively, what will this mean for the future of fashion? 

Shein is a well-known fast fashion retailer, characterized by its sale of cheap clothing. Shein adds thousands of new styles each day from third-party sellers. According to Time Magazine, the retailer produces at least 6.3 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. With this statistic being from 2023, it is likely to have increased since then, as the company rapidly grows. In addition to Shein’s negative environmental impact, the company has violated many labor laws and has continuously been accused of treating workers poorly.  BBC interviewed workers from ten different Shein factories regarding working conditions. They discovered that employees spend 75 hours working each week, often not having a single day off for an entire month. There have been multiple cited cases of children as young as eleven working in Shein factories. Despite the obvious ethical issues, consumers continue to shop from Shein, drawn in by access to cheap, trending styles. 

In 2023, NPR reported Shein was being sued by artists whose designs were copied by the company. By copying from small businesses, Shein takes sales from more artisanal brands,who need and deserve the money. With the opening of physical stores, issues of competition arise. Shein offers cheaply-priced goods, which might be more appealing to some customers than the more expensive shopping locations in France. The introduction of such a different store than the ones in the area may lead to less sales for the local retailers. As Shein has been known to steal designs in the past, they may market items similar to those in nearby shops—but for much cheaper. 

Shein has received significant pushback since the announcement. The store is set to open in Galleries Lafayette locations, but Galleries Lafayette itself does not agree with this collaboration. Business of Fashion reported that Galleries Lafayette stated they do not share the same values as Shein, and will be attempting to stop the opening of these stores. They had sold these locations and their name (Galleries Lafayette), to Societe des Grands Magasins (SGM) in 2021, and now claim that the collaboration with Shein violates this contract. However, the stores are still set to open in November. It is unclear whether this collaboration will be successfully executed. 

It seems the collaboration has not had positive feedback by the public in France either. Yann Rivoallan, head of one of the French fashion retailers, states that Shein will “destroy dozens of fashion brands.” Another person told Business of Fashion that Shein goes against French Culture in general, due to its trend of highly disposable fashion. French fashion is meant to last, while Shein promotes products that will quickly go out of trend or even fall apart (due to poor construction). There is even a petition with over 270,000 signatures to ban Shein in France entirely. Despite attempts to stop its growing popularity, Shein continues to be a leader in the fast-fashion market. 

There definitely appears to be a multitude of concerns with the opening of physical Shein retail stores. While it already dominates the e-commerce space, this didn’t pose an issue for brick-and-mortar stores. Consumers who prefer the in-person shopping experience wouldn’t have chosen Shein before, but now that there will be an in-person option, will customers choose Shein over classic French brands? 

It is hard to imagine traveling to Paris and shopping at Shein over the other unique, timeless options. For residents of Paris (and the other locations where stores will be opening), there may be an increased chance of stopping into Shein for the cheap clothing options. However, it is clear that French culture is against fast-fashion. Shein is the epitome of fast fashion and is likely to be seen as “taboo” due to the luxury-fashion culture of France. 

So, will Shein’s opening of physical retail stores be a success? Who will benefit from this and who will be harmed? Only time will tell, but French consumers and retailers alike seem to be against the fast-fashion retailer.

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