Shein has made a habit of staging events in some of Paris’s iconic locations, for example at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, or on a barge sailing down the Seine during last autumn’s Paris Fashion Week

As demonstrated by the looks featured in the show, which mirrored the latest seasonal trends: from ecru-coloured crocheted summer essentials to sensual sheer dresses in Day-Glo orange and lilac, high heels and hats with straw details, holographic wedge sandals – for a disco look – and an array of tops with thin straps. 

Shein’s emerging designer incubator

Shein’s Parisian fashion show featured 25 emerging international designers, all part of the Shein X programme, 

Freelance Italian designer Bissoli Ruben (aka 8igb) designed the show’s three men’s looks, three sailor-style sets in a palette of blue, white and beige, “inspired by the sea, sky and sand.” It was one of the moodboard palettes predefined by Shein, alongside a brief that listed the materials to be used, two further constraints with which the Shein X designers had to deal. 

In some instances, as in the case of 20-year-old Léa Berthaud, a student at Bordeaux’s Condé fashion academy, the designers’ creations needed to be altered (switching colours, whitening an orange sweater, removing fabric strips) to ensure commercial success.

Following the show, only 100 to 200 units per item will be produced and sold on the Shein e-shop. The Shein X designers, who aren’t allowed to talk about where and how their collections are manufactured, do retain copyright on their designs and will receive a percentage on sales.

Painstakingly curated marketing effort

By collaborating with young designers and putting them centre-stage in high-profile events, Shein is replicating the strategy adopted by Scandinavian label H&MOlivier RousteingKarl Lagerfeld

Over the past two years, Shein claims to have invested $55 million to support 3,000 emerging artists and designers from some 20 countries, reportedly accounting for more than 25,000 products marketed on Shein’s e-shop. 

The runway show featured models of different ages, body morphology and ethnicity, picked at a giant casting held on June 3. The watchword was sticking to Shein’s diversity mantra, in order to represent its consumers as faithfully as possible. 

The massive Parisian show was part of a communication strategy called ‘Sheintheknow’, aimed at making the brand known to the widest possible audience, beyond its habitual Gen Z customer base. A painstakingly curated marketing, communication and influencer effort, spearheaded by Shein’s Creative House, which has been in operation since 2019. A sort of stylistic counter-offensive to mitigate the daily criticism Shein is subjected to.

1.6 million daily site visitors in France

Shein aims to “make fashion accessible to all” through highly attractive prices, like t-shirts at €2 and dresses at €9. In France, for example, Shein is one of the most popular e-tail sites, with over 1.6 million unique visitors per day (the seventh most visited site daily in the country). 

The Chinese giant is under fire for its business model. On a daily basis, NGOs and whistle-blowers are denouncing Shein’s steamroller approach based on overproduction, which causes widespread environmental damage and stimulates overconsumption. Yann Rivoallan, the president of France’s Women’s Ready-to-wear Federation, co-wrote an article on French daily Victoire

They also turned up on the day of the show in front of the Cambon Capucines Pavilion, denouncing Shein’s nefarious business practices and its greenwashing attempts, and calling on the French government to introduce a “legislative shield” to regulate the fashion industry and combat Shein’s devastating “cultural obsolescence.”

In France, Shein is pulling out all the stops in terms of physical events in order to draw closer to its community, and divert attention away from the petition to “ban the Shein brand in France,” launched on April 28 on ChangeShein opened a new Parisian pop-up store for four days (as it did in other countries like the UK)Archives

As is the case with the dupes it is often accused of manufacturing – low-cost products that copy other labels’ designs – ultra-fast-fashion giant Shein decided to parrot a fashion label’s classic runway show.