We all know fast fashion is toxic; it’s nothing new.
I recently came across some disturbing videos about the company SheIn, an online retailer that offers heavily discounted items. We’re talking $1 to $2 tops, $5 pairs of pants, and shoes priced below $9.
Apparently, the CEO of SheIn claims that there are between 700 to a 1000 new items listed on the online platform every single day. Can you imagine?
Major cringe.
That number is not only mind blowing, it’s scary. According to fashion YouTuber Justine Leconte, SheIn is overtaking H&M, Zara, Primark, and according to an article on TechCrunch, it’s even taking over Amazon. They’re growing at a mind blowing pace. Since we’re in Black Friday week, my guess is that there’ll be adding even more discounts to their page. So you’ll be buying things for a dollar or two, but what does this all mean? It means the workers are not getting paid adequately, that’s for sure.
According to Justine Leconte, there are very few disclosures about the company’s supply chain. It’s very opaque and we don’t know much about it. Another thing worth noting is that the garments are retouched in the sales pictures. A bathing suit or shirt may look really snazzy and cool on the website photo, but the final product received is far from the same quality portrayed in that photo. The company uses far better samples for their website photos, which is misleading. They’re also misleading buyers with the listed materials they use. A sweater might say it’s made of 100% cotton, but when you scroll down a little bit, you see that it’s made of mixed materials or there’s no details at all. It’s totally illegal for them to do this.
The packaging is a very poor quality, made of plastic, not recycled plastic. And this is really creating a lot of waste because every single item is individually wrapped in a little plastic pouch. So if you buy several items, instead of putting all of them together in one package, which would make total sense, they send all of these individual pouches to you, all made of toxic plastic, which is no good at all.
When we make a purchase and/or get what we want, we are are temporarily happy and fulfilled. But the reason for happiness is not because we got what we wanted, but because for a brief period of time, we stopped wanting, and thus we experience peace and happiness. –Adyashanti
A CBC Report about the toxic effects of online fast fashion brands
I also came across a recent CBC report that highlighted the chemicals found in such clothing items. Not only are theses itms bad for the environment, they are made with toxic heavy metals and chemicals that affect our reproduction systems and travel to our blood and can ultimately cause disease. In the report, there was an alarming mention of the toxins found in a child’s bag that contained 4 times the permitted quantity of lead as permitted by Health Canada.
They’re making billions of dollars in sales. How? They’ve been advertising on Tik Tok. They’re getting young women to buy and advertise for them creating these videos about massive shopping halls. And these women are posing with these garments that they’ve bought and some of these videos are getting between 2 million and 5 million views.
So you can imagine the effect this has on young women, encouraging them to buy more of this junk.
For the record, I’m not throwing any shade on these young women. I probably would have bought this stuff too myself at their age. I used to be a big shopper and cured myself of this because I eventually discovered that I was creating a tremendous amount of damage to the planet with my excessive shopping habit.
I think we all need to be more conscious of what we’re buying, and what our kids are buying. If you have teenagers who want to order from places like SheIn, it would be wise to encourage them to look elsewhere. Where? Secondhand shops, vintage shops, or a place like Thread Up, an online retailer that sells only secondhand clothing.
As we get closer to Black Friday, we may be bombarded by may invitations and ads to shop online, please take a pass, make yourself a smoothie, a cup of tea, or go for a walk in nature instead. Do yourself a favour and avoid ordering this stuff laced with toxic chemicals.
Just remember that we’re all part of this together. Mother nature needs us right now, more than ever. She’s going through a massive transformation and needs all of the help she can get. Stay away from this online shop. I’m sure you’ll find something locally made or handmade instead, that is far better quality.
Mother Nature thanks you. And so does your Spirit which knows….knows true and meaningful value when it sees it.
