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France is at war with Shein. We should copy its tactics to defeat fast fashion | Nicole Lipman

The dirt-cheap clothing company has opened its first permanent store in Paris – and politicians and workers have united against it Paris is the fashion capital of the world – a paradise of couture and craftsmanship stretching back centuries. The city’s very name connotes luxury and glamour. But last Wednesday, 5 November, a sprawling Shein outlet opened on the sixth floor of the BHV Marais, the historic department store directly across from Paris’s city hall. It’s the Singapore-based ultra-fast-fashion store’s first permanent bricks and mortar retail space, and the first of several permanent outposts Shein plans to open in France in the near future. Many Parisians aren’t happy about it.Shein – launched as SheInside in 2011 in Nanjing, China – is the reprehensible paragon of the ultra-fast-fashion industry. The company sells clothing (and home goods, toys, stationery, cookware, blankets, pet supplies and more) at an unfathomable scale: today’s “new in” page alone lists more than 1,300 items, from shiny gold shirts in its “Manfinity Mode” category, to plunging, plus-size swimsuits under the sub-brand “Slaysola”. Nearly everything on the site is made of plastic, designed for single-use disposability, and it’s all shockingly, disturbingly cheap.Nicole Lipman is a writer and assistant editor at n+1 Continue reading...

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