While mindlessly scrolling through social media, your finger stops when you see an advertisement for a piece of clothing that has recently gained much attention. This item is currently all the rage, and since you have seen so many people wearing this kind of thing, you too want to be in on the trend. Oh, and what’s this? It’s only $10! You quickly click on the ad which takes you to a trendy looking website where all the items are being sold at ridiculously cheap prices. How fortunate you are to have found this website, right? Well, not exactly. The clothing you just bought will be out of date in a month, resulting in you either throwing it away or dumping it at a thrift store.
Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent once said that “Fashion fades, style is eternal.”
The rate in which fashions go in and out of the trend cycle has skyrocketed due to the fast fashion industry making it incredibly easy to purchase and discard clothing on a whim. Although websites including Shein and Temu have been on the rise for their cheap items, the problem with these sites is that you really do get what you pay for.
Carmen Nyuen, frequent volunteer at the Maui based thrift store Secondhand Heaven, said “We see a lot of clothes from these sites clogging the donations, most of the time they are falling apart before we take it out of the bag, and no one wants to buy that.”
Because these brands use cheap materials that are haphazardly stitched together to mass produce their items as fast as they can, the clothing that is purchased is often low in quality and unsustainable.
The problem isn’t just the unreliability of their products but also the unreliability of the websites and brands themselves. Temu and Shein have recently come under heavy criticism due to their poor working conditions and website security. The 2022 Channel4 documentary Inside The Shein Machine, sent hidden cameras into the company’s factory. It was revealed that although the average worker worked 17-hour shifts, they were being paid as little as $20 dollars a day, $1.18 an hour. Although some may claim that this is all false, Shein itself released a statement in regard to the many alleged labor law violations saying, “While there are significantly less than claimed, they are still higher than local regulations permit.”
Shein is no stranger to scandals since they have been known to steal and sell smaller artists’ designs, actions which have landed them with multiple lawsuits. Krista Perry, Larissa Martinez, and Jay Baron are just three of the artists who came forward to expose Shein for their unethical practice. Shein even emailed Perry with an offer to collaborate after stealing her artwork, which Perry responded with “This email disgusts me. [Shein] has stolen artwork from both myself and many of my hardworking friends and colleagues.”
Temu has also come under scrutiny with some claiming that the site contains malware that steals and sells users data including but not limited to messages, passwords, and biometric data. Some users even claim that their credit card information was stolen and used due to purchasing items from Temu.
Fast fashion being entirely negative is something not all people agree on, though. Avid Shein shopper Graciella Del Cruz said “I just don’t want to spend a ton of money on cute clothes and I don’t see anything wrong with that.” This is a common sentiment shared among people who enjoy the site.
“There’s not really any other place to get nice clothes for cheap so there’s not really any other choice,” Del Cruz said.
Except there is– thrift stores, and secondhand clothing websites like Depop and Poshmark are great alternatives for not only cheap clothes but for unique pieces. Carmen Nyuen not only volunteers at thrift stores but also has a Depop page where she sells her own clothes.
“Second-hand is not only better for the environment because you are keeping clothes from landfills, but you can also find things that are very interesting and unique,” Nyuen said. “You also know you are getting good stuff because these things have already [withstood] the test of time.”
Fashion cycles have been fading quicker and quicker due to fast fashion. Instead of buying into trends that go out of date within a month, try to develop your own personal style that you can keep with you for the rest of your life. As the late punk fashion designer Vivienne Westwood once said, “Buy less, choose well, make it last.”
