I'm not going to the Shein pop-up in Cork, and here's why you shouldn't either

In terms of ethical practices and sustainability, they score a fat zero. But Shein aren't alone in  the fast fashion market

The Shein popup store on Opera Lane, Cork City, prior to its opening on May 13. Picture: Cian O'Regan.

Shein, the giant Guangzhou-based online shopping brand, has a pop-up in Cork this month. I won’t be going anywhere near it. Will you? Their tag - “making fashion accessible to all” - sounds great until you actually think about what that means - for the people who make the clothes, and for the planet. In terms of ethical practices and sustainability, they score a fat zero.

‘Accessible to all’ translates as clothes so cheap they are literally disposable; it costs less to send them to a landfill than to process returns. So when you buy an ultra-cheap item, and it barely lasts the weekend because it’s so shoddy, it will end up in the landfill. Multiply that by millions. Mountains and mountains – entire mountain ranges - of discarded garments, leaching into the earth, made of synthetic fossil fuel fibres, toxic dyes, plastics, microplastics, and animal products from unregulated – that is, horrific – sources. How on earth is this happening now, in 2023?