BHV division retailer staff participate in an indication in entrance of BHV Marais purchasing middle in Paris on Oct. 10, throughout a strike to protest in opposition to the arrival of the fast-fashion model Shein.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
PARIS — Almost 170 years in the past, a younger shopkeeper named Xavier Ruel opened a small retailer in central Paris with a easy concept: good high quality at truthful costs. That modest store shortly grew into the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville, or BHV, one of many metropolis’s most iconic malls.
Today, prospects come for all the things from toasters to tights — or simply to browse the shop’s annual Christmas window shows.
Now, the shop has additionally develop into a flashpoint in France’s rising backlash in opposition to ultra-fast trend. On Nov. 1, Shein, the Chinese language on-line retail large, is about to open its first everlasting boutique inside BHV. The transfer has provoked fierce criticism in France, a rustic that prides itself on craftsmanship, sustainability and high fashion.
“The shop has bought its soul to the satan”
Inside, some aisles already look emptier than traditional. A number of French manufacturers have pulled out in protest.
Amongst these refusing to return is Marie Cosson, a longtime BHV buyer who says she’s heartbroken.
“The shop has bought its soul to the satan,” Cosson says. “I got here in to say goodbye to the employees.”
The model identify of quick trend firm Shein is seen at a garment manufacturing facility in Guangzhou, in China’s southern Guangdong province, on July 18, 2022.
Jade Gao/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Jade Gao/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
In 2023, BHV was purchased by a property group referred to as Société des Grands Magasins — the identical firm bringing Shein into a number of Galeries Lafayette malls throughout France. In a press release, the group mentioned the partnership “goals to draw a youthful, extra linked clientele.”
Throughout city, within the metropolis’s eleventh arrondissement, that announcement has galvanized a unique sort of trend motion.
Earlier this month, activists and designers gathered at a brand new headquarters for Une Autre Mode Est Possible, which suggests “One other Style Is Doable.” Organizers say the area will give attention to slower, sustainable design, the place designers will provide workshops on issues like making clothes from reused supplies.
Its founder, Arielle Lévy, launched an online petition opposing Shein’s arrival. It has already drawn greater than 100,000 signatures.
Arielle Lévy outdoors the headquarters for a sustainable trend home she based in Paris, Une Autre Mode Est Doable, which suggests “One other Style Is Doable.”
Rebecca Rosman for NPR
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Rebecca Rosman for NPR
“We’re in Paris, the capital of trend,” Lévy says. “It is sufficient. Individuals have to face up and say we do not need this.”
The backlash has additionally reached Paris Metropolis Corridor.
“For us, Shein represents ultra-fast trend — it is a mannequin we should combat,” says Florentin Letissier, the town’s deputy mayor for sustainability and waste discount. “These are low-cost garments made in fashionable slavery situations. They’re dangerous for the planet and for our personal designers.”
Employees produce clothes at a textile manufacturing facility that provides garments to quick trend e-commerce firm Shein on June 11, 2024, in Guangzhou, in southern China’s Guangdong province.
Jade Gao/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Jade Gao/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
There have been a number of stories alleging poor working situations in Shein factories, together with a 2024 investigation by the Zurich-based human rights watchdog Public Eye, which discovered proof the corporate was pushing its manufacturing facility staff in southern China to work 75-hour weeks below poor situations.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo referred to as the model’s arrival “a betrayal of Paris’ values.”
France’s lawmakers are transferring quick, too.
In June, the French Senate handed a invoice that will ban adverts for ultra-fast trend manufacturers, advantageous influencers who promote them and add an environmental tax of as much as 10 euros per garment by 2030. Regulators have already fined Shein $46 million (40 million euros) for deceptive promoting.
“They do not respect creativity”
In a boutique off the Boulevard Saint-Germain, Marie-Emmanuelle Demours, CEO of the ready-to-wear French label Paul & Joe, holds up a tailor-made coat and factors to its hand-sewn buttons.
“They have been made by hand, one after the other, in Paris,” she says. “That is what trend ought to be.”
Demours says Shein represents the alternative; mass manufacturing, poor high quality, and rampant design theft.
“They steal from anybody, any model,” she says. “They do not respect folks, the planet or creativity.”
Marie-Emmanuelle Demours, CEO of the ready-to-wear French label Paul & Joe, factors out particulars within the model’s clothes. She says she opposes mass-produced, poor high quality garments.
Rebecca Rosman for NPR
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Rebecca Rosman for NPR
Different designers have made similar allegations in opposition to Shein, which have led designers to carry lawsuits in opposition to the corporate.
Requested for remark by NPR, Shein declined to reply on to allegations that its garments are made in “modern-slavery situations” or that it has copied designs from different manufacturers.
In an emailed assertion, Quentin Ruffat, a Shein France spokesperson, commented as an alternative on the corporate’s partnership with Société des Grands Magasins (SGM), as “a possibility to experiment with new methods of mixing our industry-leading on-demand mannequin with offline retail.” He added, “this collaboration permits us [to] meet that demand whereas contributing to elevated footfall to SGM’s retail locations which we hope will, in flip, profit the broader offline retail ecosystem.”
Thibaut Ledunois, director of innovation on the French Fashion Council, warns that Shein’s ambitions go far past clothes.
“Their technique is to develop into the grocery store of the world,” he says. “It is not solely about trend, it is a few mannequin of society — and this is the reason so many French residents are actually engaged on this.”
Which can be why, almost 170 years after Xavier Ruel opened his little store for high quality items at truthful costs, Parisians are nonetheless combating to maintain his dream alive.
