'Super cute please like': the unstoppable rise of Shein

It is taking fast fashion to ever faster and ever cheaper extremes, and making billions from it. Why is the whole world shopping at Shein?For another five hours and 47 minutes, I can buy a Royal Blue Twist Front Cloak Sleeve Slit Back Dress for $5.90, a Striped Pattern High Neck Drop Shoulder Split Hem Sweater for $8.50, or a Solid Sweetheart Neck Crop Tube Top for $1.90. When today's 90%-off sale ends at 8pm, the crop top will revert to its original price: $4. There are 895 items on flash sale. On today's "New In" page, there are 8,640 items (yesterday there were 8,760). The most expensive dress of the nearly 9,000 new arrivals - a floor-length, long-sleeved, fully sequinned plus-size gown, available in five sparkly colours - is $67. The cheapest - a short, tight piece of polyester with spaghetti straps, a cowl neckline and an all-over print of Renaissance-style flowers and cherubs - is $7.I can buy casual dresses, going-out tops, workout leggings, winter parkas, pink terry-cloth hooded rompers, purple double-breasted suit jackets with matching trousers, red pleather straight-leg pants, cropped cardigans with mushroom embroidery, black sheer lace thongs and rhinestone-trimmed hijabs. I can buy a wedding dress for $37. I can buy clothes for school, work, basketball games, proms, funerals, nightclubs, sex clubs. I see patchwork-printed overalls and black bikinis with rhinestones in the shape of a skull over each nipple designated as "punk". I can buy Christian-girl modesty clothing and borderline fetish wear. Continue reading...