Every December, many shoppers plan to buy fewer things and choose more sustainable options. Yet as the month goes on, spending rises and fast fashion becomes hard to resist. Christmas has become a moment when good intentions collide with discounts and the emotional pull of seasonal fashion.
Authors
- Yang Ding
Lecturer in Marketing, University of Reading
- Xuchang Chen
Lecturer in International Business and Strategy, Henley Business School, University of Reading
That contradiction became unusually visible when fashion giant Shein opened its first permanent shop inside the BHV department store in Paris in November. Crowds formed as shoppers tried to get in, while protesters stood outside holding signs and shouting "shame" over concerns about its ESG (environmental, social and governance) track record.
Shein has taken rapid turnaround times and low prices to a new level, taking it beyond fast fashion to "ultra-fast fashion".
Some other brands with retail space inside the department store announced they planned to withdraw in protest at Shein's presence. And the opening of new Shein stores across France has been delayed .
There was more controversy. The French government demanded controls , including age verification, on parts of Shein's online platform amid investigations into banned weapons and childlike sex dolls on its site, placing the company under more scrutiny.
When it was made aware of the products in November, a spokesman for Shein said the company was taking the issue "extremely seriously" . It disabled the part of its site where third-party sellers list their products.
At the same time, shoppers entering the Paris store found higher prices than online , which added another layer to the debate over Shein's transparency and the wider environmental and labour concerns linked to fast fashion.
What makes Christmas such a powerful moment for fast fashion is not only seasonal marketing but also the psychological dynamics that help consumers assuage their environmental guilt. Fast fashion already accounts for a significant share of online clothing sales in France, and Shein has become one of the largest retailers by volume, despite rising public criticism.
In the UK, sales of fast fashion have reached billions of pounds, with strong annual growth , suggesting that affordability eventually outweighs ethical concerns.
Research into consumer behaviour shows that people often use moral excuses to justify questionable purchases, telling themselves that everyone else is doing the same or that the harm is distant and indirect. This softens the ethical tension long enough to make the purchase.
Beyond guilt reduction, fast fashion benefits from what marketing researchers describe as temporal discounting . This is when consumers focus on short-term enjoyment and price rather than longer-term environmental damage.
Shein's rapid production model turns digital trends into products within days, producing instant gratification. Future harms such as waste or emissions are psychologically distant at the moment of buying. These mechanisms help explain why fast fashion continues to flourish even as climate concerns grow.
In many ways, the Christmas rush exposes a wider conflict between consumers' ethical intentions and the realities of global retail. This paradox is not only personal. It also shapes how governments and the public respond to Shein's growing presence.
The protests outside the Paris store echo the tension across regulatory and societal institutions, where concerns about labour conditions and environmental impact collide with the influence of a company that has become central to contemporary fashion.
Why the Paris protests matter beyond ESG
It may be tempting to see the demonstrations in Paris simply as another reaction to environmental issues. Yet concerns around Shein were already part of the public debate long before the store opened. Fast fashion has relied for decades on outsourcing to cheaper manufacturing centres with limited worker protections.
Even after the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 when 1,134 people (mainly garment workers), were killed in Bangladesh when their factory building collapsed, many European fast fashion companies continued to face criticism about their environmental violations across global supply chains.
What distinguishes the current controversy are not the ethical problems but the challenge Shein poses to the traditional balance of power in global fashion. For much of the past century, European companies dominated the industry and shaped international tastes.
Now Shein's algorithmically-driven and hyperresponsive model is disrupting that dominance. This speed fuels waste and environmental damage even as its low prices keep attracting millions of shoppers.
In this sense, for Shein, Paris becomes more than a retail location. Success in one of the world's fashion capitals would mark an important moment in Shein's global expansion and signal that it is no longer operating at the margins.
It would also test whether this new type of fashion giant can prove itself beyond its online audience, in the eyes of regulators, partner brands and in-store shoppers.
The pushback Shein faces in Paris points to a broader anxiety about who now holds influence in the fashion industry. A Chinese fast fashion giant has bypassed traditional European gatekeepers and challenged the established hierarchy of who shapes the industry's future.
In response to a 2024 report criticising working conditions in some of the factories it uses, Shein said in a statement it was "actively working to improve our suppliers' practices, including ensuring that hours worked are voluntary and that workers are compensated fairly for what they do". And with regard to criticisms about its environmental impact, Shein has said its use of AI has now cut the amount of waste generated in its production processes.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
