Shein Locked In Endless Cycle Of Appropriating Artists’ Designs Without Consent
Photo 190713866 © Seemanta Dutta | Dreamstime.com
Just a year ago, Shein was the quiet kid at the back of the class who still managed to reap a valuation of US$15 billion from a primarily Gen Z audience.
But mention its name in any city of the world today and you’ll likely to met with a knowing reaction—often mixed with admiration or tainted with disgust. The online fast-fashion giant from Nanjing, China, with headquarters in Southeast-Asian Singapore, has gained notoriety for plastering artworks onto apparel, or copying styles, and passing them off as its own.
A recent profile by the Guardian underscores this compulsive behavior, with a focus on a recent appropriation of work by contemporary oil painter Vanessa Bowman.
It goes without saying that Bowman’s art is personal to her. At any one time, she spends days capturing her rural English county of Dorset with her paintbrush, illustrating her back garden, the vicinity’s 19th-century village church, and more. It took more than three decades to hone her craft, and she has since picked up commissions by Prince Charles’ Highgrove shop and the House & Garden magazine, among several other projects.
Understandably, the artist was livid to learn from a Canadian follower that one of her paintings had been printed on a CA$30 (US$25) Christmas sweater sold by Shein. Its identical design even led the fan to suspect that the work was part of a collaboration between the website and the artist.
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“The things I paint are my garden and my little village: it’s my life. And they’ve just taken my world to China and whacked it on an acrylic jumper,” Bowman lamented.
If you’ve been active on the internet of late, you’d be aware that this isn’t a one-off incident. Social media is brimming with accounts by artists calling the app out for using their work without permission.
so Shein stole my art and slapped it on a phone case, not sure if i should be flattered or mad 💀 pic.twitter.com/aiiz6h6659
— synth (@synth3ticc) January 21, 2022
Im SO over these major brands stealing from black designers. @SHEIN_official STOLE my @sincerelyriaxo designs to a T. They couldn’t even change ONE thing and it’s now one of their highest selling items. They even stole the brands aesthetic. Like Come on pic.twitter.com/ose8DiM9hK
— Mariama Diallo ✨ (@MariamaDiallo__) June 11, 2021
Another creator cited by the Guardian, Elora Pautrat, had been so lucky as to have a stolen design removed from the website in 2020. An email to the company had gone unnoticed, but it finally responded with a takedown and apology after receiving complaints from the illustrator’s online supporters.
Shein promised never to repeat the mistake, but not long after, Pautrat would find 10 other artworks being emblazoned across its products.
The chronic behavior isn’t likely to stop soon. Each day, Shein releases thousands of new designs, and its capacity to keep prices extremely low continually draws shoppers with lower disposable incomes—namely teenagers—to its platform.
Its fast-moving model and ability to capture an attention-deficit audience have earned it the moniker of “TikTok for e-commerce,” coined by internet analyst Matthew Brennan.
In an interview published on startup strategy-focused blog Not Boring by Packy McCormick, Brennan pointed Shein’s success to one factor: “Real-Time Retail.”
Like Apple, Brennan explained, Shein takes charge of its entire value chain—from manufacturing to analytics. Then it forgoes Apple’s premium price model and replicates Amazon’s stance on low, consumer-friendly prices, making its products very attractive to the everyday shopper.
Shein’s products are materialized by an in-house design and prototyping team, allowing it to have photos of apparel and accessories uploaded in no time at all.
Plus, its proximity to the Chinese fashion manufacturing capital of Guangzhou and ties with loyal suppliers enable unrivaled speeds in production.
The company is also able to obtain real-life insights on fashion trends, not only through Google analytics but also through first-party data collected from users around the world who access its app. As such, “Shein understands what clothes consumers want now better than anyone, with the possible exception of Amazon,” McCormick explained.
Bowman has no intention to take matters to court as she’s sure the result will be futile.
“They obviously don’t care,” she said. “All I want to do is paint in my studio; I don’t want to get involved with lawyers and could feel myself getting really stressed. It was a bit David and Goliath and I was completely overwhelmed.”
Legal threats have hardly deterred Shein and fellow fast-fashion brands. Thankfully, intellectual property lawyer William Miles told the news outlet that there’s a new form of punishment they’re more likely to succumb to.
“A change that has happened is that these things often aren’t dealt with by the court: they’re dealt with by the court of public opinion,” said the attorney. “The person puts side-by-side pictures on social media, everyone gets really angry, and it looks bad for the fast-fashion label,” though he admitted that “some [companies] seem to have slightly thicker skin than others.”
Just wanted to say that @SHEIN_official stole my design and you should not support them pic.twitter.com/mgQebpINlh
— ilaðŸ¸ðŸ’¦ @ froggy business (@mozza_rel_la) May 22, 2021
honestly the way it probably IS handmade & shein just stole it..per usual😩 https://t.co/v5tnkqZXQ9
— R👗 (@xxoorita) February 24, 2022
#shameonshein pic.twitter.com/KyMOx1MZUc
— ✦ð•„ð•ªð•¥ð•™ð•šð•”ð•Šð•šð•˜ð•™ð•¥ð•¤ ☽â—☾ ᴴᵉʳ ᵀʰâ±áµÊ°â¿áµ‰Ë¢Ë¢ (@mythicsights) January 22, 2021
Please don’t shop at @SHEIN_official 🤮 We designed our set in January 2020, theirs just hit site. We make ours ethically in our own UK factory, God knows who was exploited to make theirs for the price it’s at. They even copied the styling! Ew! #boycottshein https://t.co/XNKjBCCWn9 pic.twitter.com/FBRyi4lVBZ
— HISSY FIT CLOTHING (@shophissyfit) June 20, 2020
[via The Guardian and Not Boring by Packy McCormick, images via various sources]
