Welcome to the dark side: Why Shein might be the biggest rip-off since fast fashion was born

Opinion | Fashion writer Ines Fressynet details her personal experiences with the fast-fashion brand Shein in this review.

Colleagues and friends had warned me “you won’t receive all your orders at once, and some of the packages may get lost in the mail.” Apparently, it’s common knowledge that buying from online retailer Shein is always a gamble. But who cares, when you pay less than £20 for a dress, right?

Wrong. One evening in September as I was endlessly scrolling the internet in search of the perfect outfit to wear at a wedding, I accidentally ended up on Shein. Weird, as I don’t usually browse on fast fashion sites, but this time they found me, through the beauty of targeted Facebook ads. At first, I couldn’t believe it. The prices were ludicrous - £8.99 for a blouse, £9.99 for a maxi dress, £22.99 for a coat…the list goes on.

From the pictures, everything looked perfect. Beautifully shot looks with that trendy detail or a particular shade seen on all the biggest Instagram influencers this season. Strangely, the quality of the garment didn’t seem so dubious either - to put it bluntly, it didn’t look cheap.

Shein had succeeded in giving me the illusion of having found the holy grail of online shopping.