Shein goes public. But the market no longer believes in ultra-fast fashion

Well, the relentless campaign against it has worked – and until yesterday we wouldn’t have believed it: Shein has managed to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange – that is, on home turf – after being repeatedly rebuffed in the West, first and foremost by Wall Street but also in Paris, where its first shop, born of a partnership with BHV, closed after six months in the wake of protests (“a strategic error”). Even in China, however, investors do not appear to have full faith in the business model of Xu Yangtian, the founder and main shareholder—a forty-year-old also known by his English name, Chris Xu. On its debut day, the ultra-fast fashion giant closed the trading session almost flat, but only after recovering late in the session from an opening decline that was, to all intents and purposes, a rejection. Someone came to the rescue, and we will never know who. The share ended its first day at 48.5 Hong Kong dollars, 0.1 per cent below the placement price of 48.56. In the early stages, it had fallen by as much as 10 per cent – a disaster – to 43.72 dollars, with sell orders three times higher than buy orders, before staging a last-minute recovery.

So, the customs duty increases – which have also been applied in Europe – have worked, making it less worthwhile for teenagers to squander their weekly pocket money on worthless rubbish, the relentless public campaign against labour exploitation across the West, which has even convinced the deniers of environmental sustainability and those who have to change their clothes every day that ten euros spent on a rag equates to at least ten times that amount in terms of the impact on the planet and on the wretched people crammed into foul-smelling, unregulated factories. Protests by Parisians have also had an effect – many of whom were disappointed by the rise in prices of goods on physical display, but ultimately chose not to purchase them – and, crucially, complaints from the EU have been effective, given its horror at the child-pornographic doll that was accessible to everyone. It remains to be seen how the situation will develop over the next few days and what strategies will be adopted to shore up the share price, but it is a fact that, while the Singapore-based multinational has been seeking financial platforms and investors for years, the tide has turned and behaviour that seemed very ‘cool’ until the day before yesterday is no longer so. Among young people, there is a nostalgia trend, with vinyl records and vintage fashion, and even film stars now aspire to be dressed in archive pieces – preferably precious and unique ones.