The Chinese fast fashion giant again in turmoil. In a press release published this Friday, the Mexican Ministry of Culture accuses the giant Shein of “abusive cultural appropriation”, considering that this actor plagiarized indigenous motifs to design certain clothes.
The administration sent a letter to the firm after detecting “garments with distinctive and characteristic elements of the culture and identity of the Nahua people”, located in the province of Puebla, explain the authorities. The press release points in particular to the use of a floral print: however, for this people, “these clothes are not only embroidered flowers, but they also represent part of their biocultural environment and part of their history”. This “knowledge that has been transmitted from generation to generation” must therefore be preserved.
While the clothes of the Nahuas are made by hand using “ancestral techniques”, the pieces sold by Shein are “made of printed and industrially produced fabric”, denounces the ministry. These products weigh on the local economy, which has “no means of competing on the market with industrially produced clothing”. In addition, the government regrets “moral damages”, the populations having been “stripped of their identity as a group”.
“We call on the Shein company to publicly explain why it is privatizing traditional and collective cultural expression,” the statement said. The case is taken seriously by the authorities, who emphasize a “principle of ethnic consideration” and call for respect for “indigenous communities”, which have “historically been made invisible”.
This is not the first time that the Chinese firm, a real steamroller of fast fashion, has faced criticism. Difficult working conditions in its factories, bargain prices, overconsumption… The brand is regularly in the spotlight. She’s also been accused of cultural appropriation before, including in Mexico: a year ago the government sent a letter, again after Shein reused Mayan patterns on a blouse.