Shein’s new brick-and-mortar store—its first in the world—sticks out like a sore thumb.
The Chinese retailer, known for its range of cheap ultra-fast-fashion clothing and criticisms of its labor and environmental practices, is nestled on the sixth floor of a more than century-old building in Paris, a city famous for high-end fashion and a recent green push. BHV, the 19th-century department store hosting Shein, also sits opposite Paris City Hall, which has launched a campaign against the fast-fashion retailer.
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“The city of Paris reaffirms that Shein is contrary to its values,” Paris Deputy Mayor Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj told reporters outside department store BHV on Tuesday. “This is not the vision of the City that we defend,” Bonnet-Oulaldj said at a strike against bringing in Shein last month.
The store’s opening, which was received by hours-long queues, has been roiled by protests over listings of “childlike” sex dolls on Shein’s marketplace, which hosts both Shein-branded products and third-party sellers.
The French government initiated proceedings on Wednesday to ban Shein’s online site in the country “for the time necessary for the platform to show to the authorities that all of its products are finally in compliance with our laws and regulations,” according to France’s finance ministry. Shein said on Wednesday it was banning the products from its site worldwide, sanctioning the sellers, and temporarily suspending third-party sellers on its marketplace in France—a decision made independently of France’s review.
Shein’s French spokesperson Quentin Ruffat said the sale of the dolls were a “malfunction in our processes and governance” and that the company has taken a “swift response” to implement safeguards and review its processes. The ecommerce giant is also expected to make its clothing lines available in five Galeries Lafayette malls, which like BHV is owned by the Société des Grands Magasins (SGM) group in the cities of Dijon, Grenoble, Reims, Angers, and Limoges, though the dates are not set. Shein was founded in China in 2008 before relocating its operations to Singapore in 2022.
Here’s what to know about the scandal rocking Shein.
Political backlash
French politicians have been vocal against Shein’s arrival in Paris, especially after the weekend revelations of sex doll listings.
“Our capital cannot become the showcase for disposable goods and exploitation,” Ian Brossat, a senator for Paris from the French Communist Party, said in a Monday statement. “This partnership goes against all the commitments taken by France and Paris to more firmly regulate the fashion industry.”
On Oct. 31, France’s consumer watchdog, the DGCCRF, found the “childlike” sex dolls for sale on Shein and referred the retailer to prosecutors, noting that it was “difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Prosecutors on Monday launched an investigation into Shein and AliExpress over alleged “images or depictions of minors of a pornographic nature,” and the two platforms as well as Temu and Wish for allegedly making “violent, pornographic, or degrading messages” accessible to minors.
TIME has reached out to the four e-commerce platforms for comment. Shein has said it will cooperate with the investigations.
France’s High Commissioner for Children Sarah El-Haïry, who raised the issue of the product listings and has requested that their buyers be tracked, said the dolls “serve as training for pedocriminals ready to act.”
Before the ban on Wednesday, French lawmakers also called out listings for weapons that are banned in France like brass knuckles.
“Enough is enough with the pedopornographic dolls, and now the weapons,” Commerce and Small Business Minister Serge Papin said in parliament on Wednesday.
France has targeted online platforms before, including suspending Wish, the e-commerce marketplace based in the U.S., in 2021 for a year and a half over its sale of dangerous products. Shein’s physical store, however, has still been able to open its doors.
Protests surround store opening
As customers first entered the new Shein store on Wednesday, riot police officers stood watch. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in protest, with some streaming inside the department store as others were escorted out by security guards. Outside, activists held up signs reading, “Protect children, not Shein” and handed out flyers about the retailer’s “suspected forced labor” and “pollution,” according to French news outlets Le Monde and AFP.
From the window at City Hall of Paris mayoral candidate David Belliard, a member of The Greens, hung a poster that read, “Shein no thanks.”
More than 120,000 people have signed a petition against the opening of Shein in Paris, as of Thursday.
Row between stores
The backlash towards Shein has extended beyond demonstrations on the street and government probes. Twelve brands said they would pull their products from BHV over Shein’s launch. Disneyland Paris also announced that it would no longer be designing BHV’s Christmas window displays this year, French broadcaster BFM-TV reported.
“Everyone is free to make their own decisions,” BHV director Karl-Stéphane Cottendin told BFM-TV on Monday, adding that a dozen brands out of more than 2,000 sold at BHV is a small fraction of the department store’s sales.
When a brand like Shein “has a large client base—one in three French people shops there—you have to integrate it into BHV,” he added.
On Tuesday, Galeries Lafayette also terminated its partnership with parent company SGM over a “strategic divergence.” Seven regional department stores, which are in Angers, Dijon, Grenoble, Le Mans, Limoges, Orléans, and Reims, will be rebranded by SGM and no longer carry the banner of Galeries Lafayette.
The Galeries Lafayette group had criticized SGM’s decision to bring Shein into its department stores.
“Galeries Lafayette refuses to allow Shein to set up shop in the five affiliated stores in SGM’s French network,” the group said in early October. “Galeries Lafayette wishes to express its profound disagreement with this decision in view of the positioning and practices of this ultra-fast-fashion brand, which run counter to its offering and values. It also contravenes the contractual terms of affiliation that bind the SGM group to Galeries Lafayette.”
SMG president and BHV owner Frédéric Merlin defended the company’s exclusive partnership with Shein. “I don’t believe I’m complicit in child pornography at BHV,” he told RTL radio on Tuesday, adding that Shein has 25 million customers “who are now considered bad people” for buying from Shein.
A giant poster of Merlin with Shein executive chairman Donald Tang was pasted on the front of BHV to promote the launch. Above their smiling faces, the black-and-white photo is provocatively captioned, “The poster we shouldn’t have made!”
Merlin said SGM considered pulling the launch after the sex dolls listings were discovered but decided to move forward with it after Shein announced it would ban the products worldwide. Merlin said on social media on Monday that BHV would not carry products from Shein’s international marketplace.
“Shein isn’t a pedopornographic brand,” Cottendin told BFM-TV. “They themselves don’t stand by selling this product. They’re removing it, they apologized, they’re taking all necessary action, they’re investigating, so we’re not going to ban Shein from our store because of this.”