Shein Hosts LaQuan Smith, Laura Kim, Maeve Reilly at Inaugural Design Summit
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Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein attracted some top-tier industry talent for its inaugural Shein X Design Summit held Saturday in Los Angeles’ Fashion District, hosting designers LaQuan Smith and Laura Kim of Oscar de la Renta and Monse; stylist Maeve Reilly, and Hildun Corp. chief executive officer Gary Wassner for a day of panel discussions and networking.
The event was created to celebrate the Shein X program, which since launching in 2021 has on-boarded 3,000 designers globally, manufacturing select pieces for them, sold on the Shein website, and paying a commission.
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One of the first was L.A.-based Freak City, whose cofounder Valerie Campbell was at the summit.
In 2020, she and partner Justin Romero called out Shein on social media for copying their signature punk rock graphics, which already had plenty of famous fans including Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj and Rita Ora. That opened a dialogue, which influenced the creation of Shein X.
Shein has invested $55 million in the program, which supports a range of designers, from “Project Runway” and fashion school alums to social media self-starters with just 1,000-plus followers. A total of $5 million in commissions has been paid out.
By sponsoring nonprofits like Vital Voices, cultural events like Stagecoach Music Festival, and design programs like Shein X, the retailer has been working on polishing its image, after criticism in mainstream media and on social media for everything from unfair labor practices to lead in clothing.
None of that was mentioned at the summit, which 280 creatives attended from as far away as Dubai. Several exhibited their own collections in the venue, in booths set up with iPads displaying QR codes linking to the items they designed for Shein X.
The idea for the summit came through focus groups done with participating designers, said Shein U.S. president George Chiao, who opened the day by introducing a series of new brand initiatives for 2023 to support the program, and help nurture its talent beyond the activities of Shein.
The Shein X Launch Pad is a partnership with fashion schools that will be offering scholarships and real-world job training for students. The first school will be the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in L.A., and eventually the partnership will extend to other schools around the country, Chiao said.
The retailer is also creating a fund to “help designers in time of need,” he said. “It might be a few thousand dollars to launch a new collection, or have a pop-up store, or buy inventory.”
Also launching this year is the Shein X Design Studio, “a WeWork for designers, starting with L.A.,” Chiao said, noting that the studio space would likely be at The Row in downtown L.A. near Shein’s U.S. headquarters. “If the pilot is successful, we will be launching in other cities like New York.”
During the first two panels, the name Shein did not come up once. Instead, Smith, Kim, Reilly and Wassner spoke about their experiences in luxury fashion, which is a long way from Shein’s $9.99 dresses and $2.88 bike shorts.
“This is the culmination of a year of work,” Peter Pernot-Day, head of strategy and corporate affairs for Shein, said of programming the guest designers. “There were plenty of nos and a lot of yeses, which goes with any program. But when we share the on-demand business model and our commitment to the Shein X program, when we share we are still learning, there are lots of things we don’t do perfectly, and never will, those things do start to open doors. There are people very critical of our brand, and I think that’s something any brand of our size and scale is going to wrestle with.”
“I have been supporting young designers my entire career, and they have come up with something very novel,” Wassner, who has provided financial services for Smith, Michael Kors, Jason Wu, Jonathan Simkhai and many more, told WWD before he was hustled out to his car after the panel.
“George [Chiao] is a very smart guy and his motivation is sincere and honest. What they are doing is giving these young designers an opportunity to make same money by doing Shein product, giving them their designs and having Shein make it and sell it with Shein’s labor. And at the same time they are giving them the opportunity to showcase what they are doing on their own, not restricting them…so they are honestly trying to help designers and that’s what I try to do. I don’t care about price point, fashion is fashion. I think there is a lot here,” Wassner said.
“We’re a brand that wants to empower everybody, and I know, every brand has their mission statement.…But our founders really came from nothing, from selling teapots and selling wedding dresses to this. So our vision is to bring people along,” Pernot-Day said. “And if you look at this room, look at the people who are here, the designers, they’ve come from all over. And there’s such a wide variety of voices and ideas and concepts. I think that itself to us is a success.”
In terms of engagement, “We’ve had some of our most popular designs come from Shein X,” he said, noting that 25,000 designs have been contributed by Shein X designers. “And I think design is such a fickle and moving point of view that as we can find and create these new voices and visions, and we can promote them, I’m very confident that that will keep us relevant.”
In 2023, he expects to add another 1,000 designers globally.
“Freak City was a major early inspiration and partner, and I think reflects how we deal with [intellectual property]. Stepping back, there are only so many ways to make a shirt. And we are inspired by each other. Even references LaQuan was talking about, he was talking about other brands. It’s an area where you can cross the line very easily. What we’ve tried to do is one, like Freak City, acknowledge we made a mistake and say let’s work together. Now it’s a great partnership.
“We’ve also built hard controls, we have a team now of 300 reviewers in China and the U.S., we hired a dedicated U.S. general counsel that specializes in intellectual property and we’ve seen tremendous results. The claims of infringement have really declined…We don’t want to be a brand that’s associated with bad practices.”
The designers were all in.
“My best friend sent me one of their flyers,” said Tendai Phillips of applying for Shein X’s incubator program two years ago, and getting accepted in one week. The Art Institute of Indianapolis graduate has been able to support herself by selling her K-pop-inspired Redefinition collection pieces on Shein.com, as well as her own custom designs which she makes and sells in her hometown.
“You get to put yourself out there and get feedback,” she said of the valuable data she gets from the retailer, which helps steer her designs. “It’s nice to see how people receive things. It’s a confidence booster.”
While other young designer programs skew toward big names who already have the funds to have made their own sample collections, Shein is geared to early stage creatives, she said. “When you’ve just graduated, everyone is asking for a collection, but for me to have a portfolio would take years. With technology, I don’t have time to wait, they will already be looking for the next thing.”
Shein has projected it will double its revenues to $58.5 billion by 2025, as it prepares for an initial public offering later this year. The world’s largest fashion retailer, founded in Nanjing, China, in 2008, has been making inroads in the U.S., with plans to hire 850 workers for a new distribution center in Whitestown, Indiana.
It’s also making inroads in the wider fashion industry. Christian Siriano helped judge a Shein-supported design competition with Khloe Kardashian, and when he was honored at the Fashion Group International’s “Night of Stars” last fall, two of his guests — models Daphne Velghe and Emily Kammeyer — wore looks from the MOTF x Christian Siriano collection, from Shein’s premium brand.
European designers are competing in a Shein X fashion competition, which will culminate in a fashion show in Paris in June.
The retailer has also been pushing its sustainability efforts, and Caitrin Watson, Shein’s head of sustainability, spoke at the summit about integrating sustainable materials into their collections. Shein has touted its on-demand manufacturing model as being less wasteful. It produces each style in small batches of 50 to 100 pieces, then analyzes the market response to each piece in real-time on the website to determine whether or not to produce more.
Last year, the retailer launched Shein “Exchange” resale, which was greeted with criticism by some, given the company’s reach. Shein X alone has 30 drops per month.
The retailer hopes to make the Shein X summit an annual event, and take it international.
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