Researcher Anjana Baburaj on the pervasiveness of Shein & the ways in which social media and the drive to increase social status are directly fueling the overconsumption of clothing

Conscious Chatter

In episode 298, Kestrel welcomes Anjana Baburaj to the show. An impact-focused strategist and communications specialist, Anjana works with mission-driven organizations to leverage communication platforms to increase visibility and achieve sustainability and impact goals.

“No matter how much we try to control — if we keep overconsuming, we’re not getting anywhere with anything that we’re doing for sustainability. So, that is one of the reasons I wanted to know — why is this happening? And that’s how I got into my research.” -Anjana

If you’ve been following along over the last couple of years, I have often brought up the links between fast fashion and fast media. In today’s world, I believe the only way to slow down fashion is to also slow down media – since fashion and media are intrinsically linked predominantly around driving consumption.

This leads me to this week’s guest, who recently conducted some powerful research focused on fashion, social media, and consumption.

Have you heard of the TikTok Shein haul trend? You may have seen it – basically, it involves individuals sharing all the items that they purchased from ultra fast fashion brand Shein in a video (or haul). Sometimes they disclose how much money they spent on the clothing, and as this week’s guest concludes, it’s largely interconnected to showcasing social status.

The United States is Shein’s largest market – I have personally experienced their aggressive social media tactics – I get these messages that are tagging me in a visual telling me how to become a Shein ambassador. I feel like I am constantly flagging them as spam and blocking the accounts, but they never stop rolling in.

The surprising thing is that it’s not Shein’s actual *influencers* or *paid partners* that drive the company’s sales – instead, it’s User Generated Content, which is basically content individuals post on social media without receiving any payment. They do it at their own will, and it’s fueling the continual growth of this ultra fast fashion brand.

There is so much to break down when it comes to these layers — tune in to hear more directly from Anjana.

Quotes & links from the conversation:

• “The reality is that we will always be pressured to consume more — that is how business works. Because the idea of growth is tightly linked to economics of sale, and that is how even the fundamentals of GDP work. And we can see that the developing countries will soon catch up with the developed nations in terms of the amount of consumption, which is bad. But to change that, the definition of growth should change — GDP should probably not be the sole indicator of how a nation is classified as developed. And systems should change. This will take more time and effort, but reducing consumption and choosing wisely, even it is from a mass-market brand, can be done faster if individuals and communities engage in conscious consumption.”-Anjana (35:53)

• Connect with Anjana on LinkedIn

• Anjana’s Website

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