03:56You know, something that is a feature of Parisian life.
03:59Now it's got to be tarnished by this scandal.
04:01Well, yes, as you said, Sheen has come under fire for two reasons, really.
04:06There are two allegations. One is legal and ethical.
04:11And as I understand today, the government, the French government, is prosecuting the platform, you know, that is under threat of closure or suspension.
04:22I mean, the question is how opaque is their operating, you know, their production process and their circuits of production?
04:28Because it does point to a lack of control, it would seem.
04:31So there's that one question that's legal and ethical on the one hand.
04:40It's a commercial and political question, really, because it points to the issue of protectionism around the French fashion industry.
04:48This is the first, the opening of the first bricks and mortar store for Sheen in Paris.
04:54So Paris is strategic for symbolic reasons, for material reasons, for industrial reasons.
05:00You know, the history of Paris fashion and culture in particular, but also France is the home of human rights.
05:08So the opening of a bricks and mortar store undermines the attempts to regulate the industry from both the city of Paris and France.
05:19You know, regulation in terms of labour exploitation, environmental toxicity.
05:25Sheen is accused of unfair competition, etc.
05:27So all of that, this question of timing is really central to this story.
05:32So putting the paedophile doll to one side and getting into the issue of fast fashion, the lady we saw interviewed in our report spending 100 euros a month on the Sheen website.
05:41That's 400 euros a month on those kind of, so it's 400 euros a week, 400 euros a month on Sheen products on the website.
05:48This is something that is, again, taking business away from French retailers or French producers.
05:56The issue at the heart of it, though, is fast fashion, how it is produced, how it is made, who is exploited.
06:01You can talk about sweatshops.
06:03You can talk about what happens in the far west of China in the Xinjiang province and how Uyghur Muslims are allegedly exploited in the process of making these clothes.
06:11It's been denied by Sheen, it's been denied by China that such places actually exist.
06:15We've done a documentary that shows that they do, but that's a different matter.
06:18That is at the heart of it all, isn't it?
06:20The whole fast fashion ethos.
06:22Yeah, I mean, this is ultra fast fashion.
06:24So this is pushing the whole model of fast fashion to an extreme.
06:27Fast fashion emerged from the late 1990s onwards.
06:30It's part of the intensification of economic globalization and, in the 21st century, digital technology.
06:40Sheen, in a sense, is the third generation of fast fashion that comes in the wake of the heavyweights, you know, the big players, Inditex, Zara, H&M,
06:54that were then followed by a digital first model of ASOS and Boohoo.
06:58I mean, these, in a sense, are business structures that are ecologically unsustainable, so just in terms of business model.
07:06They're carbon heavy, so the number of flights that are crossing the globe, transporting all these goods that these consumers are talking about.
07:15They're data driven, so it's an on-demand production model where software will track the sales, in a sense.
07:22It's TikTok friendly, so it's very much in line with the culture of the influencers and celebrity image.
07:34And I think this really is the key to understanding why consumers like this type of model, because it is fun.
07:41There is something ludic.
07:42There's something playful in this.
07:43It's not just because it's cheap.
07:44It's cheap.
07:46It's also fun.
07:47If you look at how the app and the website work, it's accessible.
07:50It's consumer driven, you know.
07:52And so letting consumers into that model is key to how Cheyenne has worked, both for fashionable garments, but also lifestyle.
08:00You know, so when you look at what they sell, it really goes way beyond just, you know.
08:03I can recall, as a young journalist reporting on closures of factories in northern England that made, you know, products from textile shirts, et cetera, et cetera, for sale in retail outlets across the UK, that production was moved to the Far East.
08:20Is the West being bitten back by the animal that it created?
08:24Well, you could argue, couldn't you, that this is the return of the repressed, in a sense.
08:28I mean, that whole question of unfair competition is at the heart of these attempts to regulate ultra fast fashion.
08:36But this is a model of ultra disposable products.
08:39You know, it's the turnover of goods that are transported across the globe.
08:44These are, you know, it's a model that is based on extreme obsolescence.
08:48So where the pleasure involved, it's a quick fix, in a sense, for a consumer.
08:52So extreme obsolescence and plagiarism.
08:54So it's about imitating the models of high fashion in a very, very quick way.
09:00So this really points to a whole, as you said, a whole global consumer capitalism that is dysfunctional and distorting.
09:08And fashion is just one, is the visible side to this, the visible face of this dysfunction.
09:15It really is a global model that is failing, in a sense.
09:18Final question. It's yes or no.
09:20Will you be taking a look at what Sheen's doing at Beersheveh?
09:22Well, yeah, obviously I'm interested.
09:23You'll take a look.
09:24From a purely objective perspective, rather than...
09:26There you go. That's as you have to do in your role.
09:29We get it.
09:29Nick Chris Roberts is Professor of Media and Culture at the Sorbonne Neuwald.
09:33Thanks for joining us, sir, for giving us that insight.
09:35And as for those dolls, Sheen's saying it's cooperating 100% with the inquiry, which, of course, it should.
09:41The question is, would they have been doing that had it not come to light after the investigations by the French authorities?
09:47That's probably at the heart of the matter, I suppose, which leaves many people feeling a little bit, I don't know, sick about the whole issue.
09:53But, Nick, thank you for your analysis.
09:55Greatly appreciated.
09:56Nick Rees-Roberts there from the Sorbonne Neuwald.
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