The plus-size influencer goes behind the scene of her recent trip to China with Shein and the subsequent rhapsody of her experience that riled many of her followers. Is it enough? And, why is Singapore in the picture?

Dani Carbonari getting ready for her video explanation

It is expected that the influencer, whose online name sounds like a rapper’s on-stage moniker, Dani DMC (aka Danielle or Dani Carbonari), would response to the social media backlash against her exuberant support for Shein after visiting the brand’s China factory two weeks ago. The paid mission was to see, as she repeatedly said, with her “own two eyes”—not with one, or her mother’s, in case you were wondering—the facilities that, as she described it, “blew my mind away”. Naturally, she aroused fierce emotions with what she shared on Instagram (the last available video has now been removed too), so much so that she had to disallow the comments to her two problematic posts. Six hours ago, Ms Carbonari released a 12-minute video on IG that appeared to be filmed in her bedroom. She wore a low-cut singlet that was, strangely, too big for her, and required constant adjusting so that her bra would not be exposed (it was). It is not known if the top is from Shein. Before she spoke, she sighed and then adjusted a favourite sweater-knit shrug (she wore it in China too) that appeared to be falling off her hunky shoulders. It is not known why she could not press record only after she had readied herself.

When she eventually began, she opened with “hey, so, let’s talk”, and then a short sort-of-laugh, as if to say, I can’t believe I am doing this. It did not sound like it was going to be an apology, and, to be sure, it was not. She seemed hesitant at first, even asking to “take a collective deep breath—really, for me”, and then let on that she was nervous: “I feel like my heart is beating out of my chest”. But when she got into what she called “a lot of things I want to say“, she was calm and nearly personable. She wanted her viewers to know: “I am a really transparent person; I try to always live to authenticity and just be myself, always… I have a really good relationship with myself; I like to always trust my gut and go with what I think is best. I am also human; I make mistakes; I’m imperfect, and I am someone that can take accountability for my actions and I want to be better; I am forever growing and evolving, and that’s probably one of the favourite things about myself.” By now, the viewer would have noticed how often the pronoun “I” was used. As well as every cliché influencers pick to describe themselves.

Ms Carbonari being briefed in a Guangzhou warehouse run by Shein

For the first three minutes of the video post that could have been edited to five, Ms Carbonari talked about herself. And just as she was about to “start from the very beginning” and explain her “relationship with Shein”, she slipped back to placing her as the fascinating main subject (do we really need to know, again, how incredulous she was when she could became a plus-size model?). This is not a transcript of what she said, so we have avoided a biographic recount (you may read more about her here). When she was done acquainting us with her (which was nearly at the half-way mark of the post), she went into this-was-what-happened mode. She happily spoke of how she came into Shein’s ever-expanding orbit. She knew of the brand “not long ago (she did not say when)”. They were, prior to that, “not on (her) radar”. Then she spoke about a friend—“a Black designer”, who was part of the Shein X incubator program (that had “catapulted her career”), who introduced her to the brand’s stateside team. That design initiative reportedly sought 500 new and aspiring designers and artists in the US. Three months after linked her up with Shein, Ms Carbonari accepted a “brand trip” to Lake Tahoe last February, which she claimed was unpaid. And then things turned rather strange.

That first get-to-know-Shein trip, she told us, was “when I started getting comments and hearing some negativity, so I, at that trip, was asking a million questions. Anything anyone was commenting, I was bringing to the higher-ups and being like, what’s up with this, what’s up with that? And I was met with a lot of straightforward, what felt like authentic answers”. What those questions were and what answers she received for them were not stated. From enjoying a junket, Ms Carbonari mysteriously ascended to meeting the “higher-ups” and, subsequently, “even higher-ups”. It is not known why a social media celebrity with a smallish following of 481K on IG was needed in the presence of those with positions of authority. In one meeting, she informed that there were no influencers, except her. She recalled: “It was only political people, journalists, whatever. it was an off-the-record meeting.” And it was at this mentionable session with the “even higher-ups” and those she saw herself to be in the same league as that Ms Carbonari was impressed with the Shein organisational machinery. Calling herself as a “logistic person”, she hungrily and gleefully swallowed the data that they had fed her. “They just gave so many numbers,” she said. “That’s when I learned about, like, their auditing system, and how they do have so many suppliers, and all these suppliers—they do 250 audits per year and if someone is in violation of international law, they terminate their contract right away, et cetera, et cetera.”

The influencer in Lake Tahoe for her first “brand-trip’” paid by Shein

It is not clear why regaling the viewer with the events that led to her China trip, resulting in those posts that were fated to displease, explained why she was sold on the Shein story told to her with evangelistic fervour that many now deem propaganda. She claimed she was “not paid for the trip”, “not paid to post”, and that the “travel and accommodations were taken care of”, but it is also mostly understood that brands don’t lavish on influencers and not expect something in return. Ms Carbonari knew that. That is why she wore the clothes gifted to her and shared photos of her in them, as well as put the company’s production and warehousing facilities in glorious light. In one TikTok post (also now removed), however, she contradicted this claim of no renumeration when she said, “I’m about sixty percent of the time underpaid and they (Shein) have definitely not underpaid me and taken great care of me.” Now, she admitted that she “should have done more research”, but more pertinent was her admission that, “especially plus-size content creators, we’re just so happy to be included, and see our size and be able to wear their stuff that it can cause issues because you’re not doing enough brand research.” Was she admitting to be seduced by material gain? She did say she was glad to fly free-of-charge and be accommodated and to don the clothes, but there was no mention of the act of buying and paying.

On the China trip, she continued: “We were aware of all these rumours and all these stuff that’s going on. And we wanna put an end to it. We want to show you, put our money where our mouth is, show you what is going on.” Mr Carbonari undoubtedly takes her role as an influencer with a mission very seriously, even believing she could quell what she convinced herself to be hearsay when even the company and their production facilities that “blew (her) mind” could not. “It didn’t feel like a show,” she said. “It didn’t feel like something was quickly put together”, affirming how wide-eyed she was. And then she added, “Now in retrospect…” She did not complete the last sentence. In the concluding three minutes, she was back to talking about herself and how she operates. She finally said “sorry”—once—and directed it at the “people who don’t know me (but) are so angry and upset”, not what she posted. In fact, she seemed to say that she was not to be blamed entirely when she concluded the part about the sponsored trip: “I hope Shein can be more transparent and answer all of your questions because I can take accountability for myself and actions, but I can’t take the fall for Shein.”

Taking to Tik Tok, Ms Carbonari doubled down on what she saw in China was true

Warning: the following contains language that some readers may find offensive

Apart from the IG videos, there was, in fact, another one shared on TikTok, where Dani Carbonari was sassier and, clearly, more defiant and strident. The video, like those two on IG that attracted the most attention, was later removed. Appearing with facial treatment mask on and what appeared to be acne drying cream (influencers love to appear to be in the middle of fixing their faces), she doubled down on the enthusiasm she expressed for the Shein production facilities in Guangzhou that had deeply impressed her. To those critical of her—the “dark, crazy side of TikTok”, she said: “I’m not the fucking one.” This clearly was a different “confidence activist”. This was an over-confident advocate who was indignant, livid, and unbeaten. “I know exactly who the fuck I am; I know exactly what the fuck I am doing.” Are we seeing the real, profanity-prone she-who-influences, who “could never, will never be a sellout ever in life”, which is now a hard sell?

And she placed herself on a higher horse than she could mount and stay up. No one else is as exposed as she is: “I have so much more awareness of what’s going on behind the scenes than any of you ever could,” she reproved, “because you don’t see what’s going on.” Ms Carbonari, was, of course, speaking to her predominantly American followers who, like her, probably knew next to nothing about clothing manufacturing until she made that fateful Shein trip and shared her adventures. It is startling that she, with just one glossed-up industry visit spread over three days to boast about, is now a leading expert on garment factories. She continued to berate: “Ninety percent of what is in your closet is made in horrible conditions. So you have no right to say anything.” And she has because those conditions were seen and experienced by her? She did not elaborate. Was she speaking to those who were the equivalent of her pre-China self? Unrelenting, she said, “I’ve seen things with my own two eyes.” What she saw that could turn her into an authority on the subject, she did not say. But she did declare that “to be a pioneer, you gotta take a lot of shit, sometimes” and remind us that “the relationship I have with myself is on another level.”

Dani Carbonari arriving at the Shein office in Marina Bay Financial Centre. Screen shot: kenyamollie/Instagram

The Shein trip to Guangzhou included a sojourn on our island after the mainland factory visits. Dani Carbonari called at the Shein office here, although she did not post about it (or she may have removed it). According to a Reuters editorial last year, Shein had made their office here a “de facto holding company” after it “de-registered its main business, Nanjing Top Plus Information Technology Co Ltd” in 2021, per a Chinese corporate filing, with, purportedly, the aim of eventually listing on the New York stock exchange (that has yet to happen). The Business Times later reported that “its office (here, at the Marina Bay Financial Centre) will be the group’s global headquarters”. On Ms Carbonari’s socials, there were no posts of her extolling how great this corporate nerve centre was. Most of the images (from the also-removed post on Instagram Stories) showed her having fun at the usual tourists attractions and dancing the night away at Marquee. Many of her followers may believe, as many Americans do, that Singapore is in China—her stop here may spur the thought that our island is somehow complicit in Shein’s corporate positioning and industrial practices. Or, endorses them. That would truly be regrettable.

As the picture became clearer and the reactions to it louder, Shein’s influencer engagement appears to involve more than one. As it turned out, Ms Carbonari took the trips together with five other influencers, and their social media posts showed that she was the only white woman in the group. The rest were women of colour (some referred to them as “marginalised”). They were identified as Aujené Butler (her IG account seemed to have been deleted), Destene Sudduth (an influencer whose birthday coincided with the Guangzhou romp), Furnanda Campuzano (a designer with a Shein collab under her belt), Kenya Freeman (a designer on the Shein X program, and possibly the friend who introduced Ms Carbonari to the brand), and Marina Saavedra (a Latina-influencer). It is still unclear why Shein would use seemingly gullible and tenuously altruistic American influencers to rehabilitate their image. Or if this was even necessary. But if the show-and-tell was to teach the women about the company—with a display that came choreographed for them to swoon, Shein may have succeeded, until those posts were shared. As Ms Sudduth keenly wrote on IG, “we’re learning and unpacking so much about the company and it’s only been 2 days! can’t wait to dive deeper!” They may have. It was just not deep enough. Dani Carbonari and her fellow influencers did not realise that wading is not diving.

Screen shots (except indicated): danidmc/Instagram