As the heat around her missteps continues to intensify, influencer Dani DMC distances herself from the brand that brought her and five others on their first trip to China. Will anything change?

Dani DMC, aka Dani (or Danielle) Carbonari, declared on Instagram yesterday that she wanted to make something “abundantly clear”: She has “terminated (her) relationship with Shein”. Is this really the end or 再会 (zaihui), until we meet again? Ms Carbonari added that she would “no longer be aligned with them or work with them in any capacity, now or ever in the future”. It is not clear if this was a promise. She had said before that, with Shein, she had been “so happy to… see our size and be able to wear their stuff” and had also lamented that it was always difficult to find clothing that she could wear prior to her team up with the Chinese brand. If Shein was able to cater to her specific needs so satisfactorily and if they have all those fabulous merchandise that she could not resist, will she, after the current controversy eventually blows over, be able to resist their future overtures?

Ms Carbonari, who calls herself an “investigative journalist” yet failed to uncover anything substantial during that fateful trip to China, appeared to be the first among her cohort that accepted Shein’s invitation to their production facility in Guangzhou to sever ties with the brand. Other influencers who were on the same trip as she was seem to be holding out. It is not immediately clear if Ms Carbonari wanted henceforth to have nothing to do with Shein because she came to the awareness that what she had communicated on behalf of the brand was problematic or that she was under social pressures to unyoke herself to them. Kenya Freeman, part of the Shein X program and among those who went to China and who could have introduced Ms Carbonari to the brand, did say on IG that through the two years working with the company, “I get a decent amount of harassment”, but after the trip, “people have told me to kill myself, choke myself, jump off a bridge”. It is possible that Ms Carbonari has been similarly harassed since her initial defiance is at odds with her current stance.

It is not immediately clear if Ms Carbonari wanted henceforth to have nothing to do with Shein because she came to the awareness that what she had communicated on behalf of the brand was problematic or that she was under social pressures to unyoke herself to them

That Shein courted those influencers is not unusual, but it is how the women projected themselves and how they communicated the brand’s message so unquestioningly that riled many: Ms Carbonari and the others appeared to be Shein lackeys. In a statement to the media that was quoted by CNN, Shein said: “The trip reflects one way in which we are listening to feedback, providing an opportunity to show a group of influencers how Shein works through a visit to our innovation centre and enabling them to share their own insights with their followers.” It seems to have omitted the factory and warehouse visits that were part of the trip. It also does not say why those individuals—deemed “marginalised” by critics of the brand—were selected rather than journalists. The backlash has not simmered down and rumours have emerged that Shein is planning a stock market debut.

According to Reuters, quoting “people familiar with the matter”, Shein has “registered with regulators for an initial public offering in New York.” Could all the recent noise really be condusive to such a big move. Or, lend a halo to the brand’s reputational blow? In the same report, Reuters also wrote that “a spokesperson for Shein said by email that the company ‘denies these rumors’.” In an earlier video that Dani Carbonari posted on IG that has been criticised and then removed following the angry response, the “confidence activist” convinced herself that “there is a narrative fed to us in the U.S.” regarding Shein’s business and production practices. Is that a rumour, too? And one only unsuspecting, impressionable, guileless, obtuse, amenable influencers can debunk?

Updated: 1 Jul 2023, 09:00

Screen shot: danidmc/Instagram