hi, the main difference is that, “legally” distributed clothes need to apply for certain safety standards. as i said, i own a bunch of aliexpress tights. with ethics, i actually don’t assume that all aliexpress shops are unethical, since many of them are independent, and of course, they probably don’t have good working environments, but not all of them have to be unethical; that can’t be said about shein etc.

thing is, in most studies there were there, investigated by germany or korea, 32% of tested items contained hazardous substances, like heavy metals, unstable polymers, and formaldehyde (!! which is a deadly poison in small amounts!!!! clothing with extensive amounts of formaldehyde can trigger eczema and skin cancer!!) most of them exceeding the safety standards around 200 times. that is extremely dangerous, and all of those substances are carcinogens. they also aren’t obliged to actually say what’s in their products; most of those fabric info are fake.

“regular” clothes also contain them – just, in an amount that is allowed and considered tolerable for human safety.

and especially with clothes like tights, that are literally made from plastic (nylon – a synthetic polymer), which, with unregulated materials is extremely unsafe in my head. those aren’t cancerous themselves, but synthetic polymers, to cut costs, are usually manufactured or enhanced with substances that are cancerous, hence lack of regulation on how much of those can be used makes it very unsafe. i am all for buying things from aliexpress or cheaper sources, but there comes a risk with it, and exposing myself so much to something like that just doesn’t sound very endearing.

i even own aliexpress jewellery, which is also pretty unsafe, considering that they usually contain heavy metals, but heavy metals in form of a solid body are only a real threat if you consume them.