On December 10, 2024, when Luigi Mangione was identified as the suspected assassin of United Healthcare’s CEO, an obsession began. People trawled the internet to find out every morsel of detail they could about the then-26-year-old, which led us down a weird rabbit hole of personal details, old vacation photos and even SNL spoofs. But probably the most unexpected turn in the UHC assassination saga came today (September 3), as Mangione was briefly revealed (and swiftly un-revealed) as the new face of Shein. Yes, you read that right – the morally-dubious, fast fashion e-commerce giant Shein.

Mangione’s likeness was used on the website to promote a short-sleeved floral shirt, and was promptly recognised by users on X, before it swiftly reached aggregator accounts like Pop Crave and subsequently blew up. From there, the online condemnation was strong, with many suspecting that the image was AI-generated. “Using AI for this is so disrespectful,” said one user, while another said that “generative AI is a plague.” Thousands more comments referred to the use of Mangione’s likeness as “evil”, while others bemoaned the fact that the alleged use of generative AI adds another layer of discomfort, considering Mangione is being detained.

It’s not clear at this moment how Mangione’s likeness ended up on the Shein website. It’s unlikely that the 27-year-old consented to his image being used, as he is currently incarcerated by US authorities. It’s common knowledge that Shein uses AI to design new products, launching 10,000 new items a day by “analysing billions of data points from social media, search trends, and user behaviour to identify emerging fashion trends almost instantly”. Despite that, the e-commerce company has never admitted to using AI models along with those AI designs, however, for many, this is the most likely way that Mangione ended up on the website.

Update (September 4): 

When approached by Dazed for comment, a Shein spokesperson responded:

“The image in question was provided by a third-party vendor and was removed immediately upon discovery. We have stringent standards for all listings on our platform. We are conducting a thorough investigation, strengthening our monitoring processes, and will take appropriate action against the vendor in line with our policies.”