'There is no Coco Chanel': Lawsuit accuses Shein of copyright infringement

Three graphic designers are suing Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein over what they allege is "egregious" copyright infringement and racketeering.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in a California federal court Tuesday, the designers allege Shein produced and sold exact copies of their designs. They claim Shein uses "secretive algorithms" to determine fashion trends - algorithms they allege "could not work" without generating exact copies of artists' work.

The designers say Shein has grown rich from "committing individual infringements over and over again."

The suit says the fast fashion retailer violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, alleging that these claims are appropriate because Shein is not just one single entity but rather a "de-facto association of entities."

"There is no Coco Chanel or Yves Saint Laurent behind the Shein empire. Rather, there is a mysterious tech genius, Xu Yangtian aka Chris Xu," the suit claims.

Citing a BBC Channel 4 documentary, "Inside the Shein Machine," the suit adds: "When you start to look behind that, at who is the company, it's a big black hole."

The complaint alleges that Shein's corporate structure reveals that the company is a decentralized group of entities, so the company can "avoid liability" and "avoid disclosing basic information."