Dispatches

Fashion's Dirty Secret (2010x29)

: 08, 2010

Dispatches investigates the working conditions of clothing manufacturing units in the UK. With British consumers keen to buy the latest designer looks at cheap prices, this film exposes the real human cost behind high street fashion. Over three months, secret filming is carried out inside a number of textiles factories and suppliers and the footage shows the poor treatment and illegally low pay of workers as they make clothes destined for major fashion retailers. The working conditions are dangerous, poorly ventilated, dirty and cramped, and workers are paid as low as under half the minimum wage. The film also reveals the high street brands whose clothes are being made by these workers. Dispatches exposes shocking practices, more commonly associated with sweatshops in the developing world, but existing right here in modern Britain.