Berlin Alexanderplatz. Crowds with countless – identical printed – well-filled paper bags, raving from a brightly lit department store of a fast fashion provider and scatter in all directions. A brief moment of astonishment. Then enlightenment. If one knew no better, would you feel that there is anything to give away. After all, why in heaven’s name, bagful new clothes, the umpteenth T-shirt, the tenth jeans should so many people so desperately need? Unfortunately, it is a normal day on which the mostly young fashion crowd is a desire to join in even the most fast-moving trend, achieved by means of knock-down prices. In third world countries such as Cambodia or Vietnam produced disposable commodity, that can be produced neither fair nor sustainable in these dumping prices, lands kilo in the shopping bags of fashion fans.
Sweatshop is the name for factories, mostly in third world countries, where you work in miserable conditions with low wages.
The Norwegian daily Aftenposten has devoted to this issue in a multi-part documentary web series and prepared the lousy trading of fashion striking for the young target group. With three Norwegian fashion bloggers, editors travelled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Centers into reality. In the center of cheaply produced fashion in a sweatshop, the three young Norwegians spended one night in the tiny bedroom of a seamstress, shared a mattress with her, sat for hours behind a sewing machine in the textile factory. Immerse in the lives of those people who have to produce this commodity every day to satisfy the seemingly insatiable desire for consumer goods in industrialized countries and the profiteering of fast fashion companies.
It was almost unbearable. No drinking, no food, no air and at the same time, you had to make the same movements over and over again. – Fashion blogger Anniken Jørgensen (18)
Conclusion: The eyes of the three fashion bloggers Anniken, Frida and Ludvig were opened. From their initially naive attitude to the working conditions after a short time nothing was left. Bewilderment spreads. The desire to change something, sown. The records of the interviews are to be incomplete. There are rumors, that the newspaper had been placed under pressure by a major fashion chain. But Annikens criticism of the newspaper up a storm. The videos from the sweatshop clickable world. It only remains to be hoped that the observers also open eyes. Because each of us can make a small contribution: Stay away from cheap products. It’s much more fun, to buy fair produced fashion, you can wear with a clear conscience.
