(Canmore // 06-13-2008) So I am googling away on a friday morning looking for what is currently available on the internet regarding the whole sweatshop dialog and came across a very intriguing website. The UK and Europe, have been dealing with the fair trade conversation for a lot of years so I was not surprised to find that the BBC has a website called Thread: Fashion Without Victim.

Thread is an online fashion magazine dedicated to bringing the latest in eco-fabulous style. The Thread team is committed to these three principles regarding clothing:
1. Made and traded sustainably - where suppliers of raw materials receive a fair price and workers get a fair wage, with guaranteed rights.
2. Made of sustainable materials - minimising the impact of fashion on the environment. Material made from organic cotton that is safer for farmers, garment workers and the environment, as they’re free from chemical pesticides and fertilisers.
3. Recycled or vintage - keeping clothes out of landfill and cutting fabric waste in factories.

So this is what BBC/Thread did… they developed this reality show called “Blood, Sweat & T-shirts” (four one-hour episodes.) The producers picked out six fashionistas from around London and sent them to India to discover how their clothes are made. These six young adults are absolutely shocked as they walk into factories, slums, cotton mills and fields not only to see the injustice but to experience it, they have to work and live off the wages they are paid… talk about harsh reality!

Below is the first of 3 or 4 short clips I will be showing on this blog over the next week or so. I invite you to respond as you view these videos… we need to grapple with the realities of how and in what conditions that many of the clothes in our closets have been made.