coming up an investigative documentary looks behind the shiny facade of luxury fashion. up next. to the what is the good cheer for d.w.i. . trying to talk about some of the stars our coverage. more. asshole we have passed let's have a look at solving the problem before so you don't want to. do w. . ups

you've always dreamed of a luxury that rare blend of the impossible elegance. like this handbag for example who isn't. but luxury is also worth $300000000.00 international market wild famous brands who shops populate the most beautiful avenues of major capital cities. but behind the glamorous exterior all that glitters is not gold. the back rooms of these luxury boutiques are hidden away on the other side of the alps in the heart of tuscany. hundreds of supply is timing leather for world famous brands with subcontracting the law employees are overworked or in this case i was.

during our filming. we met some questionable bosses. welcome to a rather chilling industry. we began our investigation on our hometown of. after all being in france we have paris. paris we have fashion week. but of course you know all about fashion. star studded catwalk shows. and some want to be stuck. with a no no no theme deal. who cheese dental chic with little. happy smiling faces at louie vito.

but it wasn't really the clothes that stood out to us have you noticed what each of the models is carrying. handbags of oh shapes and sizes and at all prices starting at $1350.00. and. accessories a move popular than ever you only need to look at the figures. take some of the major french brands for example we calculated the sales revenue from items such as handbags wallets and shoes. in short leather goods here are the results. for gucci 74 percent of the brands total revenues. believe song alone 72 percent. 60 percent for half a mess. you get the picture. in the world of luxury goods leather means record

breaking profits. but where does this luxurious leva come from according to our information most of this room material is tanned in italy we cool up each tannery one by one it takes a while there are $700.00 in total we almost the same question each time and time i was wondering which brands to share tannery work for shia. you know me. and i were. just showing up on the docks and see anything. but some of the companies do play bull and 700 phone calls later up of luxury supplies is starting to take shape.

the phone calls have brought one surprising detail to our attention all of these tanneries and subcontractors are located in one small area of tuscany just 36 square kilometers. welcome to some to grow. noticeably less glamorous world than the luxury catwalks of pounds. worth is a not easily approachable. clearly a rather secretive place. these are the luxury net the tanneries they generate over a $1000000000.00 in revenue each year and employ over $7000.00 people

a small very profitable part of italy. we have been given permission to visit one of these tanneries it's one of the largest in the region these embry turnaround movie is the owner's right hand man he will be our tour guide and he starts his off with the crown jewels the show room. finished products sent from the at the district and animal skins printed crest and sold by the square meter these will henceforth be used in major brands manufacturing workshops to make handbags belts and shoes. i can say that we work we have worked at some point with almost all of the big international fashion houses. polo ralph lauren tommy hilfiger the louisville tang group chloé. it's a bit of a model. the me is as proud as

a peacock. christie just climbs happy employees a tannery that spic and span and state of the art equipment. frankly we won over by our day absorbing. except that here they only perform the final stages of the tanning process the rather more pleasant ones upstream there's a whole chain of subcontractors carrying out dozens of towns all thankless tasks allow is to explain. at the start of its life a handbag looks like this next the cow skin must be removed with mountains of course salt poured on top of it to preserve it. then the cowhides are sent to the tanneries to begin a long multi-stage process. during one of these stages they are

put into a kind of cement mixer along with hydrogen sulfide to remove all the fur this is what produces the rotten egg smell that lingers throughout the area they are then transferred to these big drums and soaked with chromium salts just don't the decomposition process they are left out to dry. and then soaked again to self and then read dried then soaked again. the details of the other 30 stages but they are rather unpleasant and quite painful now that you've understood the huge number of stages involved and the number of subcontractors needed let's go back to sam pre. remember that the tannery claims to work for the l.v. and h. group and its luxury brand kenzo. l v m a the number one luxury goods conglomerate in the world has developed

a fairly strict code of conduct. no illegal or undeclared work. no excessive overtime a juji to provide workers with a safe environment to reduce the risk of accidents in the workplace. all of the luxury giants have codes of conduct just like this one that supposedly apply to their suppliers and any subcontractors hired by their suppliers it seems like everything is under control in the world of luxury fashion every link in the chain is squeaky clean. and so we continue on our journey into this in chanting world. good news one of his our precept contract is time a plaque has agreed to let his visit. meet the boss his name is of fun so get. the.

general plaque specializes in drawing animal skins large tanneries working for luxury brands such as sam pre send them that the him each animal hide weighs between 15 and 30 kilos work is carrying hundreds of them every day most of the employees here are senegalese. of fans of ghetto is not the only one hiring senegalese employees you only have to come to the leather district in the early hours of the morning to see the. hundreds of unskilled workers whose job is in the luxury goods sector a fall from secure. this is what we are about to discover through the documents. in this briefcase. confidential data about the working conditions inside the tanneries 1st up temporary workers here are hundreds of short term contracts signed off by various companies. and that's not all an internal documents

from the occupational health care department lists accidents at work by nationality . according to our calculations farm workers are affected twice as much as italian workers. at the department of occupational health doctor is in charge of the tannery sector she's been fighting for employee health and safety for the past 15 years according to her there is a direct link between short term contracts and accidents at work. you know what i thought you are my everything i know workers are hired for a week day and hour at a time. and they show now days for an tannery workers take these temporary not to mention carious contracts passing and lack working experience

every day and do talk with their much more likely to be victims of work related accidents. nice to go so how is the issue of health and safety addressed at telmo plaque. all day workers are handling animal skins soaked in chemicals. fun together the perfect boss claims that he takes it upon himself to provide protective equipment. for the workers. it's not that we don't trust him but we feel we need to hear him at the. respected so under the pretext of exploring the factory we take the opportunity to ask a few questions filming without a hidden camera how long have you worked here. i've been here month. by month

yeah ok and who gave you your protective equipment. i bought it myself it was you pull ahead it's not given to you no no i see how many hours you work a day. i work 13 hours a day 13 hours a day don't disturb him while he's working the boss's son has come to intervene. let him get back to work. in a factory like this there is always a risk of accidents of pairing fortunately each machine has its own safety features demands it. we have there been any accidents for the vin a few small incidents but that's all mostly due to negligence or being a bit tired in the morning but nothing serious one already got. so you've never had any amputation no no i'm really very careful about safety use of for it were

i was in worries. with finding it harder and harder to believe oh fun together. after several days in santa croce we gained the trust of an xterm opac worker this man went to tell me a plank in 2000 volt team and claims that the boss out front of geta would sometimes disable the safety mechanisms on the machines to increase productivity he lost 3 knuckles he agrees to talk to us as a witness provided he can remain anonymous. that day it was the 1st animal skin i'd ever worked on and i took it and put it inside the machine i pressed down on the pedals and the blade blocked. brutal so i turned it around put the skin back inside the machine pressed down on the pedals and it took my hand with it. just like that.

so. it got hold of my gloves and took off 3 of my knuckles. it was really tough shit. cried all night long. the doctor asked me what had happened. and the boss wanted to lie about it. he lied said it was something else do you. have a lot. and i said no it was the machine you go to see what excuse did he gave. he said that a plane had fallen on my fingers and that had cut my hand. so. we may check on foodie just 2 months after they had left.

this is what they claim to have received a silly thing present a violent beating for having dead to demand payment. according to them this was the work of alfonso geta along with one of his sons. not with them and we'd agreed to meet here to collect our payment. but when we arrived found so and one of his sons were here along with some others. there were 6 of them in total to the safest on. just on you they had iron bars naives and everything like the attack to me and my friend to. one a little bit hit me over the head with an iron bar the son of the federal. 40 in check reported the incident the very next day but alfonso get on and his son

have still not been cool for investigation. the 2 young men claimed they were undeclared workers i'm a force to work and a grueling conditions in. a we were treated like animals we couldn't do anything we weren't even allowed to go to the toilet i don't know if we want. it's a p. they told us to do it behind the machine we were working. and to be alice she worked from 5 in the morning until midday and then started again from 1 pm until 7 pm 13 hours a day. by 3 be sure into a ghetto doesn't pay the senegalese workers who are employed under him or sometimes he doesn't pay them for 4 months at a time. since our meeting with check in 40 of fence so ghana is said to have physically abused another one of his employees as far as we know he is

still not being prosecuted. a few weeks later we go back to tamil plant to see the books however this time we are not so well received. our phones are thoroughly how are you. how do you pay i told you not to fill me up but i thought we agreed no we didn't agree anything i mean. one of his sons quickly intervenes. 8 and then another comes along despite the frosty reception. and we attempt to ask about 40 and check. on their open ended with is it all a little but is there no money for somebody if that's what you just want to want to get you to follow that event all your lives it will. eventually catch up to see you

do it. produce all the. buses all she was working conditions in the elegant world of luxury fashion we did not. this. fortunately it's really has its labor inspectorate surely they must be on the case. the groom is that according to our information they don't tend to visit the tanneries or any of ever since ricardo spello was appointed at the end of 2014 there has been a dramatic decline in the number of inspections in the lead the district since we only have one pressing issue to address here on out have that. they had iron bars knives and everything. tacked me and my friend to.

quit because you know look i don't know anything about this case i repeat as far as we're concerned we don't know anything about it and you know institutionally in case of problems like these we have a duty inspector stuck was a little savage of course it does that mean that after today you aren't going to do anything about it unless one of these young men who are attacked travel 30 miles to come and tell you about it in person if they're still. in ma but i'm convinced that the actions taken by this office i mean even though there is always room for improvement. they are more than sufficient wish him to stop go fishing there are 2 prosecution features. well if everything's just fine around here apologies for the inconvenience. and what about the contract in policy are there no

sanctions for them is the model tannery claiming to work for l v m h aware of the violent acts allegedly committed by subcontractor because remember zambry and tamil plug work hand in hand we go back to meet carlo roubini to question him about the behavior of this subcontractor. do you still work with him a plug no no well we're in the process of changing some things with our subcontractors. as we come to visit because he told me that you're responsible for your sub contract is it was it that you held them accountable we knew for sure or yes we were aware of the situation we do everything we can of course. it could be perceived as your but also there are some things how can i say this.

shouldn't you have to have this night to the well yes of course we have to check that everything's going well. but it's difficult to know if the employees have been paid or not you should it. and in any case this they can make complaints to the police. so the factory inspectors try. to the authorities area is this which is that it would. look to those at the end of the supply chain think about this situation we asked for an interview with the l v m h group but they refused we received email stating the following. with regards to ken so we barely see any sign in books of the company receiving a letter from the zambry tannery. yet when we own sampling they maintain that this is one of them most important partnerships.

kenzo most definitely uses our leather and their products. in recent years we have made 567 annual shipments directly to kenzo. we have a longstanding working relationship. and it's still ongoing yes. for at least the past 3 years people have been aware of the sorts of problems taking place in italian tanneries short term contracts accidents at work ever since one man brought these issues to light. he lives in the tuscan countryside an hour's drive away from santa croce his name is francesco. he is the president of an italian n.g.o.s fighting for fair labor conditions for some of the poorest workers and has written a report called a tough story of leather. this report was authorized then funded by the european

commission. its publication will no doubt provoke the wrath of many leather manufacturers. they started to say that what we wrote was untrue that there were i don't know how many errors in the end they discredited our port pirie. part. of what they said it was obviously written by incompetent people who don't know anything about the sector. they're talking rubbish stupidity only. a group of manufacturers asked the european commission to call in the authors of the report in spring 20162 meetings were organized in brussels. with one man at the helm gustavo gonzalez representing tons the european lead the lobby. most of all there was the guy from

photons who spoke on behalf of the tenors association. for he said this report must be taken out of circulation they think for good the suited us you know what was the european commission's role the strange thing was that the european commission didn't say ok ok let's see who's fair. so really correct me now maybe they just took the tanners association side of. a report by brussels that they themselves later rejected the european commission one over by let alone it seems like this story is well worth the trip to belgium despite numerous e-mail exchanges could turn says secretary general gonzales refused to meet with us so we decided to pay him a surprise visit. hello mr gonzales yes was it i wanted to ask you some questions because we're just shooting in santa

croce just come in this will be careful search gently no violence please sir no violence do you also you should get on a boat you know but i'm not being violent so you know what you knocked over my camera man that's why i'm saying that you almost pushed me over. to you know that's not true what we've just come back from filming in subsequent to that if you don't know you and we've witnessed large numbers of people working overtime undeclared workers accidents that haven't been reported for you i know you're aware of this report tough story of mother. to me say it was published in 2016 and it highlights some of the unforeseen actresses in certain town reason around santa croce you think it's states that twice as many immigrants have been victims of accidents at work than italian workers if you and i think this is acceptable. because it 1st of all for the top story of love the report was discredited because it was spreading false information big news. you know it was based on occupational

medicine statistics over a 5 year period one of the or occupational medicine statistics over 5 years i can assure you that's not the case see the 2nd is yes it is the case mr gonzales excuse me but according to these figures you seem to be basing your argument on something that's been discredited it was made up of fake news. this is not always but according to our information it has not been. credited as you say it was actually you who tried to cover up this report could excuse me yes it was you who tried to cover it up no no all we did was reveal the truth behind the lies that were presented in the report. the former was because so is this statement a lie to you that during a 5 year period according to occupational medicine statistics why since many immigrant workers were victims of occupational accidents then italian workers do you deny the statistics i don't think they are correct if not why you don't think they're correct is no no because they aren't real statistics as you've done so you

dispute the statistics but it was you yes or no who demanded that the commission removed this report from the internet yes because it is false as to him also it is false that twice as many immigrant workers are victims of occupational accidents than italian workers so we would need to verify that you don't know no no no you're elaborating the figures here i need to check to see if. some tell me then what part of the report is false and there was a whole list of points presented to the commission. such as i don't remember all the individual points that were made to prove the report was false. there must be one or 2 false things that you remember. madam i'm getting old. that's all goodbye. when it comes to big fashion houses and that getting on says is decidedly difficult. but what

about the other iconic luxury material. china is the world's top producer if you really want to see what this industry looks like you need to go to dying. in the vaults to expensive china dying. is a very small town home 210-0000 residents and 10000 businesses only 2 for. there are shopping malls full of coats. and slippers. there is the mink fur show room and most importantly we have the city's emblem the fox how ironic. you can also go to the market 3 times a month. home or tens of thousands of animal skins all different

shapes and sizes. but it all about. when you hold pets racoons can't. hurt at ridiculously low prices you look at your back and you look at the 1st one here is 25 you ones a piece even a it's the best in the market you won't find any better i think the only. $25.00 yuans that's just over $3.00 per animal skin. in china $70000000.00 animals are killed for their fur each year and animal welfare isn't the country's top priority. she works at peta the world famous and geo best known for its crackdowns on for. back. this young activist is at the forefront

of the fight against fur in china a country which is now peaches top priority. going to have the actual diner said so santa malls are not protected irish and there are no laws to control farming livestock and trash shit fans. so the whole of course there are other organizations like ours fighting against animal sufferings they are. what because there's no law we don't have an official spokesperson the military these animals don't have any protection or rights that from when they're farmed right up until when they're carried out at our summit miracle. can you describe the page in their i don't know from clear with that. the animals urinate and defecate in their cages hides out some may develop skin diseases because they're cooped up

inside when you just casually some of them go crazy to the point where they attack each other as i'm sure you've seen bite marks on their skin from other animals cones of the trunk or alcohol or the kind of. the oil that as soon as you enter these farms you are hit by a foul smell dinging they go why is it i flick can i just challenge and the way that you know just how in the past and nobody cleans the animal. treats. but which companies do these farms what food do major european brands use them. in this luxury fashion model in beijing this plenty of choice of fur. cuffs scarves all these strange looking fluff boards to be clipped on to bags. we had to max mara an italian brand with 2600 stores worldwide.

we even try on this lovely little jacket. just what's this coat made of up rubbish for english an exam where was it made. you really don't know actually was. in china but with italian for. italian firm that's the 1st version we are told next the store manager comes over. to it and that was our 1st comes from a certified organization in denmark suffers. all of their fur is a good quality as it's a certified organization each fur has to be checked. and that's why their fur is so good. that we always work with them when they don't end up with the italian fur or rather danish fur or maybe we're not so sure anymore.

after leaving the mall we decided to go straight to the sils we email max morrow's customer service pretending to be a client and ask them directly this was their response we would like to inform you that our company is firmly committed to a process of continuous growth and improvement of our products regardless of where they are manufactured furthermore with regards to our fur we can confirm that we only source from certified suppliers. the answer is not very clear to move forward with our investigation we have no choice but to take a new approach. we head back to downing city following the trial of the max mara rabbit fur jacket. but this time we are posing as fashion designers we've even

created a portfolio. from now on we will be filming discreetly sometimes with a hidden camera and. we will go around factories making connections talking sketches and the ordering process but we can't seem to find anyone working for max mara. then one morning across this courtyard we stumble upon a clothing manufacturer bingo we finally found the rabbit fur jackets of this luxury italian brand. we are one of the top marks mara suppliers in china. to work with him often we've worked with him for years. the boss is extremely proud of his max mara connections we'll call him mr lee so our max mara jacket is not made of italian or danish it is from china is the chinese rabbit yes

from shandong. we finally have an answer but this is just the beginning we've still not found the exact breeding farms. and we are yet to convince the boss to introduces to his surprise we are not off to a good start. sending me my fur doesn't all come from the same farm it's not worth going to see the farms trust me mark smart doesn't go and visit suppliers just doing what you can you can inspect the fur right here and others not quite and going all the way to the farms were there you know the breeding conditions are bad you're only going to see dirty animals. we don't purchase the fur directly from the farm or men's and we only buy ready to and for. whom mr lee only knows of one tannery where he so says his fur after 2 hours of negotiating he finally gives us the go ahead. hello fine you can go visit the what's the tannery

the manager of a commute there. is 250 kilometers north of dying. we're seeing is home to the country's largest tannery. at the entrance pose of rakuten 1st drawing in the sun. and further on thousands of rabbit skins. how many 1st do you produce one day. in this part of the factory we produce 10000 cars a day but during peak times we can do up 230000 or more. 3000 employees work in this factory immersed in the noisy aging stench of rotting carcass is. the animal skins arrive from all over the country and sometimes even from northern europe. these workers and above all

their salary are one of the secrets behind our beloved max mara jacket our interpreter talks discreetly to one of the employees thank ference 20 fend for animal skin. and he produces 1000 a day. so he earns about 200 u ones a day. $200.00 chinese one barely $30.00 a day not even minimum wage in china let's go back to the rapids at the back of the factory we find the 1st set aside for mr me. is this what you choose your fare for the next mara products yes i use some of it from ox mara and i resell the rest of it was how many 1st do you buy a year from. 50000 mr lee finally tells his way he gets his 1st from. this one to do my trade marchant gets it for me you've been caught out from

lynn in the city. you must really like the for for many yes it's very soft. this is mr lee's trade much and he is the one who buys the fur for max mara in the more remote provinces. we bonded i only get her from when you are mr leech. and if we want to visit the rabbit breeding funds it is him we have to convince. boss or so you think we could come with you to new york and. finally off to much discussion we have found out take it to. this region is one of the main rabbit supply zones breeding farms as far as the eye can see.

thanks to mr lee's connections we go into one of them. this farm houses approximately 10000 animals multiple rabbits are often crammed together into one tiny cage. with never afraid there's no more room once i've sold a few rolls i'll be able to have one rabbit cocaine for the other members are your food there are no hygiene rules of thumb. on another phone we find the same breeding conditions animal droppings the left topola around the cages. some of the rabbits show signs of breathing problems. others have

behavioral issues. tumours. deformities for those rabbits destined for luxury life couldn't get much once. we all fall far away from max morrow's elliptical phrase we can confirm that we only source for certified supplies. but all this is nothing compared to the death of the animals thanks to our firm much and we are allowed to enter the slaughterhouse. that noise you can hear is the sound of rabbit screeching. their legs are often broken as they are hung upside down at the start of the slaughtering process next they are slaughtered. and less than one minute later they are skinned.

these are the skins used in mr lee's factory this is the fire that ends up covering amongst other items max mara jacket. is this luxury brand aware of the conditions in which these rabbits of forced to live and die the same rabbits used to make their fur coats we tried to get an interview with max mara but they refused and. as our investigation comes to an end we no longer see the world of luxury in point the same way. the tanneries of tuscany the breeding farms and slaughterhouses of china after all of this we are left with one question what if this beautiful image of luxury has been nothing but a dream.

because. i wrote since the color play in the berlin derby. the against taliban. devastating loss for byron and nico coaches our. outclasses news in a 5 to one big. double.

more and more young people are striking to save the planet reality with the people who would like to keep living on this planet and if we don't save the planet now it'll be too late just how does a 16 year old organize a europe wide climate congress how does that leave time for school in france we accompanied 3 young climate activists. close up in 90 minutes on d w. o. r's after the fall of the berlin wall nov 9th to w. . first girls to get

a live show that. the model in support of. what's able. to be what. this is news and these are our top stories germany is marking the 30th anniversary of full of the berlin wall and the 9th of november 19th $89.00 a live show at the famous alexander plots kicked off a week of celebrations in the capital.