will play off from the up store that will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking news you can also use the d. w. app to send us photos and videos. this is news live from by live coming up an investigative documentary looks behind the shiny facade of luxury fashion that's doc film up next. cool and funny the adventures of the famous naturalist and explorer. too soon the original alexander from the world's 250th birthday were embarking on a voyage of discovery. expedition voyage on t.w.

. maps you've always dreamed of a luxury rare blend of the impossible elegance. like this handbag for example beautiful isn't it. but luxury is also worth $300000000.00 international market while famous brands whose shops populate the most beautiful album use 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 outcomes in the heart of tuscany. hundreds of suppliers. leather for world famous

brands was 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 home tough. after all being in france we have paris and 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 and viola. cheese dental

chic with little. happy smiling faces at louis v. don't. but it wasn't really the clothes that stood out to us have you noticed what each of the models is carrying. handbags of 0 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. leather goods here are the results. for gucci 74 percent of the. brands total revenue.

relief song i won't 72 percent. 60 percent for have a mess well you get the picture in the load of luxury goods leather means record breaking profits. but where does this luxurious leva come from according to our information most of this roll material is termed in italy we call up each tannery one by one it takes 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. ok i don't. see anything. but some of the companies do play ball and 700 phone calls

later 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 santa croce so. 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 ovine is the owner's right hand man he will be our tour guide and he starts his off with the crown jewel the showroom. finished products sent from the let the district and animal skins printed pressed 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. so it isn't among. the knee is as proud as a peacock. christie just climbs happy employees a tannery that spic and span and state of the art of quickly. frankly we won over by our day adopted. 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 no thanks list 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 sampling. 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 one. no excessive overtime a duty 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 contractors' term a plaque has agreed to let his visit. meet the boss his name is fun

so get. someone. to. tell black specializes in drawing animal skins large tanneries working for luxury brands such as xampp send then led to him. each animal hides ways between 15 and 30 kilos work is carrying hundreds of them every day most of the employees here are senegalese. 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 jobs in the luxury goods sector are far from secure. this is what we are about to discover through the documents. in this brief case. 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 that work by nationality. according to our calculations farm workers are affected twice as much as italian workers. at the department of occupational health dr 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 that work. with clever authority are my everything i know workers are hired for a week day i an hour at a time. face and face and show now days foreign tannery workers take these

temporary not to mention of carious contracts passing and lack working experience every do talk with their much more likely to be victims of work related accidents. and again time for the 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. and fun together the perfect boss claims that he takes it upon himself to provide protective equipment. to his eyes or to the workers for you. it's not that we don't trust him but we feel we need to hear him out the perspective so under the pretext of exploring the factory we take the opportunity

to ask a few questions filming without a hidden camera how long he worked here. i've been here a month i meant yeah ok and who gave you your protective equipment. i bought it myself and you polluted it's not given to you 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 occurring fortunately each machine has its own safety features in the demands that. we have there been any accidents or there been 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 and hit a chanst no no i'm really very careful about safety issues of all we were i was in ways. with finding it harder and harder to believe oh fronts again. after several days in santa croce we gained the trust of an xterm open. this man went to tell me a plank in 2000 vote and claims that the boss out front of gedda 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 to prove that it was the 1st animal skin i'd ever worked on and i took it and put it inside the machine i press down on the pedals and the blade blocked. a lot. of

grooves 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. it got hold of my gloves and took off 3 of my knuckles. it was really tough she. 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 you've. got a lot. and i said no it was the machine you go to see what excuse did he give. 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 is illegal present a violent beating for having dead to demand payment. according to them this was the work of alphonso getta along with one of his sons. monarchical them and we'd agreed to meet here to collect our payment. but when we arrived fonso and one of his sons were here along with some others. there were 6 of them in total to be safe and so on. just on you had iron bars naives and everything like that hacked me and my friend to. wonder will they hit me over the head with an

iron bar plus one of the family. 40 in czech reported the incident the very next day but alfonso get and his son have still not been called in for investigation. the 2 young men claimed they were undeclared workers i'm a force to work and the grueling conditions in. a we were treated like animals we couldn't do anything we want even allowed to go to the toilet if we. it's a p.c. they told us to do it behind the machine we were working people and to work from 5 in the morning until midday and then started again from 1 pm until 7 pm 13 hours a day. 5 to be sure to get a 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 again

a 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 box however this time we are not so well received. so our final funds are. our phones so it's very. how are you. how do you pay i told you not to fill me. 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. we attempt to ask about 40 and check. him out and she's an upper limit.

on a little frustrated with is it all a little. is there no money for somebody if the but you just want to get to do a lot of events only. if they are backed up to see to it. produce all the. buses it was working conditions in the elegant world of luxury fashion week no 6. this. fortunately italy has its labor inspectorate surely they must be on the case. the problem is that according to our information they don't tend to visit the tanneries very off 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 how that. they had iron bars knives and everything. tacked me and my friend. 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 stock 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 there's a nasty. mob but i'm convinced that the actions taken by this author's teacher i mean even though there's always room for improvement. they are more than sufficient to stop go fishing there are the 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 rubini 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. would come to visit because he told me that you're responsible for your sub contract is this is it that you hold them accountable we move for her or yes we are aware of the situation we do everything we can of course. it will force

you to use your but also there are some things how can i say this. since she has to have a slight edge 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. and in any case this they can make complaints to the police this is so the factory inspectors try to get to the authorities area which is that it will. 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 or we received through an email stating the following. with regards to ken so we barely see any sign in books of the company receiving a letter from design break tannery. yet when we are 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 anymore 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 that work ever since one man brought these issues to line. 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 the toughest. story of. this report was authorized them funded by the european commission. its publication will no doubt provoke the wrath of many leather manufacturers. and i 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 report and very part. of what they said it was obviously written by incompetent people who don't know anything about the sector. they're talking rubbish the stupidity of. a group of manufacturers as 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 gonzales representing tons the european lead the lobby. most of all there was the guy from photons who spoke on behalf of the tenor's association. for he said this report must be taken out of circulation they think for good this to get us you into what was the european commission's role the strange thing was that the european commission didn't say ok ok let's see whose facts are really correct. now maybe they just took the tanners association side of. a report but by brussels that they themselves later rejected the european commission one over by let the lobbyist it seems like this story is well worth a trip to belgium despite numerous e-mail exchanges could turn says secretary general gustavo gonzalez 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 this coming careful search gently but no violence please sir no violence do you all see this recession will be on the back you know but i'm not being violent but you knocked over my camera man that's why i'm saying that you almost pushed me over. the budget to no that's not true but we've just come back from filming in santa croce is 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 un for doctor says in certain town reason around santa croce yet it's states that twice as many immigrants have been victims of accidents at work than italian workers if you do and i think this is acceptable. because it 1st of all your top story of leather report

was discredited because it was spreading false information big news. i know it was based on occupational medicine statistics over a 5 year period what was your occupational medicine statistics over 5 years i can assure you that's not the case since it was 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 a little bit but according to our information it has not been discredited 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 for according to occupational medicine statistics weiss's many immigrant workers were victims of occupational accidents than italian workers do

you deny these statistics i don't think they are correct me if you don't think they're correctable is no no because they i. aren't real statistics is it for sure you dispute the statistics but it was you yes or no answer man did the commission remove 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 the see for. 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. you know there must be one or 2 false things that you remember. madam i'm getting old.

goodbye. when it comes to big fashion houses and their leather getting on says is decidedly difficult. but what about fur 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 vast expanse of china dying is a very small town home 210-0000 residents and 10000 businesses only to find. there are shopping malls full of coats. and slippers. there's the mink faucheux room and most importantly we have the city's emblem the folks how ironic. you can also go to the market 3 times

a month. home overall tens of thousands. of animal skins all different shapes and sizes. but it all about. when you hold bets recruiting scant few at ridiculously low prices you look at your back and you look at the 1st one here is 25 you one's a piece you are not no longer makes the best in the market you won't find any better thing the only one of your. $25.00 humans 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 phone

. tag. i am this young activist is at the full front of the fight against fur in china a country which is now peaches top priority. to have the actual diner said so it's not a malls are not protected phylicia there are no laws to control farming livestock and trace ship finds a way to. the home of course there are other organizations like ours fighting against animal suffering that they are. because there's no law we don't have an official spokes person their military these animals don't have any protection or rights that from when they're farmed right up until when they're carried i don't just assume it will recall. can you describe the hygiene there i don't know if i'm

clear with that. that the animals urinate and defecate in their cages hides. now some may develop skin diseases because they're cooped up inside or some of them go crazy to the point where they attack each other as i was asked to leave seemed bite marks on their skin from other animals cones in the trunk or on the shipping in the oil coming back as soon as you enter these farms you are hit by a foul smell the intention to go fine is just i flick now can i just challenge and the way that you know just how the past and nobody cleans the animals way or treat me. but which companies do these farms what food do major european brands use them. in this luxury fashion model in beijing there's plenty of choice of 1st.

cuffs scarves all these strange looking fluff balls to be clipped on to bags. we had to mix mara an italian brand with 2600 stalls worldwide. we even try on this lovely little jacket. just what's this coat made of the rubbish for the haitian economy where was it made . in italy. no actually was made in china but with italian for. italian fur that's the 1st version we are told next the store manager comes over. to it that night out so far our 1st comes from a certified organization in denmark suffers right 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 i go to what i we always work with them morning to open up. italian fur or rather danish fur or maybe we're not so sure anymore. yeah. after leaving the mall we decided to go straight to the source we email max mara's customer service pretending to be a client and asked 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 'd. 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 for jackets of this luxury italian brand. we're one of the top marks mara suppliers in china. to work with them often we've worked with them for years and 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 firm. 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 supplier his we are not off to a good start. take us and we might far doesn't all come from the same farm and it's not worth going to see the farms trust me mox mart doesn't go and visit suppliers ask you just do it you can you can inspect the fur right here and others not point in going all the way to the farms were there you know the breeding conditions are bad you're only going to see dirty animals. or if we don't purchase the fur directly from the farm or minsan that we only buy ready to and for. whom mr levy only knows of one tannery when he so says his fur off to 2 hours of

negotiating he finally gives his the go ahead. sell off fine you can go visit the what's the tannery the manager of all commute there. is 250 kilometers north of dying. we're seeing his home to the country's lunges tannery. at the entrance pose of rakuten 1st line 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 furs 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 rocks in

caucus is. the animal skins arriving 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 thanks kiran is 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 lee. is this where you choose your fare for the next mara products yes are you some of it from ox mara and i resell the rest of how many 1st you buy

a year from. 50000 mr lee finally tells his where he gets his 1st from. his award to the my trade merchant gets it for me you've been caught out from lin he 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'll but i only get 1st from when you are mr leader. and if we want to visit the rabbit breeding farms it is him we have to convince. bosses to you think we could come with you to new york again and . finally after much discussion we have found out take it to the news. 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 drop of cocaine for the members of your food there are no hygiene mills for thumb is. on another farm we find the same breeding conditions animal droppings they left to paula 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 worse. but. we all fall far away from max morrow's elliptical phrase we can confirm that we only source for such a fide supply is. the good old this is nothing compared to the death of the animals thanks to our much and we are allowed to enter the lean meat 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. 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 $0.10 an hour playing in the berlin germany. and poland against talent. devastating loss for byron and nico colebatch is ours. for outclasses me in

a 5 to one big. double. welcome to the but is the game here for d.l. fair play to talk about since. this country. 3 more. slowly have. let's have a look at something illegal so you want me to. t.w. .

lisa bloom. book al travel now i'm a retired. this is d w news live from berlin turning a spotlight on the past germany begins a week of celebrations to mark the fall of the berlin wall 3 decades ago with events taking place across the capital we ask what the lessons are for today and we meet 2 women who were spied upon by the east german secret police the shonky and

open their files for the 1st time also coming up thousands of people take to the streets of each plane.