alice said he and his wife and christmas aka the emperor took over official duties last month will be given some pictures of their journey through the japanese. band. act. stand for. language courses. video. anytime.

soon always dreamed of luxury rare blend of impossible elegance. like this handbag for example who isn't. but luxury is also worth $300000000.00 international market famous brands whose shops populate the most beautiful avenues of major capital cities. but behind the glamorous exterior all the villages is not gold. the back rooms of these luxury boutiques are hidden away on the other side of the house in the heart of task and. hundreds of supply is turning leather for world famous brands with subcontracting the lower 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. paris we have fashion week. but of course you know all about fashion. star studded catwalk shows. and some one of the stockings. with no no no theme and dion. 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 all 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. levon goods here are the results. for gucci 74 percent of the brands total revenues. for each song alone 72 percent 60 percent for half a mess. you get the picture in. load of luxury goods leather means record breaking

profits. but where does this luxurious leva come from according to our information most of this role material is termed in italy we call up each tannery one by one it takes a while there are $700.00 in total we are as the same question each time and time i was wondering which brands to share tannery workforce in. ok and i don't. know yet. just going up on the box and 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 as 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 and these embry town around. me 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 at the district and animal skins printed crest and sold by the square meter these will henceforth be used in major brands manufacture. workshops to make handbags belts and shoes. that we have. i can say that we work or we have worked at some point he was with almost all of the big international fashion houses. and so. polo ralph lauren tommy hilfiger the louis vuitton group chloé. it's a prison among. 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 were won over by our day adds up. 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 to stunt the decomposition process they are left out to dry. and then soaked again to self 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 kens m. l v m a the number one luxury goods conglomerate in the world has developed

a fairly strict code of conduct. no illegal undeclared work. no excessive overtime a judy 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 exam precept contractors' term a plaque has agreed to let his visit. meet the boss his name is of fun so get. some.

general black specializes in drawing animal skins large tanneries working for luxury brands such as xampp 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 getter is not the only one hiring senegalese employees you only have to come to the lever district in the early hours of the morning to see the. hundreds of unskilled workers whose job is in the luxury goods sector of fall 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 at work by nationality. according to our calculations foreign 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 that work. with clever authority on my hearing i know workers are hired for a week day and hour at a time. and show now days for an tannery workers take these temporary not to mention carious contracts last year and the lack of working

experience every. they're much more likely to be victims of work related accidents . for too 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. of fun together the perfect boss claims that he takes it upon himself to provide protective equipment. chosen as a further work is for you. it's not that we don't trust him but we feel we need to hear him at the. suspect 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 a month. a month yeah ok and who gave you your protective equipment.

i bought it myself as you pull ahead it's not given to you know i say how many hours you work a day i work 13 hours a day 13 hours a day don't disturb it 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 in the demands that. we have there been any accidents or 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 and hit asians no no i'm really very careful about safety features of our

warrior were i was in breeze. with finding it harder and harder to believe our fun together. after several days in santa croce we gained the trust of an xterm opac worker this man worked to tell me a plank in 2000 volt and claims that the boss of france 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. that day 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. groove 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 just. cried all night long. the doctor asked me what had happened. and the boss wanted to lie about it since. he lied said it was something else do you. and i said no it was the machine you go to see what excuse did he give. he said that a plank 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 being 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. with them and we degreed to meet here to collect our payment. but when we arrived fonso and one of his sons were here along with some others because there were 6 of them in total to be safe there so on. just on you they had iron bars naives and everything like they have tacked me and my friend to. one a little they hit me over the head with an iron bar plus one of the federal. 40 in check reported the incident the very next day but alfonso get out and his son

have still not being called for investigation. the 2 young men claim they were undeclared workers and were forced to work under grueling conditions in. a we were treated like animals we couldn't do anything we want even allowed to go to the toilet if i don't know if we wanted to pee they told us to do it behind the machine like we were working. and the real issue we work from 5 in the morning until midday and then. parted again from 1 pm until 7 pm 13 hours a day. by premature 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 funso 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. hisle phones their. phones are thoroughly how are you. how do you say i told you not to film me. but i thought we agreed no we didn't agree anything i mean. one of his sons quickly intervenes. and then another comes along despite the frosty reception. and. the moment we attempt to ask about 40 and check. don't. blame. on their own friends in the woods is it all a little luck but is there no money to support it if the british want to get

a load of israel only. if they are doing the job to see to it. produce offspring who saw. all she was working conditions in the elegant world of luxury fashion we did not expect this. fortunately it surely 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 tannery scenario 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. they attacked 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 order stuck was the exam which 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 have to. kill. him ah but i'm convinced that the actions taken by this office i mean even though there's always room for improvement. they are more than sufficient to stop go fishing they are the prosecution future. if everything's just fine around here apologies for the inconvenience. and what about the contract to party 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 zambian temple plug work hand in hand we go back to meet carlo groovy need to question him about the behavior of this subcontractor. do you still work with him or pluck you know. well we're in the process of changing some things with our subcontractors. because he told me that you are responsible for your sub contract is that you hold them accountable. for all yes we are 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

right 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. to the factory inspectors. as to the authorities area 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 or we received email stating the following. with regards to ken so we barely see any sign in our books of the company receiving a letter from design britannia. yet when we are sampling they maintain that this is one of their 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 long standing 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 the italian tanneries short term contracts accidents that 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 and geo fudging fair labor conditions for some of the poorest workers and has written a report called a tough story of. this report was authorized and funded by the european

commission. its publication will no doubt provoke the wrath of many let the manufactories. almost say. 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 are reported in the greek. 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 of the. group of manufacturers i 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 tanners association. for he said this report must be taken out of circulation they think for good. you know what was the european commission's role the strange thing was that the european commission didn't say 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 letter lobbyist 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 please come in this must be careful search gently but no violence please sir . no violence do you also just use it will get on it by you know but i'm not being violent so what 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 well you know i know you're aware of this report tough story of mother nature if you know me say it was published in 2016 and it highlights some of the unforeseen actresses in certain town resound santa croce yet think it's states that twice as many immigrants have been victims of accidents at work than italian workers and i think this is acceptable. because it 1st of all sort of the top story of leather report was discredited because it was spreading false information news. you know it was based on occupational medicine statistics

over a 5 year period what was your occupation or medicine statistics over 5 years i can assure you that's not the case since 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 that doesn't always 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 why since many immigrant workers were victims of occupational accidents then italian workers do you deny these statistics i don't think they are correct. but you don't think they're correctable is no no because they aren't real statistics. 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 you know 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'd need to check to see for you. so tell me what part of the report is phones 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 so. there must be one or 2 false things that you remember. madam i'm getting old. well 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 1st show room and most importantly we have the city's emblem the folks how i run. you can also go to the market 3 times among. tens of thousands of animal skins all different

shapes and sizes. all of it all of the. menu hot that's right coonskin if you look at ridiculously low prices you look at new york and you heard the 1st one here is 25 year ones apiece even not 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 n.g.o.s. known for its crackdowns on phone. data. this young activist is at the

forefront of the fight against fur in china a country which is now peaches top priority. to have all as well dying to say so it's an animal's are not protected phylicia there are no laws to control farming livestock and trace shit fines if they go. the whole of course there are other organizations like ours fighting against animal suffering they are. sure to let because there's no law we don't have an official spokes person their military these animals don't have any protection or rights from when they're farmed right up until when they're killing i don't let us assume we'll recall. can you describe the hygiene there and only from clear with that. that the animals urinate and defecate in their cages hides how some may develop skin diseases because

they're cooped up inside when you just as well some of them go crazy to the point where they attack each other as an assassin will continue you've seen bite marks on their skin from other animals only their tongue quite. the oil come out as soon as you enter these farms you are hit by a foul smell to ensure you go find he says i flick can i just challenge and the way that you know just how in the past and nobody cleans the animals. 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 scully. elves all these strange looking fluff balls to be clicked on to banks . we had to max mara an italian brand with 2600 stalls worldwide.

we even try on this lovely little jacket. just watch this coat made of up rubbish from asia it 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 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 mourning over the italian fur or rather the danish fur or maybe we're not so sure anymore.

i am. after leaving the mall we decided to go straight to the sills 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 dying city. following the trail of the max mara rabbit fur jacket 'd. but this time we are posing as fashion design is we've even created

a portfolio. from now on we will be filming discreetly sometimes with a hidden camera. 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 abyss luxury italian brand. we are one of the top marks mara suppliers in china. do you work with them often we've worked with them for years. the boss is extremely proud of his max mara connections we'll call him mr lee so 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 supplier his we are not off to a good start. so personally my far doesn't all come from the same farm it's not worth going to see the farms trust me mark's mark doesn't go and visit suppliers that are just going to kill you you can inspect the fur right here in our there's no court 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 for directly from the farm or most of that we only buy ready to end for. mr levy only knows of one tannery where he. so says his fur after 2 hours of negotiating he finally gives us the go ahead. sell off fine you can go visit the white see tannery

the manager will welcome you there. is 250 kilometers north of dying. westies home to the country's largest tannery. at the entrance pose of rakuten 1st line drawing in the sun. and further on thousands of rabbit skins. how many 1st year produced a 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 rotting carcass 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. ference 20 fen per annum askin. 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 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 is how many 1st you buy a year from maxim. 50000 mr lee finally tells his way he gets his phone from. this one to do my trade march and gets it for me you've been caught out in

some lindsay city. you must really like the fair 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 movie remote provinces. so we'll talk with you i only get for a minute for mr lee. and if we want to visit the rabbit breeding farms it is him we have to convince you. or 1st to you think we could come with you to new york again and. finally after much discussion we have found out ticket to. this region is one of the main rabbit supply zones breeding farms as far as the eye can see.

thanks to missed in these connections we go into one of them. this farm houses approximately 10000 animals multiple rabbits are often crammed together into one tiny cage. with several flavors there's no more room once i've sold a few rolls i'll be able to have one radical pay for the other members of your food there are no hygiene rules of thumb is. on another phone we find the same breeding conditions animal droppings a left to polar around the cages. some of the rabbits show signs of breathing problems. others have behavioral issues. humans.

deformities for those rabbits destined for luxury life couldn't get much one. we all fall far away from max morrow's elliptical phrase we can come from that we only source from such a fide supplies. but all this is nothing compared to the death of the animals thanks to our 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. less than one minute later they are skinned.

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

he wanted to smash the berlin wall long before it finally felt i was also issued a new york state you know linda is actually better known as the legend of german rock music. let's find out more about this amazing man mr who goes live. 30 minutes to.

come to. school for your concept discovered with the valves for. a school. project after 100 years the ideals of the bonds are more relevant today than they were. 100 years ago visionaries really shaped things to come because people understood design as a way of shaping society. about half a man does cross off. with ideas that are part of our future looks on how a part of our. documentary starts november 14th d.w. .

player. playing. this is d w news live from berlin for like sions in 4 years the polls are open to get again in spain as acting prime minister pedro sanchez hopes to finally secure a majority votes but yet another alleged al will boulder's response we'll ask our correspondent in madrid also coming up libya's president claims he's the victim of a coup last police.