Always dreamed of luxury rare blend of the impossible elegance. Like this handbag for example who isnt. 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 on the back rooms of these lecturing boutiques are hidden away on the other side of the outcomes in the heart of tuscany. Hundreds of supply is timing leather for world Famous Brands we subcontract ing the lower employees are overworked or in this case i was. Before joining 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 catch talk shows. And some one of the stocks. With a no no no theme and dior. Who cheese dental chic with little. Happy Smiling Faces at louis vito. But it wasnt 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. Leather goods here are the results. For gucci 74 percent of the brands total revenue. Thief 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 luxury as leva come from according to our information most of this roll material is tanned in italy we cool 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 shia. Ok and. Yet. You still dont want me. 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 some to grow to so. Noticeably less glamorous world than the luxury catwalks of paris. 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 its one of the largest in the region the zamboni turnaround movie is the owners 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 crest and sold by the square meter these will henceforth be used in major brands manufacture. In workshops to make handbags belts on shoes. I can say that we work we have worked at some point with almost all of the Big International fashion houses. And so its Polo Ralph Lauren Tommy Hilfiger the louisville tang group chloe. Its a bit of a model. The need 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 adopted. Except that here they only perform the final stages of the tanning process the rather more pleasant ones upstream theres 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 multistage 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 soften then read dried been soaked again. The details of the other 30 stages but they are rather unpleasant and quite painful now that youve understood the huge number of stages involved and the number of subcontractors needed lets 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 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 his our precept contract is tamo plaque has agreed to let his visit. Meet the boss his name is of fun so get. Someone. To. Tell 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. Advance of gether 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 of fall from secure. This is what we are about to discover through the documents. In this briefcase. Confidential data or about the working conditions inside the tanneries 1st up temporary workers here are hundreds of short Term Contracts signed off by various companies. And thats 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 dr is in charge of the tannery sector shes 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. But i thought you are my everything i know you should work or are hired for a week day and an hour at a time. And show now days for an tannery workers take these temporary not to mention carious contracts and lack working experience and. Theyre much more likely to be victims of work related accidents. Needs 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. Was it for the workers when you. Its not that we dont 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. Ive been here a month i meant yeah ok and who gave you your protective equipment. I bought it myself as you tell us its not given to you know see how many hours you work a day. I work 13 hours a day 13 hours a day dont disturb him while hes working the bosss son has come to intervene. Let him get back to work. In a factory like this there is always a risk of accidents at paring fortunately each machine has its own safety features demands it. We have there been any accidents for the vin a few small incidents but thats all mostly due to negligence or being a bit tired in the morning but nothing serious on the road to go. So youve never had any amputation no no im really very careful about safety features of our warrior were i was in worries. With finding it harder and harder to believe of fun together. After several days in santa croce we gained the trust of an xterm opac waka this man want to tell me a plaque in 2000 volt team 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 as a witness provided he can remain anonymous. That day it was the 1st animal skin id ever worked on and i took it and put it inside the machine i pressed down on the pedals and the blade blocked. 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. 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. Are a lot. And i said no it was the machine you go to oversee what excuse did he give. You know he said that a plane had fallen on my fingers and that had cut my hand. So go. 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 alphonso getta along with one of his sons. Monarchical them and wed 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 be safe and so on. Just on you think of iron bars naives and everything like that tact me and my friend to. One a little bit hit me over the head with an iron bar plus one of the feral. 40 in check reported the incident the very next day but alfonso get on and his son have still not been cooling for investigation. The 2 young men claim they were undeclared workers im a force to work under grueling conditions in. A we were treated like animals we couldnt do anything we want even allowed to go to the toilet if we won. 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. Right to be sure into a ghetto doesnt pay the senegalese workers who are employed under him or sometimes he doesnt 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. Hisle phones are. Our phones so its very. How are you. How do you pay i told you not to fill me up but i thought we agreed no we didnt agree anything i mean. One of his sons quickly intervenes. And then another comes along despite the frosty reception. Stand. Alone and we attempt to ask about 40 and check. In. With is it all a little bunny or is it all money. If thats what you just want to want to get you do a lot of it all newly available. If they are tucked up to see it. Producing it was not. An impulse is all she 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 dont tend to visit the tannery scenario 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 how that. They had iron bars knives and everything. They attacked me and my friend. Because you know look i dont know anything about this case i repeat as far as were concerned we dont 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 arent 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 call the. Mob but im convinced that the actions taken by this office i mean even though theres always room for improvement. They are more than sufficient to stop go fishing theyre asking for shipping question feature. Well if everythings 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 zambian temple plug work hand in hand we go back to meet me to question him about the behavior of this subcontractor. Do you still work with him a plug no. Well were in the process of changing some things with our subcontractors. As weve come to visit because he told me that youre responsible for your sub contract is it is it that you hold them accountable we move on for a while 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. Since she has to have a site that well yes of course we have to check that everythings going well. But its difficult to know if the employees have been paid or not. And in any case they can make complaints to the police. So the factory inspectors try. 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 we received through an email stating the following. With regards to ken so we barely see any sign in our books of the company receiving a letter from the zambry tannery. 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 anymore shipments directly to kenzo. We have a longstanding working relationship. And its 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 life. He lives in the tuscan countryside an hours drive away from santa croce his name is francesco. He is the president of an italian n. G. O. S fudging fair Labor Conditions for some of the poorest workers and has written a report called the toughest. Story of lana. This report was authorized and funded by the European Commission. Its publication will no doubt provoke the wrath of many let the manufacturers. They started to say that what we wrote was untrue that there were i dont 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 dont know anything about the sector. Theyre talking rubbish the stupidity of the. 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 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 this will give us you into what was the European Commissions role the strange thing was that the European Commission didnt say ok ok lets see whose facts are really correct. Now maybe they just took the Tanners Association side of. A report backed by brussels that they themselves later rejected the European Commission one over by letter lobbyist it seems like this story is well worth a trip to belgium despite numerous email exchanges could turn says secretary general gonzales refused to meet with us so we decided to pay him a surprise visit to. Follow mr gonzales yes i wanted to ask you some. Questions because were just shooting in santa croce this coming this will be careful search gently no violence please certain no violence do you all seriousness it will get on it by you know but im not being violent but you knocked over my camera man thats why im saying that you almost pushed me over. To no thats not true what weve just come back from filming in santa croce that if you dont know you and weve witnessed large numbers of people working overtime undeclared workers to accidents that havent been reported for you i know youre aware of this report tough story of mother. Didnt say it was published in 2016 and it highlights some of the unforeseen actresses in certain 10 reason around santa croce yet its states that twice as many immigrants have been victims of accidents at work than italian workers if you tell me i think this is acceptable. Because it 1st of all the top story of leather report was discredited because it was spreading false information news. I know it was based on occupational medicine statistics over a 5 year period one of the occupational medicine statistics over 5 years i can assure you thats not the case since 2nd was yes it is the case mr gonzales excuse me but according to these figures you seem to be basing your argument on something thats been discredited it was made up of fake news. Does not 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 dont think they are correct. But you dont think theyre correct is no no because they. Arent real statistics it for sure you dispute the statistics but it was you yes or no demanded that the commission removed this report from the internet we 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 dont know no no no youre elaborating the figures here i need to check this youve. Got to 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 dont remember all the individual points that were made to prove the report was false so. You know there must be one or 2 false things that you remember. Madam im getting old. Thats all 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 worlds 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 2100000 residents and 10000 businesses only to find. There are shopping malls full of coats. And slippers. Is the mink for show room and most importantly we have the citys emblem the folks how ironic. You can also go to the market 3 times a month. Home over tens of thousands. Of animal skins all different shapes and sizes. But it all about a lot of the 11 year old thats raccoon skin if you look at ridiculously low prices you look at your average you look at the 1st one here is 25. 00 you ones a piece you are not going to its the best in the market you wont find any better thing the only what you get out. 25. 00 yuans thats just over 3. 00 per animal skin. In china 70000000 animals are killed for their fur. And Animal Welfare isnt the countrys top priority. Works the peta the world famous and geo best known for its crackdowns on for. Half bath i asked this young activist is that the full front of the fight against fur in china a country which is now peaches top priority. Going to have all as well diana said so its not a malls are not protected phylicia there are no laws to control farming livestock and trace ship finds a way to. Her home of course there are other organizations like ours fighting against animal suffering that i am. Sure twas because theres no law we dont have an official spokesperson there military these animals dont have any protection or rights from when theyre farmed right up until when theyre killing i dont i just assume it will recall. Can you describe the hygiene there i dont know if im clear with that tongue. Out to the animals urinate and defecate in their cages hides. How some may develop skin diseases because theyre cooped up inside or some of them go crazy to the point where they have taki each other as im sure as hell can tell youve seen bite marks on their skin from other animals cones in the trunk or on the canals the oil as soon as you enter these farms you are hit by a foul smell the intention to go fine is a trifling now can i just challenge and the way that you know just how 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 mall in beijing theres plenty of choice of 1st. Cups scarves 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. To show whats this coat made of rubber for a question that you can wear was it made. In italy. Or no actually was made in china but with italian for. Italian fur thats 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 its a Certified Organization each fur has to be checked. And thats why their fur is so good i know what i we always work with them morning to open up the. Italian fur or rather danish fur or maybe were not so sure anymore. After leaving the mall we decided to go straight to the sils we email max morrows 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 trial of the max mara rabbit fur jacket d d. But this time we are posing as fashion designers weve 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 cant 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. Were one of the top marks mara suppliers in china. Do you work with them often weve worked with them for years and the boss is extremely proud of his max mara connections well call him mr lee so our max mara jacket is not made of italian or danish for. It is from china is the chinese rabbit yes from shandong. We finally have an answer but this is just the beginning weve 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 with us and we my friend doesnt all come from the same farm and its not worth going to see the farms trust me mox mart doesnt go and visit suppliers you just dont you cant you can inspect the fur right here and others no court going all the way to the farms were there you know the breeding conditions are bad youre only going to see dirty animals. We dont purchase the for directly from the farm or medicine that we only buy ready to and for. Whom mr leoni knows of one tannery where he still says his fur off to 2 hours of negotiating he finally gives us the go ahead. Sell off fine you can go visit the whats the tannery the manager will welcome you there. Is 250 kilometers north of dying. Were seeing is home to the countrys lunches 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 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 thanks piers 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 lets 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 it for 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 and mr lee finally tells his where he gets his fur from. His awards with my trademark and gets it for me that youve been gotten from lynn in the city. You must really like the for for many yes its very soft. This is mr lees trade much and he is the one who buys the fur for max mara in the more remote provinces. We thought would i only get 1st from lynn you or mr leech. 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 and. Finally after much discussion we have found out take it to the meat. This region is one of the main rabbit supply zones breeding farms as far as the eye can see. Thanks to mr lees 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 theres no more room once ive sold a few rolls ill be able to have one rabbit ok i dont remember the year for. Their own no hygiene rules of thumb is. On another farm we find the same breeding conditions animal droppings 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 couldnt get much worse. We all fall far away from max morrows elliptical phrase we can come from that we only source for 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 slaughter house. 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 lees 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 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 of this we are left with one question what if this Beautiful Image of luxury has been nothing but a dream. The largest Field Research employment. Despite the fears and uncertainties of months ago among democrats macliver of innovation. To solution. Is the close up progress. The only book when talking to me in germany. Comes to minutes w. Bush is a master of the art of confrontation and this is rove a veteran of verbal combat mean youre going to see dogs fly the undisputed champion of so slowly their goal talk trying to frighten people crucified everybody understands that its absolutely true the conflict zone and join Tim Sebastian as he holds the powerful to account this is the fix for your whichever way you like to spin this conflict zone told. On t. W. Has a virus spread. Why do we panic and when will all this. Just 3 of the topics covered and the weekly radio show its called spectrum if you would like. Information on the clone a large breasts or any other science topics you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at the. Science. Cut. This is the news live from a massive Fire Destroys the main migrant camp in greece thousands fled the maria camp on the island of lesbos are now homeless. He was on a coronavirus lockdown Officials Say arson is suspected also coming off a crackdown on the few remaining opposition leaders in barrows of