Well, not really a fashion show. I haven’t sunk that low yet!
Just War on Want and No Sweat! pointing out to shoppers that chains like Primark rely on workers in chains – or at least on starvation wages working 80 hour weeks – in Bangladesh to sell cheap fashion clothes in Britain.
Primark’s prize Oxford St store opened two years ago when War on Want did its first Fashion Victims report on the shocking conditions for workers at suppliers for it and other high street shops. Primark’s reply appears to have been to have put a notice in its shop window claiming that it took an ethically responsible attitude towards the working conditions of its suppliers – while continuing to ignore the evidence. War on Want’s new report, Fashion Victims II, shows that conditions have actually worsened since the first report.
More on the protest, more pictures and links to the report on My London Diary.
Incidentally it wasn’t easy to produce a good picture despite some attractive models in chains. This one is I think the best, not only because of the model’s pose, but also because it shows everything – the models, the War on Want poster, the No Sweat! banner and the shop window with the Primark title. And no, it wasn’t posed. Shot with the 20mm on the D700 (so a real 20mm) and just a little touch of fill from the built-in flash. Perhaps I would have felt happier with something just a smidgen wider and the SB800 I lost earlier in the week. Actually I’d feel a lot happier if I hadn’t lost that flash!