Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts

Stacey on a pile of cotton, courtesy BBC

The formula for Blood, Sweat and T-shirts is very simple: take six young fashion devotees to India and show them how their garments are made. And although BBC3 is aimed squarely at the youth audience, this four-part series is relevant to all, shedding a bright, unflattering and uncomfortable light on the reality behind our greed for cheap chic.

The group learn first hand how to sew clothes and pick cotton for achingly long hours and in dirty conditions for a pittance a day - exactly like their Indian co-workers.
Needless to say, Georgina, Stacey, Tara, Amrita, Mark and Richard find themselves thrown in at the deep end and struggle to cope with the hard work and to pay for food and accommodation with the little money they earn.
 It’s a hand to mouth existence and the spoilt Westerners have never had it so hard.

Picking cotton under the scorching sun doesn’t go down well with them and Amrita promptly develops an eczema rash that, luckily for her, forces her to stop working in the plantation.
The others, however, have to get on with it, and concoct their “fun” way of working, which basically means they waste a lot of time.  By the end of the day there’s still plenty of work to be finished, which the remaining five refuse to do on the basis that they are tired and starving.
Despite protesting at the conditions and at the amount of work they and their fellow cotton pickers must do, the group don’t think twice about leaving their half done job to their Indian colleagues to complete.
Before leaving the cotton field Stacey flashes the plantation supervisor her whitened smile, thanks him and tells him how nice it has been to know him.
I’m quite sure the poor guy doesn’t quite agree with her, and nor do the hapless workers slaving through the night to complete the fashionistas’ work.

Tara on the other hand seems genuinely interested in taking in the experience and is keen to talk to the locals to try and understand their way of life. It’s a shame, then,  that when she discovers she’s lost her expensive emerald bracelet ( why on earth was she wearing it there in the first place?)  picking cotton, she becomes hysterical and stops everyone working until it’s found.

 It would be easy to deride these six as clueless, spoilt middle class kids ( which of course they are) but the truth is most people would have faced similar issues.
As useless as mummy’s boy Mark comes across, his point that the experience is so  alien to them  they can’t be expected to perform like an Indian worker is valid.
 What they do miss, though, is that their experience is supposed to give them a different perspective on the consumerist lifestyle they so happily lead and brag about in the UK.  And more shockingly they  have absolutely no clue on how others live in their own country.
At one point Georgina says that “It’s really bizarre to meet people who have to struggle” when an Indian cotton picker tells her that she only buys clothes twice a year, in winter and summer.
You don’t have to go all the way to India to find people who struggle. Georgina should simply pop down to any Jobcentre in Tower Hamlets and get the slice of reality she finds so hard to grasp.

Stef Bottinelli

Catch the final episode of Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts, Tuesday 13th May, BBC3, 9pm.

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