By Mary Ward, The Age, January 23, 2015
Blogger Anniken working at the sweatshop. Photo: Aftenposten
A Norwegian reality television show has put fashion bloggers to work in sweatshops.
The social experiment, titled Sweatshop Deadly Fashion, was produced by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. It features three fashion bloggers – Frida, Ludvig and Anniken – who were taken from their glamorous lives in Norway and flown to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where they worked in a sweatshop for a month.
The program's trailer begins: "What happens when you send three young Norwegians abroad to meet the workers that sew our clothes?"
Throughout the series, the bloggers are shown coming to terms with the reality of the suffering they are witnessing.
"You sit in your bed in Norway and you hear about all the people who suffer," Anniken says in episode one. "You watch the news, hear about all sorts of things."
"There are so many people who are born just to do one task in life and that's it."
In episode two, the bloggers visit one of the workers at her home in Phnom Penh, one remarking: "Our bathroom is larger than her entire house."
Sweatshop Deadly Fashion's five ten-minute episodes were released online on January 19, prompting European fashion chain H&M to deny association with any of the sweatshops featured.
"H&M has been present in Cambodia for over ten years. This is one of our key countries of supply. Our commitment is strong there," the brand told L'Express in a statement.
"Since 2005, H&M has been a member of the Better Factories Cambodia program of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which aims to improve working conditions in the textile industry in Cambodia."
The series' five episodes are available to watch with English subtitles here.
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