by René Lavanchy
PAYING money for cardboard T-shirts and skinny jeans might seem unreasonable even at Topshop prices. But customers visiting the retail giant last week were confronted by protesters saying – and wearing – just that.
Students from the pressure group People and Planet demonstrated outside Topshop stores in Oxford, Preston and London’s flagship Oxford Street outlet in protest at the refusal of its owners, the Arcadia Group, to sign up to the Ethical Trading Initiative.
Richard Roaf of University College London, who wore a cardboard box for the occasion, said: “Wearing cardboard is better than wearing sweatshop clothes. Lots of people said they hadn’t known about the sweatshop problem”.
An investigation last year found textile workers in Bangladesh working for the Arcadia Group for less than £70 a month.
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