Wednesday, 19 February 2014

There's Nothing Simple About A T-Shirt

There's nothing more straightforward than the good old-fashioned t-shirt, right? Just grab one out of the clothes drawer and go. Three for a tenner. No brainer.
Well, of course, things aren't that simple. NPR's Planet Money strand set out to find just how complex the task of getting a T-shirt from field to wardrobe has become by setting themselves a simple task: making their own. Over the course of six short videos, which I have oh so helpfully embedded below, the enormity of the task becomes clear. The business of global fashion, even when it comes to something as simple as a T-shirt, is a bewildering mix of processes: agriculture, manufacturing and logistics combining to put the cheapest and most disposable item of clothing on the shelves of a store near you.
Check the full story out below. A quiet and compelling lesson in how we take a mind-bogglingly complicated supply chain as utterly commonplace and barely worthy of notice.






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