Lakhasly

Story of a pair of jeans There they are , under a big sign saying : ' Famous brands for £ 19.95 ( about € 23 ) . They are just an ordinary pair of blue denim jeans in Cromwell's Bazaar , a cheap retail outlet in Ipswich , England . 100 % cotton . Wash inside out separately , it says on the label , but it doesn't say where they come from . After all , what would you put on the label ? Made in Tunisia , Italy , Germany , France , Pakistan , Turkey , Japan , Korea , Namibia , Benin , Australia , Hungary " ? These jeans arrived a few days ago in a van from Lee Cooper's warehouse in North London Before that , they came through the Channel Tunnel on a lorry from a similar warehouse in Amiens , France . Before that , they came by boat and train from Ras Jebel in Tunisia In Ras Jebel , a small town of 3000 people , Lee Cooper clothes are made in three factories . In the factory which made our jeans , 500 women work at sewing machines . Each has a small task to do : zips , pockets , legs . Each works like a robot : bonuses depend on fast work . There are no safety guards on the machines and the women concentrate hard , keeping their fingers away from the sharp needles . Trained machinists make about 58p ( around 65-70 cents ) an hour . This factory is not the beginning for our jeans , but in one sense the end . It is the place where all the components come together . Take that roll of blue denim cloth , for example . It was brought here by land and sea from Italdenim in Milan , Italy . At Italdenim the denim was woven from cotton , then coloured blue using synthetic dye from Germany . At Ras Jebel it will be cut , sewn and washed in huge washing machines with volcanic stone from Turkey to make it soft and comfortable . Where did the cotton come from ? Italdenim buys cotton from several places , but mainly from Benin in West Africa . Some of it comes from Nestor Zinkponon's small farm , where 48 people work in the fields for about 60p ( around 65-70 cents ) a day . In a bad year , Mr Zinkponon makes just £ 10 ( around € 12 ) profit from 1 tonne of cotton . That's enough to buy one leg of a pair of Lee Cooper jeans . The only way to make money out of cotton is to have plenty of family members who work for free , says Mr Zinkponon , who has two wives . ' Some farmers have six or eight wives . Back in Ras Jebel , the workers use polyester - cotton thread to stitch the jeans together . The polyester was made in Japan , then it was sent to the factories of Coats Viyella in Hungary and Turkey , where it was combined with cotton thread . The thread was dyed orange , white or blue in Spain , then it was sent by ship to Tunisia . That's not all . The zip was made in France by a Japanese company , YKK , while the buttons were made by a German company , Prym , using zinc and copper from Australia and Namibia . Back in Ipswich , Cromwell's Bazaar is closing for the night . Inside , in the middle , on a pile under a sign saying ' Famous Brands for £ 19.95 ' , a pair of jeans lies waiting for its journey to end .