What are clothes made from?

Learning Intentions

To understand that our clothes are made from a variety of natural and man made materials.

To know where clothing materials are sourced

To be able to discuss the effects of what we wear on the environment.

Introduction

Lets look at these items of clothing. What are the made from?

Cotton

The process of picking cotton by hand is lengthy and painful. As the cotton bolls can ripen at different times, cotton pickers can be picking for several months.

In Uzbekistan, the cotton harvest is ‘picked courtesy of the forced labour of the country’s children and young adults’ for two months in the autumn.

Children are taken out of school during these harvest months and are forced to work from dawn until sunset with high daily quotas being set. And though they are said to be ‘paid’ for their work, when the fines are handed out for not meeting their excessive quotas, the reality boils down to child slave labour.