Victoria has another secret. Despite labels that certified its sleek panties and racy thongs were made from “pesticide-free, 10 percent rain-fed cotton,” the lingerie giant was using fiber picked from farms that relied on abused child laborers, according to a shocking new report.“Good for women. Good for the children who depend on them” was the tagline Victoria’s Secret used to market a special lingerie line in 2008 that the company boasted was made from “fair-trade” cotton.
The company even went so far as to boast that each purchase improved the lives of women and children in Burkina Faso, the destitute African nation where the cotton is picked.
But according to Bloomberg News, about 25 million of the garments produced for a Valentine’s Day line in 2009 under that campaign were made from cotton plucked in the searing sun by undernourished children who were beaten with branches.
Much of the report is based on a 2008 never-before-published study indicating widespread abuse and tales of horror throughout the farming region that Victoria’s Secret either ignored or never saw.
