Costing £175 on the high street, it helped the Duchess of Cambridge outshine the First Lady.
But the Reiss dress that made such an impression when the pair met this week was manufactured by women paid only 99p an hour in a poor suburb of the Romanian capital, the Daily Mail has discovered.
The camel-coloured ‘Shola’ design was produced for less than £15 by seamstresses earning significantly less than the average salary for textile workers in the Eastern European nation.
British fashion chain Reiss is one of the Duchess’s favourite brands. After she wore the dress to meet Barack and Michelle Obama, demand for it surged, causing the company’s website to crash and the dress to sell out within 24 hours.
It has been advertised for £600 on eBay and a £30 copy is being prepared by Tesco.
Yesterday Reiss announced that the dress will be re-released in five to six weeks.But that glamour is a far cry from the bleak working conditions of those who made it in Bucharest.
The Shola is estimated to have cost under £15 to make, but the mark-up – including materials, shipping and marketing – gives it a price tag of £175.
The factory’s owner, Ioan Palea, 59, said last night: ‘This was a normal production for the spring season.
‘I had an inspection from the Work Ministry on Monday and Tuesday and they said everything was okay.
’But Greg Muttitt, of anti-poverty charity War on Want, said yesterday: ‘Kate Middleton has made a point of supporting British fashion – sadly, it appears, at the expense of overseas workers.‘If Kate really wants to back UK fashion, she ought to check that the people who make her clothes earn a living wage. And the Government must introduce regulation to stop UK retailers exploiting workers abroad.’
dailymail.uk reported
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