Every autumn, as the world's lingerie brands prepare their spring collections, a darker harvest unfolds in Turkmenistan. From August to November, the country - the 14th largest cotton producer globally - mobilizes tens of thousands of public-sector workers, including teachers and doctors, to pick cotton under state mandate. New findings from Turkmen.News and the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights reveal that despite years of international pressure, this system of state-imposed forced labor has only deepened in 2025. Civil servants now face daily quotas of 45 to 50 kilograms in blistering 40°C heat, with threats of wage loss or dismissal for refusal. The government controls every thread of production, from seed supply to pricing, leaving no room for worker agency. For the lingerie industry, which has long relied on cotton for its softest foundations - from 19th-century muslin chemises to today's organic-cotton bralettes - this is not a distant scandal. Turkish and Pakistani mills, which imported $96.6 million and $33.8 million worth of Turkmen cotton respectively in 2024, feed yarn and fabric into global supply chains that dress consumers in Europe and beyond. Brands that source from these intermediary nations are now at risk of violating the EU's Forced Labour Regulation and similar bans in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. As Anna Cavazzini, a lead negotiator of the EU regulation, notes, "This is institutionalized exploitation." For a museum dedicated to the intimate history of lingerie, this story is a reminder that the most personal garments often carry the weight of the most impersonal systems. The cotton that once clothed Victorian corsets and 1920s camiknickers now demands a reckoning with modern supply chains. Progress, as Turkmen activist Aynabat Yaylymova insists, must be measured not by survival, but by the ability of all people to flourish - and that begins with the threads we choose to wear.
Originally reported by WWD