I did the tourist thing in India a few years ago. In Delhi on the way to the downtown tourist attractions, we passed a street market that went on for several blocks- mounds and mounds of clothing and shoes, some with the price tags still attached like they were for North American shops.
Myself, I have taken to saying in the last few years “I don’t need more clothes” no matter how good a bargain it appears to be. I have quite a few closets, including a walk-in closet, and between my wife and I we have them stuffed to overflowing and also storage tubs in the basement. When I visited Versailles many years ago, the guide in the King’s Apartment pointed out the closet. This was where the king kept his clothes, and there were only 3 pegs in there. Yes, there would be trunks elsewhere with more clothes, but the king did not have a plethora of clothing options at hand. This embarrassment of riches in clothing and other consumer goods has snuck up on us over the last few decades.
I did the tourist thing and not so tourist thing in Florence (Firenze), Italy.
There were lines and lines of Chinese sweatshops making leather goods like purses, jackets, wallets etc. These were all inside warehouses, and people were living in 6 ft x 6ft space with their families and kids were working too. There was practically no sanitation either.
I think when the Chinese understood the Western lust for “made in Italy”, they just moved their sweat shops to Italy.
What you are missing is that the King and Queen had servants whose only task was dressing and undressing them. They got up in the morning and went through an elaborate dressing ritual and at night an elaborate getting ready for bed ritual. They didn’t need more than a couple of things readily available. I would also imagine that most of their cloths came straight from the tailors and dressmakers.
When was this? I mean, I believe you and everything, but was this, for instance, in a part of town accessible to the general public?
It was in 2018. And yes it is in a part accessible to public but kept hush hush.
The specific warehouses, I’m talking about are all around the IKEA when you click the google map for IKEA in Firenze, IT (the birthplace of the Renaissance)
https://goo.gl/maps/AjYK9CLTueHVPbdj7
There are numerous stories on the web too supporting this. Here is one :