WHEN my brother and his wife were getting married a few years back, I spent weeks scouring every charity shop from the Barras to Dumbarton Road for candelabras ...

and I loved every minute.

With a little help from eBay, I found 23 altogether for a fraction of the cost to buy new or rent from a specialist company.

I do love a good rummage through charity shops, but I must admit I haven't stood in one and thought: 'Do you know what's really missing here? That's it, knickers!'

But, according to one group of Glasgow craftmakers at the Rags to Riches Studio, in Govanhill, they're the one essential missing from any good second-hand store trawl.

Indeed, the group last night held a workshop on how to make your own underwear by upcycling old T-shirts.

At first, the idea made me baulk – surely there's a line to be crossed between shopping ethically and wearing briefs made out of foustie Iron Maiden tees?

It's one thing having Mary Portas on a crusade on Channel 4 show Mary's Bottom Line to start her own 100% British knicker line, quite another to turn it into a night-time hobby.

But in light of the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, where the loss of 1,127 lives gave grim new meaning to fashion to die for, maybe there's something to be said about making do, instead of the first option being to buy new without considering where products come from.

With around 25% of our clothing now imported from China, isn't it time we were offered more options to buy responsibly – instead of leaving it up to the big high street chains to decide for themselves what constitutes safe working conditions for those earning a pittance in foreign sweat shops?

And just because you fork out £100 instead of £10 for a pair of jeans, there's no guarantee that the workers have earned any more money – especially when you deduct the millions luxury brands spend on advertising in glossy mags and paying models £20,000 a day.

Simply boycotting foreign-made goods would defeat the purpose when the textile industry gives millions of people a wage and develops economies of impoverished countries.

I'd like to see an internationally-agreed seal of approval being created which can only be applied when buyers have inspected all factories they use and are able to publish photos or film footage on their websites.

Yet, according to a study by Retail Week, half of shoppers are no more likely to question where garments came from since the tragedy.

Maybe it's time Eurocrats in Brussels stepped in to legislate on safe manufacturing standards on imported goods instead.