Masks for humanity

Indian designers donate masks, and create funds and medical kits to support in their own way

The fashion fraternity across the globe are coming together to join the fight against Covid-19 in their own creative way. From surgical and nonsurgical masks to medical kits, overalls and funds, the fashion fraternity are putting in efforts to make a difference. Recently, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani temporarily switched all the Italian production plants to manufacture single use medical overalls. Armani shared on his Instagram post that the medical overalls will be used for individual protection of health care workers engaged in the fight against Covid-19.

Single use medical overalls manufactured by Giorgio Armani

Similarly, the fashion designers Leon Vaz and Karan Berry at Karleo have tied with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to manufacture and distribute a total of 5000 masks in the city. The masks will be made for BMC sweepers, garbage pickers and many more to reduce the risk for those who are contributing to the society on a daily basis. “We are following the standard guidelines for the making of any non-surgical masks and the BMC approved the same and suggested to make as many as possible for them due to the lack of it. We are targeting to give a batch of about 2000 masks to them every 5th day and shall continue to do so beyond 5000 as well, as per the requirements,” inform the designer duo.

The ban on export of masks, led fashion brand Limerick to jump in and pledge 3,000 surgical masks free of cost to health care officials at Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai. According to the brand’s creative director, Nanki Papneja, their company also manufactures spun bonded non-woven fabrics which are primarily used in health care products such as surgical masks, diapers, sanitary napkins etc. “We were aware that because of the Covid-19 outbreak, there was a dearth of surgical masks in the country, so much that the government had not only banned the export of the masks but also declared it an essential commodity. Therefore, it made a lot of sense to us to donate these masks to Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai,” adds Papneja.

Also, in a small effort to utilise their skills and ability, fashion designer Pallavi Mohan along with some of her team members made 25,000 masks for hospitals. Similarly, fashion designer Neeta Lulla distributed masks among the security guards in the vicinity, and to workers, vegetable vendors in Mahim, Matunga, and Dadar.

While some dedicated their skills and time to creating masks, others helped through creating funds and medical kits. Mumbai-based footwear brand Fizzy Goblet created 200 medical kits that had all essentials like sanitisers, vitamins, paracetamol medicines, masks etc that they distributed with the help of the NGO HelpAge India in Delhi to elderly people in need, and fashion designer Anita Dongre announced a medical fund of ₹1.5 crore to support their smaller vendors, selfemployed artisans, and partners who do not have medical insurance or coverage to prepare for medical emergencies arising from Covid-19.