The coronavirus has closed down stores and factories of apparel and accessories labels, but the industry, one of those hardly hit by the global pandemic, was quick to extend a helping hand even when many dismiss fashion as inconsequential and frivolous at times.
Here in the Philippines, fashion designers, groups, and companies immediately mobilized their teams to source materials and produce personal protective equipment for frontline workers.
Read: ‘Sewing hope in times of crisis’ published on April 1
Meanwhile, luxury fashion houses, which lost billions of dollars because of the pandemic, have reopened their workshops to produce, not bags nor shoes nor dresses, but face masks, medical suits, and other PPEs. Others have pledged to donate financial help in support of relief efforts.
Hard-hit Italy has been getting much-needed support from its homegrown fashion houses. One of the latest to extend aid is the Zegna family, maker of the luxury menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna.
The Zegna family and the group’s top management have pledged personal donations to the Civil Protection in Italy totaling €3 million in support of healthcare personnel, scientists, and volunteers across Italy who have been working tirelessly to fight the pandemic.
The Zegna Group also announced that it would convert part of its production facilities in Italy and Switzerland into a manufacturing of medical masks. The company aims to produce 280,000 protective hospital suits using non-woven fabric.
“These efforts will help provide urgently needed supplies to the Piedmont Region (250,000 units) and Canton Ticino (30,000 units), where we have converted a portion of our INCO plant in Novara and CONSITEX in Mendrisio to accommodate the suit production,” Zegna said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Della Valle family, who owns luxury leather goods brand Tod’s, has allocated €5 million for family members of health personnel who lost their lives in the fight against COVID-19. The administration of the fund, dubbed Sempre con Voi, will be entrusted to the Protezione Civile.
Known for its oft-imitated bags, French couture brand Louis Vuitton said via Instagram that it had repurposed several of its ateliers across France to produce hundreds of thousands of non-surgical face masks.
LV’s workshops, with the help of “hundreds of artisans,” are also producing thousands of hospital gowns to be donated to frontline medical staff in six Parisian hospitals within the AP-HP (Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris) network.
Company chief executive officer Michael Burke told WWD that the fashion label was planning to make more than 100,000 masks per week.
British fashion brand Burberry has likewise shifted part of its production machinery to make 100,000 surgical masks for the use of medical staff. Further, it is also making non-surgical masks and gowns at its trench coat factory in Castleford for patients in UK hospitals.
Chanel has also stepped up to manufacture face masks and hospital gowns.
On the other hand, Jimmy Choo pledged to donate $500,000, distributed equally, to relief efforts in the United Kingdom and globally.