By Miracle Nwankwo
We are in a time where our fashion priorities are no longer dressing to look good but to keep safe.
I remember walking into a supermarket recently to get some groceries, and I was sent back because I had no mask on. I was forced to take a few miles back home to get my face mask if I must get those groceries.
Before now, the face-covering attire was only affiliated to some type of professions like surgeons in the laboratory, the fumigators, janitor/cleaners, welders, scientist, those in construction site etc. but today, everyone including presidents of nations cannot be seen without a face mask.
But what do you expect? This is mid-2020, yet the cure for Covid-19 has not been found, which makes it a hundred percent mandatory to wear a mask on public transport, to shopping malls, market places and even in the office space.
The face-covering couture has gone big and deep into the fashion industry, requiring all categories of human beings whether old or young, educated or uneducated, black or white etc., to comply by its rule.
The coronavirus pandemic, which has led to the onslaught of many all over the world came suddenly when the world never expected it. The pandemic has changed almost everything about life, including how we dress. These days everyone on the street is seen wearing a face mask if they must be out. Meanwhile, the fashion industry is ensuring that this new culture becomes trendy, as they find attractive ways to incorporate them into their outfits.
Modern-day fashion knows how to make everything fit into the trends of lifestyle.
It all began when the price of face mask skyrocketed in early February while the pandemic was hitting hard on many Asian and European countries. For the safety of lives, local and international designers switched to the sewing of face mask using different fabrics.
Top brands like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Zara and Brooks Brothers announced that they would channel part of their factories into making the mask and hospital gowns for health personnel on the frontlines, as a way of curbing the spread of the virus and also administering safety for them. As such, millions of mask was sewn with hopes that the coronavirus will disappear so that normal life could return.
In an article published by the Guardian in March, it says; at least the numbers of masks supplied in France are more than a drop in the ocean, with the 43m promised by LVMH and Kering sitting favourably alongside the 250m-strong order announced by the French government.
This shows how important it is to wear a mask in this present time. In fact, wearing a mask is as important as wearing a cloth to cover our bodies. Like the clothes, we helped us to protect our bodies from climate, and environmental harm so is wearing a mask important to protecting the passage of this deadly virus into our bodies, through our nose and mouth which are on our faces.
Wearing a mask is important, it is understandable if you feel uncomfortable with the mask culture. However, you can look at the brighter side, which is from the fashion side of the picture.
Making it fashionable and trendy!
I bet you are not the only burden with the mask culture, many others like you have to wear a mask not because they love it but because they have to wear it. But you can change this narrative like many have done and have moved on to adopting and adapting to the mask culture.
Earlier in May, the US Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, was nicknamed “Leader of the House Majority, and of mask-to-pantsuit colour coordination” by Hillary Clinton after she was seen wearing several outfits matching the colour of her mask, over the past months.
Nancy Pelosi is not the only one caught in this act, the President of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputova also received massive applaud online for her pink matching mask ensemble which was dubbed by one social media user as “modern-day corona”.
There is no doubt that the mask culture has become a trend, so quit beating yourself over your inability to fit in and join the trail, because we do not know how long this might last.
Meanwhile, with the rising trend, a lot of big names in the fashion industry are beginning to create matching outfits after observing the trend.
It will interest you to know that they make matching masks with almost all outfits for any occasion, including a matching mask for a wedding dress and even a bikini.
Yeah, a bikini!
Tiziana Scaramuzzo, an Italian designer and owner of Elexia Beachwear, hit the headlines recently when she posted a picture of a matching bikini and face mask set and named it a ‘Trikini’.
Tiziana told Centropagina, an Italian news site that she created the trikini as a joke but after she posted images of the set on social media, she was flooded with orders.
Like a friend will always say “coronavirus has come to stay” but I think that is a crazy thing to say seeing that it has caused us more harm than good. But we cannot continue to fold our arms and sit at home doing nothing when we have bills to pay and loved ones to connect with. With the social distancing guidelines put in place all around the world, we must find ways to incorporate them so that life can continue.
