Coronavirus and fashion. Not really natural bedfellows you might think. For many people, high fashion is something they aspire to. Whether its a Louis Vuitton handbag, or a Chanel little black jacket. For many of us they are luxuries that will remain out of reach due to their costs. I mean, Chanel make some lovely jackets, but at like £5000 to £10000 a pop, there something most of us can live without.
However, if you are one of the unfortunate ones who catch Covid-19, you may well find yourself in designer wear without realising it.
Louis Vuitton
The French fashion house, famed for its monogrammed handbags, has announced that it is switching the factories producing its perfume over to hand sanitiser production. Obviously with all the stores in lock-down its sales will have fallen through the floor, and it won’t need its regular supply of fragrances. So rather than leave the factory mothballed its actually using if for something useful. So next time you are sanitising your hands, you may well be doing it with Louis Vuitton’s product, and all for a lot less than a bottle of Eue de parfum!
Burberry
One of those essentially British fashion brands Burberry did lose its way a little when it became the go to item for the chavs, but of late has experienced a resurgence and moved upmarket.
They have just announced that their Castleford West Yorkshire factory is being retooled to make surgical gowns for the NHS. Would be nice if they were in Burberry’s classic check pattern, but however they look its still a great example of companies coming together in a national crisis.
So just think when your laid there feeling glum, you might well be the height of fashion.
Prada, Gucci, YSL, Balenciaga
These between them are looking at making millions of facemasks for various European countries. I wonder if the price of second hand facemasks will rise if they are marked with Gucci’s famous double G logo, or the YSL script.
This probably isn’t what Gucci meant when they said they would be making face masks, in fact this looks more like something Christian Grey would have you wear. Can’t see us making candy floss in this one!
Now that’s more like it, expect these to appear on Ebay for a vast sum once the virus pandemic subsides.
Others
A number of others have also jumped into the fray. LVMH the conglomarate which own amongst others Fendi, Dior and Louis Vuitton have announced they will be producing some 43 million face masks for the French Health Service.
I think this LV branded face mask is a copy someone has knocked up. But I have to say I quite like it. I can see there being a market for them. Especially in countries like China where they quite often wear masks anyway. Perhaps we will see a few coronavirus inspired fashion lines coming through.
Coronavirus and Canada Goose
The well known outerwear fashion brand Canada Goose has announced that it is going to make scrubs and gowns. These will be distributed to local hospitals free of charge. Again a nice gesture when the health services are going to start straining under the demand.
Hopefully they will go easy on their signature fur trim, else there will be a lot of sweaty patients.
