The other day I was wondering if they had luxury surgical masks or if they were working on them. So, I decided to look it up and thought it would be kind of applicable to this blog. Sadly, I couldn’t find anything about if they were in the works, but I did find an article that luxury houses have actually been helping to work on surgical masks to provide healthcare workers with. Both Yves SaintLaurent and Balenciaga are using their workshops right now to make masks and their parent company has vowed to buy 3 million masks for the French health care system. Other brands like Prada and Louis Vuitton are also providing masks. Prada is also making 80,000 medical overalls along with their 110,000 masks that were taken to Tuscany.
What I find humorous is my assumption that these luxury brands would even consider making “luxury” surgical masks at this time. It would be incredibly inappropriate and would face the same scrutiny that Kim Kardashian faced when she posted a $60 “luxury crisis kit” which includes a N-95 mask, an emergency blanket, emergency drinking water??, and a pre-charged single use charger. It is seen as exploiting a pandemic which is the same sort of exploitation that designer houses would be under, were they to make a designer surgical mask which is probably why many have refrained from making them.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t still in the works. While they have been working on providing normal, useful surgical masks, I also believe they have to be working on luxury surgical masks just for the future incase our heightened fear of viruses continues and they want to take the opportunity to make a profit. There are always people that are willing to stamp a designer logo on an item to prove their position in society, which brands know.
It just seems as if the rich/luxury houses can always finds the most absurd ways to instill class distinction. No one can simply have a watch, it has to be a Rolex. A… normal… belt? Nahhhh, it has to be Gucci or Hermes. And what I’m wondering is if this same premise is going to end up occurring with the N-95 masks as the virus continues.
There is a lot of “What-ifs?” and uncertainty with this virus and this just happens to be one of mine and something I have been pondering. I haven’t found any articles published about it, but will look further into it as this continues.
With that being said, I hope everyone is doing great and making it through this…
❤ your favorite corn teen gal,
ABBY
ringard 