Joining other luxury fashion brands in the fight against COVID-19, Chanel is currently working on face mask prototypes as they pledge their support against the world-wide pandemic
The luxury fashion house plans to launch protective face masks and gowns, which are currently being signed off by the French authorities.
Once given the go ahead, the brand will utilise close to 150 sewing specialists from the Haute Couture, Ready-to-Wear and Maisons d’Art workshops to begin the work.
French health minister Olivier Veran said France is currently using 40 million face masks each week and has ordered more than a billion more, mostly from China.
Chanel president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky confirmed they have “started the approval process with the public authorities” and will “launch production as soon as the prototypes and raw materials have been approved”.
In addition, “Chanel has decided to show its support for hospitals and healthcare structures by making a financial contribution of 1.2 million euros to the emergency fund created by Fondation de l’AP-HP (the public hospital system for the city of Paris), the Fondation Georges Pompidou and the SAMU (French emergency services),” he continued.
“These sums will be used to support hospital workers who have been on the front line since the start of the epidemic.”
As well as this, Chanel have confirmed that staff will keep their jobs – maintaining 8,500 salaries in full for eight weeks from 16 March – despite challenges that the pandemic has placed on businesses.
The brand is the latest luxury label to pledge its support, with Ralph Lauren, the Kering Group and Brandon Maxwell all utilising their creative skills in the fight against COVID-19.
