The coronavirus global pandemic has caused many problems for the U.S., and one of the biggest has been the shortage of face masks and other protective gear medical professionals and vulnerable people need to stay safe. Fashion designer Christian Siriano is stepping up with a solution to the problem: He and his team are making face masks.
“If @NYGovCuomo says we need masks my team will help make some,” he tweeted on Friday, tagging New York governor Andrew Cuomo. “I have a full sewing team still on staff working from home that can help.”
Cuomo retweeted and added his thanks to Siriano. “Appreciate his help so much,” he wrote. “Who’s next? Let’s do this together, NY!”
Siriano told Harper’s Bazaar that because his production is already New York-based, his decision to help was easy.
“I am just in a unique scenario where I manufacture everything in New York already, I have a working atelier and everyone’s working from home, and my office is a townhouse,” Siriano said. “We’re just able to make them.”
He added that he and his team are still working out how many masks they can make and how they will distribute them.
“We’re just working on logistics now; who will get them first, how many we can physically make,” he added. “Hopefully, we can make a thousand in a few days. That’s the goal.”
Siriano posted a video of someone modeling one of his face masks so people can see what they look like.
“We will be making a few versions of this in order to help as many people as we can,” he wrote. “Here is the process so we can get a perfect fit. More to come thank you everyone we hope to get these to the right people ASAP.”
“If everybody can work from home, I think we all could really churn out a lot,” he told Bazaar. “They will not be pretty. They are not fashionable in any way. It’s really just a basic white mask that hopefully will help. That’s it.”