Coronavirus: Balenciaga and Saint Laurent to make face masks at factories amid risk of shortages

Kering Group is playing its part in combating the Covid-19 pandemic

French luxury fashion conglomerate Kering has pledged to use a number of its factories to manufacture face masks in order to reduce the risk of shortages for medical staff amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In recent weeks, it has been reported that doctors and medical staff across the globe are running out of face masks that they need to safeguard themselves against Covid-19.

To combat the shortage Kering, the parent company to brands including Balenciaga, Gucci and Saint Laurent, has confirmed that it will start making face masks in its workshops.

On Sunday, the company announced that its Balenciaga and Saint Laurent workshops in France will begin to manufacture masks once they receive approval from the relevant authorities.

Kering said the workshops will comply “with the strictest health protection measures for their staff members.”

In addition, Kering will also be providing the French health service with three million surgical masks, which it plans to buy and import from China, while Gucci has also vowed to produce and donate 1.1 million masks and 55,000 medical overalls to medical workers in Italy.

The umbrella group has also made an undisclosed financial donation to the Institut Pasteur, an international research and education institute, to support its research into the coronavirus.

The contributions follows those already made by Kering in China and Italy in recent weeks.

In January, the company donated to the Hubei Red Cross Foundation to help fight the virus and also later donated to the four major foundation hospitals in the Italian regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Tuscany and Lazio.

Kering is not the only fashion group stepping up during the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this month, Louis Vuitton’s parent company LVMH pledged to use its perfume factories to manufacture hand sanitiser in order to reduce the risk of a shortage in France.

Elsewhere, fashion designer Christian Siriano offered to make face masks for medical workers in New York.

A spokesperson for the fashion designer said in a statement that the masks were being made specifically for “hospital personnel”.

“Christian has a staff of sewers on salary sitting at home and ready to work,” said Bianca Bianconi, the designer’s publicist.

“They’re starting to make them now, which we will donate and then a plan will be put together as we flesh it out to manufacture them/more.”