By Thandekile A. Ncube
Who says you can’t look great while protecting yourself and others? Face masks have become a large part of most people’s wardrobes, and some people are having a little fun with it. Artists, designers and everyday people have shown their creativity by turning face masks into art projects and expressions of identity. Masks have represented fashion trend, health purposes, sometimes considered as a sign of the wearer’s social responsibility, safety, pollution, solidarity, protest, racism and now a pandemic.
Face masks have become a necessity during the coronavirus outbreak and now the fashion world is ensuring that they become trendy. With masks advised for the foreseeable future, people are finding ways to incorporate them into their outfits. Face masks are the necessary fashion statement right now. High profile figures such as the President of Slovakia, Zuzana Caputova have also started to match their masks to their outfits.
With the trend rising, many fashion designers are riding on the wave and now creating their own matching outfits. The reception of matching top/ mask trend is taking the world by storm. Having a mask that matches one’s top makes the mask more fun and whimsical to wear, something that is important in such as serious, scary time.
In the future, people will need multiple masks in rotation especially as things begin to open back up. Having a mask that matches exactly is a fun fashion but matching through colour stories will start to happen as well. Considering what mask to wear will become a part of planning an outfit. The pandemic should not get in the way of our sense of style, when one comes out in a stylish masks or an accessory such as this, it doesn’t seem as though we’re fighting a war however it seems more fun.
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