In response to a call from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for medical personal protective equipment (PPE), out fashion designer Christian Siriano will create free face masks to help protect people from the coronavirus.
The Project Runway alum and mind behind Billy Porter’s iconic tuxedo gown offered up his “full sewing team on staff working from home” to help create the masks. Cuomo personally replied, saying: “Appreciate his help so much. Who’s next?”
We're in contact with @CSiriano. Appreciate his help so much.
Who's next?
Let's do this together, NY! https://t.co/4B43SKguVO
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 20, 2020
“Christian has a staff of sewers on salary sitting at home and ready to work,” Bianca Bianconi, a publicist for Siriano, told Buzzfeed News. “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.”
According to Bianconi, the masks will be made specifically for “hospital personnel.”
Prototypes are happening more updates by next week. pic.twitter.com/xBPqFtiX0E
— Christian Siriano (@CSiriano) March 20, 2020
Siriano will create N95 respirator masks, which “reduce wearer’s exposure to particle and large droplets” by 95 percent.
“If everybody can work from home, I think we all could really churn out a lot [of masks],” Siriano told Harper’s 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.”