Mask fashion

MASK

Maya Kornyeyeva

Six billion dollars.

That’s the projected worth of the United States mask market in 2021.

In hindsight, it seems painfully obvious how this product skyrocketed to its current value. Over the past year, masks have become a staple in every household, transforming into one of the simplest ways to protect against the coronavirus. And at first, that is all they seemed to be.

Fast forward a few months after the pandemic hit, and suddenly masks are not only a safeguard but also a way of personal expression. Large fashion companies and small individual retailers began offering a wide range of designs for everyday wear, accelerating the adoption of reusable masks over standard-grade disposable ones.

To put this upswing in perspective, one can look at Etsy, an e-commerce platform focused on selling individual handmade products. Between April and June of 2020, 29 million masks were sold on Etsy, with a mask-related search being made every 11 seconds. During these three months, Etsy earned close to $350 million in mask-related gross merchandise sales.

Similar to the small businesses on

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Etsy, Carolyn and Emma Wang, the founders of CE Scrunchies, were able to hop onto the mask trend after noticing the huge demand for masks in March of 2020.

The initial goal for their business was to make handmade scrunchies and other products to help fund the purchase of textbooks and desks for schools in Tanzania. Since the start of CE Scrunchies in 2018, Carolyn and Emma Wang have aided numerous causes with their variety of products.

“When we created our organization, our primary goal was to support different communities. I think when COVID hit, we saw mask making as an extension of our brand, which is ‘Handmade Helping A Hand.’ We want to continue helping those around us, and making masks was something that could have a direct impact,” Emma Wang said.

According to the Wangs, a majority, if not all of their profit, was going into making more masks to donate to nearby nursing homes, schools, neighbors, and essential workers.

“I think that it’s really nice to be able to give back to the community because we are all in this together. Every time we donate a mask, more people are going to wear protection, and our city is going to become a safer and safer place,” Emma Wang said.

Like CE Scrunchies, larger corporations like Adidas, Uniqlo, and Gap accepted the challenge of creating a new product line focused on masks. They did so at record speeds, launching design after design until their shops and online stores were filled with masks of all colors, shapes, and sizes.

“You’re going to see people wanting to make bolder and bolder fashion statements with their masks [...] You’re going to see people wanting to try out the

Emma Wang

newest technology, whether it’s premium filtration or other features to help them stay safe,” said Jeff Shulman, a professor of marketing at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. “So rather than just the cloth masks or just the standard medical-looking masks, you’ll see someone offering [more advanced] technology.”

Besides containing new safety features, masks also became a ready billboard on which to flaunt political and social statements. Among other messages, the terms “Black Lives Matter” and “Vote” were most often embroidered, stamped, or even Sharpie’d onto the cloth.

“Fashion is a really good way for self-expression. I think a lot of people lean towards fashion when they want to define who they are as a person and where they stand, and masks can help amplify that message,” said Vivian Yip, a junior in the fashion design program at Parsons School of Design.

That said, the United States seems to have arrived late to the game in terms of mask production and stylization. According to Yip, masks were already an integral part of fashion in many countries even before COVID-19.

“Mask fashion is extremely interesting because it only seemed to happen in the United States this past year,” Yip said. “Other countries in Asia already had a reusable mask culture prior to the pandemic, and it’s interesting how the West decided that since the mask is something that is going to stay, it needs to become super fashionable, trendy, and profitable.”

Yip also comments on the rise of ineffective but “fashionable” masks hidden among the multitude of products presented to the American public.

“It is a little problematic when there are stores selling silk masks or see-through masks, and people choose those over the cotton masks because they seem more attractive. In reality, you are actually going to become a spreader if you purchase a mask like that,” Yip said.

Celebrities didn’t help the misinformation around mask safety: many wore masks that seemed to do little to protect themselves and those around them. Others integrated well into the rolling wave of mask fashion, flaunting extreme and unique masks that caught every eye.

“In January when Billie Eilish walked the Grammys’ red carpet in a bespoke black and gold Gucci face mask, it was generally interpreted as a continuation of her cool style quirk,” said Priya Elan in his article about celebrity mask fashion in The Guardian.

Similar to the way influencers normalized stylish masks, every American, and in reality every person on the globe, adopted to view masks as no longer just a ‘face covering.’

Whether it be the increase of matching masks and outfits, or the inclusion of more embroidered messages and technological features that improved safety and reusability, the trend towards fashionable masks has surely rocked American society.

“Now that we are seeing that masks are here for the long term, I think people are more conscious of what mask they’re wearing, both in terms of what is sustainable and good, but also in what they like to wear,” Carolyn Wang said. “Masks are worn now because it’s part of our culture and our outfit. It isn’t just something stacked on top.”

Art By Maya Kornyeyeva