Unmasking the future

Sheetal

By and large, fashion has always predicted future trends but who knew the good old face mask would turn into a necessity, even before catching up in fashion circles. Even as COVID-19 spreads its ugly tentacles, celebs across the globe are making the mask look much swankier than it ever intended to be!

Deadly prediction

In Europe, French designer Marine Serre Spring Summer 2020 collection in September included face masks and predicted late spring, with recycled plastic raincoats to convey that climate change is real. Little did she know that it would bring along a new deadly virus like COVID-19 even before spring. Her collection was titled Marée Noire; literal translation being Black Tide. Marine, before the show, had said: “The collection was conceived as the aftermath of an apocalypse in which only a handful of people have survived, devastating climate wars and mass extinction.”

Meanwhile, rapper Bohemia posted on his Instagram handle, “Hygiene is everything. When I started preaching about hygiene and wearing masks a year ago, everyone thought it was fashion! Now here are some of my old posts vs your new posts. #kdmfacemask.” It is evident that face mask was a necessity even a year ago though it also had his record label, Kali Denali Music; something that was much-admired by his fans.

Making a statement

In the Malang success party, Bollywood’s forever young actor Anil Kapoor gave netizens a face-mask goal, which is hard to miss. He wore a red mask which spelled mask! Rumours have it that it was costlier than it appeared, but that’s what we expect from Anil Kapoor.

“Fashion can also be a protest/educative not just a statement…… let’s join hands to fight Covid19,” writes Omashola Kola Oburoh, an actor-model who was one of the finalists in Nigerian version of Big Brother. He wore a blingy face mask to the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) held at Lagos, Nigeria, on Saturday.

Nigerian radio and television host as well as actress, Ada Afoluwake Ogunkeye, popularly called Folu Storms, and Nigerian film actor and fashion designer Ifu Ennada followed suit… that too in AMVCA.

It reminds one of the Grammy appearance of Billie Eilish, known for her unique fashion sense and hairstyles. She wore a black mesh face mask of Gucci paired with Gucci overall; she looked much like a girl from another planet or from the future. Ifu shares, “#CoronaVirusFashion outfit is trending on #BBCWorld and got compared to Multi Grammy Winner @billieeilish as well as Models at Paris Fashion Week! I told ya’ll I was gonna scatter everywhere! Boss @tiannahsplacempire thanks for making this happen! I swear, I didn’t think I’ll trend on major international media, but you made it happen! You did this!” Folu even went on to say ‘Africans are the future’ wearing the bling mask matching her dress.

Naomi goes next level

On the other hand, supermodel Naomi Campbell has taken her fashion game to next level, quite literally. She donned what is known as a hazmat suit, face mask and gloves to board a flight recently and wrote on her Instagram handle, “Safety First NEXT LEVEL. Thank you @lindaevangelista Full video coming on my YouTube soon… All bought on @Amazon 6 weeks ago”

sheetal.dadhwal@tribunemail.com