CIRCUIT BREAKERS

In troubled times, luxury brands are pivoting to make medical supplies.

Sporty and snazzy automotive watches to keep you revved up about racing back to the open road.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and the freezing of economic and social activity across the globe, many have pondered if luxury fashion has a role to play in a world in crisis. Whether or not you believe the way people consume fashion will change after the pandemic, there is no denying that the industry has responded very strongly to the crisis.

Aside from making generous donations, brands such as

Hermès, Burberry and the

Zegna Group are retooling their factories to produce much-needed supplies such as face masks.

Recently, Zegna announced that it would also be reopening part of its production facilities in Italy and Switzerland to manufacture 280,000 protective hospital suits for medical staff in the Piedmont region in Italy and the Ticino canton in Switzerland.

Bulgari and its French parent company LVMH have also tweaked their perfume production facilities to create hand sanitiser for hospitals in Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by Covid-19. Aside from the fact that these initiatives will go some way to helping medical personnel on the frontline and keeping these brands’ employees meaningfully employed, it is also worth noting that the actions companies take now will set the stage for their post-pandemic recovery, when a greater number of luxury consumers than before may turn to labels that stand for a lot more than simply beautiful clothes.