The French Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga decided to switch from the fashion world to producing surgical masks to aid the global coronavirus assault.
Kering said in a statement posted on its website. “The French workshops of Kering’s houses Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent are preparing to manufacture masks while complying with the strictest health protection measures for their staff members”.
Production will get underway “as soon as the manufacturing process and materials have been approved by the relevant authorities,” it said.
It further included that it will purchase 3 million masks from China and import them for the French health services.
On the other hand, another Kering company, Gucci, decided to donate 1.1 million masks and 55,000 protective medical gowns to aid Italy’s fight against the coronavirus, the statement said.
In the first quarter of 2020, Kering recently said it expected to lose several hundred million euros due to the pandemic with hundreds of millions of people worldwide in home confinement.
