Fashion houses around the world are helping in the fight against COVID-19

With the COVID-19 virus still spreading globally, more and more fashion houses are stepping up to do their bit.

On Thursday, March 26, Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation became the latest in a long list of design brands to commit to the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic by announcing a donation of $10 million to help teams, partners and communities impacted.

Gucci, also part of the Kering stable, has announced that it aims to produce one million face masks in the coming days for Italian health services.

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With a view to providing a lasting response to the current pandemic, @kering_official, which includes Gucci, contributes to the fight against Covid-19. In the days ahead, the Group will provide the French health service with surgical masks and its preparing to manufacture new ones—while complying with the strictest health protection measures for its staff members—and made a financial donation to the Institut Pasteur to support its research into Covid-19. This contribution follows those already made in China and Italy in recent weeks. On March 11 in Italy, Kering and its Houses made donations to the four major foundation hospitals in Lombardy, Veneto, Tuscany and Lazio. More recently, Gucci responded to a call to fashion companies from the Tuscany Region for surgical masks and medical overalls, and aims to donate to 1.1 million surgical masks and 55.000 medical overalls in the coming weeks, subject to relevant authorizations. On January 28 in China, Kering and its Houses announced a donation to the Hubei Red Cross Foundation to help fight the spread of the virus.

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Meanwhile Dolce & Gabbana has made a large (but undisclosed) financial donation to the Humanitas University in Italy, as it conducts urgent research into the virus.

Just as high-street brand Zara has said it will donate over 300,000 masks by the end of this week, Swedish giant H&M has also stated that it will restructure its supply chain to produce protective hospital gowns instead. Spanish company Mango has declared its intention to donate up to two million face mask to hospitals in Spain, where it is based.

The parent company of Valentino and Balmain, Mayhoola, is gifting almost Dh8 million to hospitals in Milan, an are struggling with large numbers of infections.

Italy is the European country hardest hit by the virus, with more than 59,000 cases and close to 6,000 deaths; it is also where many of the most exclusive fashion brands are based.

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