Luxury’s Biggest Names Stepping Up to Combat COVID-19 Crisis

The novel coronavirus has affected every single industry, and fashion is not an exception. As major stores close and events are canceled, luxury retailers have not forgotten their corporate responsibilities. Now, they are stepping up to lead the fight against COVID-19. 

With infection rates rising day by day, the novel coronavirus has shifted the lives of billions of people. In the wake of this pandemic, major fashion brands have shifted their profit and repurposed their production to fight it. 

As many people face these troubling times, there is hope in knowing that companies with means are stepping up to give people much-needed comfort and help. Get to know the brands that are ramping up their efforts amid the pandemic. 

Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana recently teamed up with Humanitas to support the study headed by Professor Mantovani to clarify the responses of the immune system to the novel coronavirus. The study is also done in collaboration with virologists Massimo Clementi and Elisa Vicenzi of San Raffaele Vita-Salute University. The major goal of this collaboration is to lay a foundation for developing therapeutic and diagnostic interventions to solve the problem at hand.  

The financial aid donated by the Italian fashion house not only funds the research but also supports student scholarships in MedTec School, a degree program in medicine which was developed by Humanitas University and Politecnico di Milano.

LVMH 

Fashion powerhouse LVMH, the parent company to luxury fashion and beauty brands Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, and Celine, has announced that its funds for operations will be redirected to fight the spread of COVID-19. The company is now using its perfumes and cosmetics divisions to create and distribute hydroalcoholic gel or hand sanitizer to health authorities for free, with hospitals as a priority. This comes as a huge blessing considering the shortage of hand sanitizers in France. 

Kering Group

The Kering Group, which owns Boucheron, Ulysse Nardin, and Gucci, among others, has announced its $1 million donation to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC to lend a hand to healthcare workers in the US. The company’s goal is to provide Personal Protection Equipment or PPEs, as well as other medical supplies to the front-liners in the health sector. Aside from this, the brand is also set to give 3 million surgical masks that will be imported from China. 

The French workshops of Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent, which are also owned by the Kering Group, are also manufacturing masks that comply with the highest protocols and health protection measures.

Philip Lim and Prabal Gurung

These two fashion brands are teaming up with Phenomenal Women for its “Phenomenally Asian” campaign to raise awareness on the racism against the Asian community caused by misconceptions that surround the virus. The stigma has been so intense even Chinatowns in the US are feeling it. 

The campaign sells merchandise with all proceeds going to the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, which is a national policy group that pushes to empower AAPI women.

Versace

Donatella Versace and her daughter Allegra have pledged more than $140,000 to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation to alleviate shortage of medical supplies. Aside from their help to the Chinese community, they have also donated $217,000 to Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital. This much-needed help is expected to make a huge difference considering their home country is one of the nations that have taken the worst hit of the virus.  

“In times like this, it is important to be united and support however we can to help all those who are in the front lines, fighting every day to save hundreds of lives,” said Donatella. 

Chanel

French fashion house Chanel has also joined the fight against the novel coronavirus with its sizable $1,900,000 donation to the emergency fund created by the French Emergency Services and the Public Hospital System of Paris. The money will be used to support health workers. 

Aside from their monetary donation, they have also given away more than 50,000 face masks to the military force, police, hospitals, and firefighters. The brand’s 150 sewing specialists have also been tapped to produce medical-grade PPEs.