The Metamorphosis Of The Mask

From celebrity fashion staple to coronavirus essential

- Julia Gray

Two and a half months and 500 news cycles ago, five days after the first coronavirus case was confirmed in the United States, Billie Eilish wore a sheer Gucci face mask on the Grammys red carpet. Headlines praised the streetwearinclined pop star’s “striking accessory.”

One month later, in late February, Gwyneth Paltrow, while traveling to Paris Fashion Week, posted a selfie in a black Swedish-design mask, her eyes pantomiming panic as if to say, “I am taking this seriously,” but also, “I am legitimately freaking out.” The Instagram caption reads, “En route to Paris. Paranoid? Prudent? Panicked? Placid? Pandemic? Propaganda? Paltrow’s just going to go ahead and sleep with this thing on the plane. I’ve already been in this movie” (referring to 2011’s Contagion, a pandemic-era talking point on Twitter).

That week, a photo of a man in a ripped surgical mask circulated throughout fashion reporting. It’s unclear whether his intended message—he was standing outside the Dior presentation in Paris—was political or stylish as the fashion world attempted to grasp the crisis unfolding in real time. Some shows were canceled; others handed out masks and offered hand sanitizer. Meanwhile, in Italy the number of coronavirus cases was just beginning to spike.

A few days later, medical-grade N95 masks were abruptly disappearing from retail shelves and online inventories as more cases rippled throughout the country and fear took hold. The consumer stockpiling left overrun hospitals ill-equipped, and the meaning of the mask transitioned from edgy statement to scoff-worthy overreaction to mandatory safety precaution and scarce commodity.