Fragments Garments #8 – Covid-19 Seamless Facial Protection Masks
![Fragments Garments #8 – Covid-19 Seamless Facial Protection Masks](https://re-fream.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Header-FB-P6-scaled-e1593081390806.jpg)
Facing an Unprecedented Event
Like all artists, designers, scientists, and technicians from the Re-Fream crew, I have been deeply impacted by the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis. As explained in my previous post, I was in a co-creation residency in Austria when the government decided to close the borders and cancel all flights departing to France, so I had to go back home as soon as possible before those new regulations enter into force. Once I arrived in Paris, I was unable to go back to my flat which was rented during the 3 months I was supposed to spend working with my industrial partners abroad. The next day rumors of a French lockdown began to grow, and I just had the time to take my cat and my luggage and to jump in the last train for the South of France before the quarantine was pronounced. I ended very luckily safe in my parents’ house with a nice garden, but I had absolutely nothing to work with me but my computer.
A Designer’s Contribution to the Covid-19 Crisis
Luckily a colleague from Austria managed to send me a parcel with some of the stuff I had abandoned there when leaving. In this I had one meter of a cork material glued on fabric which can be easily cut with scissors and cutters and which can be used with raw edges, so, like every designer left alone in such a situation, I began prototyping with it.
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During that time, some friends in Paris were deeply involved in facial protection masks conception and fabrication to help healthcare workers. After watching tutorials, and questioning those friends, I discovered that those masks are often complex to assemble, so I decided to try to conceive a seamless mask that the user could mount on his/her own in a quick and easy way.
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The first four prototypes were relying on a downsized interpretation of my signature seamless interlocking attachment system found in my modular clothing collections, but after few days the French government explains that a median seam in the middle of the face was not recommended by scientists as it could lead to virus leak.
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So I entered a new prototyping phase, looking for new shapes and systems. As my quantity of fabric available was very small, I always started by doing paper mock-ups.
I improved the shape and the size to allow for 25 masks to be cut in one cut using a 70x100cm laser cut machine and minimizing the textile waste. The manual assembly of the seamless mask takes less than two minutes for a non-skilled user.
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When I finally got the chance to go back home at the end of the quarantine, I launched a mini-production of those masks in different light cotton and linen waterproof fabrics for family and friends.