They are spread out on a low table, next to the dresses. In Anne Elisabeth’s store, rue de Turbigo, in Paris, it’s hard to miss this fifty very colorful masks, with floral or striped patterns. They are all different. Customers are spoiled for choice and sometimes take a long time to choose.
“It must be in accordance with the outfit, some ask their companion if he prefers one or the other “, relates Anne Elisabeth, “and then he must illustrate _an aspect of your personality_, rather romantic, discreet. “ This Parisian designer wears a pale pink mask, so that it contrasts with her much more colorful orange coat.
An accessory of coquetry
Anne Elisabeth began to design masks at the start of the pandemic, in March 2020. The shop closed, and kilometers of fabric available, she decided, in her workshop in Pecq (Yvelines), to design them, before ‘they are made in its factory in Casablanca and sell them on its website.
“It got us allowed to resist, to save our company by keeping in touch with our customers “, explains the designer. “It was a leading product to go to our online store and buy clothes. “
With each government announcement reinstating the mandatory wearing of a mask, outdoors in particular, Anne Elisabeth has observed a surplus sales the next days.
– Thomas giraudeau
The designer has made around fifty different, washable, Afnor and category 1-labeled masks. Her printed cotton masks filter at least 90% of microparticles, as much as surgical masks.
Anne Elisabeth says she has some sold several thousand, including a number with its clients abroad, in the United States and even in Australia.
The mask has become a obligatory accessory but also of coquetry. Since it is necessary to wear it, and it has unfortunately entered our life, we might as well do it with panache!
A mask, beautiful or original, is “like a smile, we want to know who is behind it, who is the person wearing it”, considers the designer from Ile-de-France. “Imagine when the weather is not nice. The asphalt, the gray sky and the black locker rooms. _A mask can be a ray of sunshine!_“
“The surgical, I can no longer see it in painting”
In front of the entrance to the Pompidou Museum, Stéphanie wears a khaki green mask, matching her coat. “I work at the hospital, so the pale blue surgical mask you wear, I can’t see it in paint anymore!”, she explains. “So when I go out, when I visit museums, _I put others, more original, colorful_. Even if you have to wear them, as long as they are nice. “
– Thomas giraudeau
They allow “create a link, we are asked where we found it, why we put it“, assure Charline and Mathilde, blue and black flowery masks. The two young women have five or six different at home, some “with glitter”. “During the holidays, I saw a number of people with Christmas masks”, says Mathilde.
I’m wearing a mask from a well-known skateboard brand. It gives an image of sportsman and it is more consistent with my lifestyle urban.
Cyril, he wanted “adapt this mandatory regulation to [son] identity“, and try to match one with her outfit. But this Parisian forty-something does not consider the mask as a fashion accessory. This would mean that it is “entered into the customs, and above all that it must be worn for years”, he believes.
The same goes for the designer Anne Elisabeth who admits to preferring to make scarves, scarves and dresses rather than masks.