Trendy face masks in demand for Eid

Islamabad:With less than two weeks left in the festival of Eid ul Fitr, majority of the women have started buying trendy face masks matching with their attire to wear on the festive occasion.

The trend of wearing fashion masks matched with the dresses started gaining popularity among women since the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. As the face masks have become an essential item of daily use for all to remain safe from the deadly virus, women consider wearing an ordinary routine face mask with their colourful dresses as an awkward thing and opting trendy masks matched with their attire. “Face masks available at the medical stores are mostly of white and blue colour and wearing such masks with colourful dresses on the daily basis gives a monotonous look and spoil the excitement of even wearing new and fancy dresses,” Amina Ilyas, a young girl said.

Talking to this agency, she said, “Especially on the occasion of Eid, I cannot wear the ordinary face mask so I have asked my tailor to stitch a matching mask with my dress utilizing the remaining pieces from the dress.” Tailors always waste the remaining pieces from our dresses which could be easily used for making masks, she said.

Muniba Khalid, a working woman said, “It is better to use a mask which can be washed properly, sanitized and reused. This can save us not only from this virus but also from various diseases like influenza and allergies.” “Adding colour and fashion to the face masks, once associated with the fear of pandemic, actually makes it more convenient for us to make these as a part of our lives for an indefinite period,” she said. “On occasions like Eid, marriage ceremonies and parties, I prefer to wear embellished face masks, not simple ones,” she added. Thanks to those fashion brands which have introduced matching face masks with the ready to wear dresses, she said.

The trend of wearing matching masks has also given an opportunity to the tailors to earn good profits through charging extra money for stitching the masks. Ashfaq Ali, a tailor said, although the pandemic has given us an opportunity to earn more but customers show reluctance to pay more for stitching masks. Stitching face masks, which are smaller in size, consume much time but the customers did not pay more than Rs100 for a single mask.