Hamilton design label helps prevent spread of COVID-19 in style
Published May 8, 2020 at 6:57 pm
Hamilton fashion house Blackbird Studios has teamed up with a McMaster student group to add a little style to a special initiative that will help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Hamilton fashion house Blackbird Studios has teamed up with a McMaster student group to add a little style to a special initiative that will help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The designers at popular Hamilton-based label have been hard at work developing their spring and summer line, even though their storefront on James Street has been closed since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve been really fortunate,” designer and Blackbird co-founder Lynn Bebee told InTheHammer.
“We started an online shop earlier this year and it was up and running before [COVID-19]. When we closed, our customers went directly to the website.”
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Bebee said they were also lucky to have gotten their fabric orders in before the state of emergency was declared.
So, on top of the usual high-end garments Bebee, and her partner Kerry Wade have been turning out, they’ve been making masks with the material they have left over from production.
“We’ve already handed out around 200 masks with orders we’ve sent out [and to] to Canada Post workers,” said Bebee.
“We gave them to anyone we thought might like to have a cute mask.”
The masks made quite a splash with their luxurious fabrics and Blackbird pizazz.
So much so, that members of a Mac student group dedicated to helping Hamilton’s marginalized and at-risk community members, took notice.
The McMaster Student Outreach Collaborative (MacSOC), a group of student volunteers from the McMaster School of Nursing, launched a mask drive last month to help get masks to members of the Hamilton community who are homeless or rely on city shelters for housing.
“Shelters in Hamilton are seeing an overflow of people looking for housing during the pandemic
and many people are struggling to protect themselves against the spread of the virus,” said Duaa Yahya, MacSOC co-president, in a press release.
“On top of practising physical distancing ourselves, it’s our social responsibility to make sure that people who are marginally housed have access to masks and know how to use them properly.”
To get masks out to those who need them most, the group enlisted the help of an army of sewers to produce masks using a pattern developed by Hong Kong-based doctor Kenneth Kwong, which is considered standard across the globe.
The masks, which are expected to be ready in the coming weeks, will then be distributed to the community via a number of outreach organizations, including Neighbour2Neighbour, Indwell, Mission Services, and Welcome Inn Hamilton, with proper care and use instructions.
In order to fund the initiative, the group sells a portion of the handmade masks to the public for $24.
The $24 includes one mask for the buyer and one for a vulnerable community member and goes towards buying the mask materials and paying sewers for their time.
A member of MacSOC reached out to Blackbird recently to see if they would be interested in making some masks for the initiative, and since, the sewing machines at the Cotton Factory on Sherman have been humming along.
“We’re really happy to be partnering with them [MacSOC] for this,” Bebee said.
The masks are two layers of 100 per cent cotton, room for a filter, nose piece and elastic to clip around the ears.
And while the province starts to slowly lift pandemic restrictions, Bebee says she wouldn’t be surprised if the demand for masks grows.
“They’re going to be in high demand as they reopen the economy,” she said.
When asked if she thinks that they’ll become a permanent part of Blackbird’s clothing line, Bebee said she and Wade have already discussed the possibility.
“It might become the new normal,” she said.
Check out Blackbird’s website for more information on their partnership with MacSOC and to scope out their Spring/Summer line.
To purchase a mask through MacSOC for yourself and donate one to a person in need, contact MacSOC VP Adrien Lusterio at 289-838-2720 or at [email protected]; or contact MacSOC Co-president Duaa Yahya at [email protected].
MacSOC is also seeking donated sewing materials and sewers to join the mask-making effort.
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