Amid pandemic, silk face masks you can wash 200 times protect wearer and the environment

Fashion designer Kathrin von Rechenberg came up with the masks when there was a shortage of surgical ones in Beijing, her base, because of coronavirus pandemic

Made from ancient tea silk fabric in which she specialises, they protect against pollution and are ideal for accessorising surgical face masks, she suggests

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A woman wears a Kathrin von Rechenberg tea silk face mask in Beijing. The German fashion designer who is based in the Chinese capital used up scraps of silk from her studio making masks at a time when they were in short supply.

Published: 7:15am, 20 Mar 2020Updated: 7:31am, 20 Mar 2020

As a global shortage of face masks hinders the fight against coronavirus, one Beijing-based fashion designer is helping her clients keep their faces covered – with tea silk.

Kathrin von Rechenberg has made her career in the Chinese capital creating contemporary couture clothing using this rust-coloured traditional cloth produced in Guangdong province in southern China that is dyed with yams native to the region.

Like many others in Beijing, Rechenberg returned to the capital from Europe in mid-February facing a mass quarantine to combat the coronavirus outbreak. As her studio near the Forbidden City has been closed to customers over the course of the epidemic, she opted to shift gears from her normal slow-fashion model to create 500 tea silk face masks in just three weeks.

“It’s the first time we produced such a quantity of something – usually I am against mass production,” Rechenberg told the Post.

The tea silk masks are made from leftover tea silk scraps in designer von Rechenberg’s Beijing studio.

The rush came as masks became increasingly difficult to get in China’s capital, which prompted severe rationing among health care workers and consumers, and saw businesses such as Apple iPhone assembler Foxconn producing face masks for its own workers.