Protective masks setting new trend at Hong Kong Fashion Week

Models show off the future looking garments designed by Nina Griffee for Hong Kong Fashion Week. [Photo: hktdc.com]

This year's Hong Kong fashion week is underway, with the latest spring and summer collections on display.

One of the collections inspired by Beijing is designed to try to make breathing cleaner air more trendy.

CRI's Alexander Aucott explains.

"I have been making a collection that is inspired by Beijing and so i wanted to incorporate the masks as at the moment pollution is something that everyone is tacking. And so i approached a company called Vog mask as I wanted to put a nice mask into the designs I didn't just sew in some mask from some supermarket or something like that."

Nina Griffee is a Hong Kong based fashion designer and artist who spent five years living in the Chinese capital.

Inspired by the city where she believes that people are not reticent to try something new, she came up with the idea to renovate the concept of masks.

"If Anything it's like wearing a hat or a scarf or a pear of earrings. You know a lot of people say to me 'isn't it terrible having to wear a mask?' and I say well it's like with everything if you choose to enjoy it you know it can be fine. You can wear you clothes to match it and look like a ninja sometimes."

Some of her designs are quite simple with patterns such as snake fangs, or a gas mask drawn on the front.

Others might attach into other garments such as ponchos or shawls to make more of a simple and subtle fashion statement and help you create an outfit based on the garment

While other designs are pure art and a bit off the wall but should create a lot of buzz around the collection.

It's all good and well having the designs looking great but how well do they actually function?

Chris Dobbing, Vog Masks representative in Beijing, certainly has his confidence on that.

"A lot of people will buy a mask because they like the look of it without actually doing the research to make sure it functions well. We filter out 99.87 percent of particles down to PM 1. So we filter a very high percentage of a very very small particle and it works very very effectively."

The masks are already for sale in some hospitals and international schools here in Beijing.

And if interested, you can try them on at the Hong Kong Fashion Week.

And just as Linda Li, who has been working with Nina says, the collection is about more than just fashion.

"Beijing I think is a place where you can experiment with a lot of things and a place where you can make statements as well. This is not just about fashion it's also a health statement so if being healthy is fashionable then why not make that a fashion statement?"