DUBAI: Since the outbreak of coronavirus at the end of 2019, international and regional companies, including Prada, Gucci and Sarah’s Bag, have all joined the fight against the infectious disease.
Ana Khouri
The Brazilian-Lebanese jeweler decided to create a sapphire version of her signature Mirian ring and donate 100% of the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders. The ring sold to an anonymous buyer for $7,074 after only a few days on Khouri’s website.
Sarah’s Bag
Lebanese designer Sarah Beydoun will be donating a food box via the Lebanese Food Bank for every bag purchased through her label Sarah’s Bag.
Ahlem
LA-based Tunisian eyewear designer Ahlem Manai Platt has pledged to donate 25% of every pair of Ahlem sunglasses purchased to No Kid Hungry, an American non-profit organization working to fight child hunger and poverty in the United States.
PrettyLittleThing
PrettyLittleThing CEO, Umar Kamani revealed in an Instagram Live that he would be donating his March salary to a number of small businesses who were struggling throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
Burberry
The British heritage brand has committed to funding research for a single-dose vaccine, currently underway at the University of Oxford. “The university has one of the world’s best track records in emergency vaccine development, and its COVID-19 vaccine is on course to begin human trials next month,” reads a post on the house’s Instagram page.
Ralph Lauren
The Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation has pledged $10 million across several different aid initiatives.
Hugo Boss
The brand announced they are producing 180,000 non-clinical masks at their production site in Metzingen, Germany.
Prada
The Italian luxury label started producing 80,000 medical overalls and 110,000 masks in its Montone factory, which will be allocated to healthcare personnel, following a request from the Tuscany Region.
Gucci
Gucci has donated $1.8 million to be split between the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and the Italian Civil Protection Department, while the label’s CEO, Marco Bizzarri, has also personally donated over $105,000 to some of the worst-affected hospitals in the region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
Valentino
The Italian label announced that its non-profit arm, the Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti Foundation, will donate $1.1 million to benefit the new Columbus Covid 2 Hospital, a new area dedicated to COVID-19 cases at Rome's Agostino Gemelli University Policlinic.
Giorgio Armani
After pledging to donate $1.4 million to Italy’s Civil Protection and a range of Italian hospitals and institutions in the country, The Armani Group has also converted all its four Italian production sites to produce single-use medical overalls for the individual protection of health-care providers fighting the coronavirus.
Mango
The Spanish retailer will donate two million face masks within the next few days to help the medical personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using its own logistics system, Mango will distribute the two million face masks among various Spanish hospitals, many of which are experiencing shortages of essential medical supplies in order to carry out assisting infected patients.
Bvlgari
Bvlgari announced that it will manufacture thousands of hand sanitizers to be distributed to medical facilities throughout Italy. The hand gels will be created in 75ml recyclable bottles with plans to produce more in the upcoming months.
Christian Siriano
After New York governer Andrew Cuomo revealed that the city is facing a surgical mask shortage, designer Christian Siriano offered his team's help to produce supplies. "If @NYGovCuomo says we need masks my team will help make some," he tweeted, tagging New York governor Andrew Cuomo. "I have a full sewing team still on staff working from home that can help."
H&M Group
Stockholm-based H&M Group announced that it is are arranging for its supply chain to start producing protective equipment to be provided to hospitals and health care workers to help tackle the spread of the infectious disease. The group will use its supply chain capacity in order to start delivering supplies to affected countries and communities around the world.
LVMH Group
In addition to using its French cosmetics factories to manufacture hand sanitizers for French hospital workers, the luxury conglomerate has ordered 40 million health masks from a Chinese supplier to help France cope with the coronavirus outbreak.
