It’s the pandemic reaching the world over and as Covid-19 continues to overwhelm cities and countries, the medical and economic ramifications grow to catastrophic levels. Many businesses from restaurants, to bars and beauty chains have shut their doors due to strict quarantine measures. It’s no secret that retail and fashion brands have also suffered immensely due to store closures and heavy loss of sales.
While other brands focus on other ventures, Kerby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss is using his platform (Instagram) to raise awareness for two initiatives.
- “Helping healthcare professionals obtain proper medical equipment to treat patients such N95 Masks and Nitile Gloves.”
- “Supporting small business owners who are experiencing a sharp decline in business due to the spread of the virus and strict measures being taken to combat it.”
Many medical professionals on the front lines (including Jean-Raymond’s sister) reached out with an influx of messages stating they were facing huge shortages of gloves and masks in order to treat patients safely. From this, Jean-Raymond immediately converted the Pyer Moss head office in NYC into a donation centre for these items. Stating last week, he set aside $5,000 to procure N95 masks and Nitrile gloves which quickly grew to now $10,000. From these combined efforts of sourcing and donations, Jean-Raymond was able to obtain over 7300 masks and over 1000 units of gloves for healthcare professionals (while using recommended hygiene and social distancing measures to receive and redstributethe items).
For the second initiative Jean-Raymond set aside $50,000 for minority and women owned small creative businesses who are currently in distress due to Covid-19. "If you cannot make payroll or cannot cover pressing costs to keep your business afloat, please reach out.” This rapidly grew to now $100,000 in just one week with the help of American businesswoman Jennifer Rubio. Taking to Instagram, Jean-Raymond stated they have “donated over $78,000 so far to 38 businesses including 7 fashion brands, 3 health and beauty brands, 2 wellness studios, 5 cafes and restaurants, 3 childhood education initiatives, 2 concept stores and more community focused creative businesses.”
While the battle with Covid-19 is far from over, it’s initiatives like this from brands like Pyer Moss (who have the funds and capability to do so) that are creating much needed relief and hope to those in need during these trying times. Prada have also announced they will be manufacturing 80,000 medical overalls and 110,000 medical masks for healthcare professionals to aid Italy during the pandemic. Join the fight.
