KOCHI: With the outbreak of Covid-19, masks have become an inevitable part of our life. Innovatively designed masks have many takers in the market. For Sreeja Shinu, a fashion designer based in Thiruvananthapuram, producing designer masks has been more of professional satisfaction than a source of income during the period.
“My shop opened last month. We had a lot of cut cloth pieces left. So I thought of converting them into masks. Those cloth pieces were effectively made into attractive designer masks,” says Sreeja. She has since then sold around 500 masks.
The masks are priced from Rs 35 and go upto Rs 150-175. Her regular customers started coming in for the masks after she started posting about them on social media. “Once the designer mask became a hit, people started asking to do embroidery works on it. I have a worker from Kolkata who does handwork and I guided him to do some embroidery as well. Those became very popular too,” adds Sreeja.
She believes that masks have become a part of our daily wear and this will continue for atleast a year. “A family of four or five members buys around 20-30 masks. Though marriages are being conducted with only limited people, the brides still opt for attractive designer sarees and like to have matching, handworked masks.
The sale of masks will bring a good revenue for designers and other merchants this year.” She is also getting orders from bank employees and churches. “I designed a mask for the director of health services. That got noticed and I got many enquiries.”
Though the masks are trending in the market, she doesn’t believe in putting a heavy price on them. “All people are facing a crisis. I need to pay my employees, which I’m able to, with the sale of masks. I believe the reasonable pricing of my masks have made them popular,” says Sreeja.