It’s not often that a new fashion accessory comes along. You’d think we’d be thrilled. But let’s be honest here: nobody loves masks. We wear them out of a sense of personal caution, civic responsibility, even peer pressure, signaling our identity as members of larger communities that share a small world. We wear them because we can’t live alone. Most of us have gotten the memo at this point, and we’ve accepted mask-wearing as a fact of life for the foreseeable future. This doesn’t mean, however, that any old mask will do. 

There’s certainly never been a more prominent accessory. To anyone you meet on the street, anything else you’re wearing is an afterthought by comparison. Our faces are ourselves, and six months into the pandemic, more and more of us are upping our mask game, trading in universal blue or white disposables for something a bit more personal.

The most common retail mask is all business: cheap, practical, tactical black. This is something of a war, after all. Many of us, however, are looking for something a bit more...expressive. Maybe even something that smiles a bit for us, flashing some of the charm or whimsy or dazzle that can be hard to muster in ourselves these days (and even harder to see in others). 

This latter type are the masks we like at New & Lingwood, and the ones we make. We were haberdashers before we were anything else, specialising in the elegant little bits of attire that make the whole, and for decades now we’ve been known for bold colours and patterns that brighten the greyest days. Our masks are made of the same fine cottons and silks as our shirts and dressing gowns -- lightweight, lustrous and breathable -- and that kind of quality really counts when it’s up THIS close and personal. 

In this single instance, we make no claim of timeless style. Indeed, we hope these things go out of fashion as soon as possible.