Staying fashionable is always safe.

Just half a year ago even the most talented designers wouldn’t be able to predict that the main accessory of 2020, through who knows when, would become a face mask. Covering half of the face was not in anybody’s plans. The accessory that gives you so much discomfort – not showing your lips anymore, not being able to wear lipstick, not to mention how unpleasant it is to breathe. Part of me wonders if face masks will significantly affect lipstick sales...

Suddenly we got very creative about face masks. No one’s wearing regular blue, medical, paper masks anymore. Instead we see all sorts of colors, shapes, writing, and prints. I even came across the world’s first fully transparent face mask. Looks a little strange, but something tells me we will get used to it, as we get used to everything that’s been brought to us by current circumstances.

There is another dilemma: matching mask colors with outfits. The dressier you get, the harder it becomes. It’s no less important than your shoes or purse. It may even be more important, as it’s right on your face. Since the face mask is the newest edition to everybody’s accessory list, I doubt that many people have a large variety of them. Does that mean that we should assemble the whole outfit around it? Should the color of the mask be the essential piece and the rest of the look shift according to its demand? For example, I’m a person who spends a little more time on the wardrobe then a lot of people I know. This morning I pulled out my white blouse with huge, red and green flowers and matched them with my black, flared jeans. But I remembered, I did not have a mask that would go with this outfit. Therefore, I had to reconsider what to put on today. The fact that we should wash our face masks after each wearing makes it so much harder. We might even have the color we need, but most of the time, it probably is not clean or dry.

Before we all started covering our faces, my main accessory was earrings. Now I feel like my ears are too busy already. They have to hold the straps of my face mask, the temples of my sunglasses, plus my earrings? Meanwhile they serve their main duty… It’s a little too much for these tiny body parts!

With no vaccine, and this new virus remaining so mysterious, I think face masks will stick around for a while (hopefully not forever). That probably means that we should stock up our closets with masks. With different colors and patterns, shapes and prints, check out Pandemonium's variety of facemasks. That way, we’ll be ready for all the possible assembly and combinations. Staying healthy should not exclude staying stylish.

- Natia Makatsaria