Long an everyday sight in Asian cities, face masks have only now begun to become familiar in Western urban centres. Filipino filmmaker Khavn de la Cruz even wore one on the red carpet at the awards ceremony of the recent Berlinale film festival.
Meanwhile American model Bella Hadid recently posted a picture of herself on Instagram wearing a face mask on an airplane, as has her compatriot Gwyneth Paltrow.
"I've already been in this movie," wrote the actress, who appeared in the 2011 film Contagion about a quick-spreading pandemic. "Stay safe. Don't shake hands. Wash hands frequently."
Paltrow ended her post with a yellow emoji wearing a face mask, which no doubt is making up ground fast in the running for most popular emoji of the year.
As the Berlin-based art and lifestyle magazine Monopol notes, the "viral trend" of face masks isn't entirely new. It points, for example, to French fashion designer Marine Serre, who incorporated face masks into her autumn/winter 2019 collection.
The magazine says the "apocalyptic prevailing mood in recent years" may be why face masks appeared on the Western fashion scene before the spread of Covid-19.
At this year's Paris Fashion Week, Serre showcased a range of designer face masks.
Resting Risk Face, a design firm in San Francisco that says it makes "trendy dystopian products", is advertising surgical masks custom-printed with your face on them, supposedly enabling you to unlock your phone with facial recognition technology without having to remove the mask.
"Is this a joke?" the company asks on its website, answering,"Yes. No. We're not sure. Viruses are not a joke."
Experts say there's no reason for healthy people to wear face masks in public, and that many of the masks provide little protection from airborne viruses anyway. Nevertheless, they're a common sight throughout Asia, and not only in China. In fact, they're being snatched up so fast by the fearful that they're now in short supply in many places.
In metropolises such as Bangkok, face masks were widespread well before the new coronavirus showed up – as protection against air pollution and foul-smelling filth.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, many more people wearing face masks can be seen on the streets of the Thai capital. Businesses struggling to keep up with demand are awaiting delivery of new orders, and street vendors are trying to cash in too.
They're not only selling medical face masks, but also ones made of cloth, in pink, and with camouflage, owl or Hello Kitty patterns. – dpa
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