In the fight against coronavirus, the Herms scarf becomes an improbable weapon

Online shopping of silk scarves to tie around my face until the end, tweeted artist Sam McKinniss last week. I just have to do it my way or not do it at all.

It turns out that his path is not only hers. While the White House has rotated to recommend that Americans cover their faces with masks with the addendum that one can be satisfied with a scarf, the silk scarf has emerged as a new defensive accessory, the genre a small glamorous gesture that boosts morale in times of crisis. RealReal shared with GQ that searches for silk scarves have represented a larger share of global searches on the luxury resale site since early March. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, released their revised guidelines that Americans should wear cloth masks on April 3, all scarves increased by 4.8 times.

And not just any silk scarf: people go from ham to Herms scarves to realreal, observed Garage editor Laia Garcia on Twitter earlier this week. She was on something: during the week of March 22, searches for Herms silk scarves increased 1.3 times compared to all silk scarves, according to data from RealReals. The daily search volume for Herms scarves peaked a day after the CDC announcement. (When McKinniss then shared a selfie with one of his silk scarves, the Herms logo was on the front and center.)

The undisputed name in luxury silk scarves, the Herms scarf is an emblem of the unique approach of French houses to thoughtful and agnostic craftsmanship, with deep respect for its designer craftsmen. A new scarf retails for up to $ 420, but on The RealReal, lightly used models can be found for $ 275 (they range up to $ 2,800 for the Ex-Libris design with sand finishes). Earlier this year, they had become a key part of the new male movement that saw men dressing as wealthy older women.

The scarves embody the Hermss artisan workshop, which puts the name of the designer of scarves on each piece. The creators of Herms scarves can be found in places ranging from Poland to Japan, not to mention the sorting room of American post offices in Waco, Texas, reported Christina Binkley in a 2013 Wall Street newspaper story on the scarves. Binkley added a detail that fans of John Prine, the American songwriter (and former postman) who died earlier this week from complications from the coronavirus, will appreciate: Kermit Oliver, a longtime postal worker, designed more ‘a dozen Herms scarves. Oliver is the kind of Herms scarf designer who inspires a cult: in 2012, Texas monthly Oliver profile and scarves, including a design introduced in 1987 that commemorates the 150th anniversary of Texass with a huge and glorious turkey surrounded by the flora and fauna of the States.

And now, if you can’t sew or are wary of buying cotton masks, the Herms scarf is a glamorous substitute. This little Herms book on how to fold scarves into anything that doesn’t seem like such a silly thing to have kept in my collection, a woman said on Twitter, sharing a photo of her with a silk scarf tied around her nose and mouth. Those who set aside their scarf collections long ago are bring them still out, deploying widely disseminated instructions on using a bandana and elastic bands to make a mask at home.

But it’s not just the CDC guidelines that force Americans to hunt down silk scarves. Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, caught the eye of Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan, as good as on Twitter, for the seemingly endless wardrobe of silk scarves she wears at press conferences on coronaviruses, cleverly wrapping and tying them around her neck, tying them around her shoulders or simply wrapping them around her collar . On stage, between two walls of men in large suits, Birx is a vision of elegant know-how.

Herms has also proven itself as a model company for dealing with the economic fallout from the pandemic. While a number of companies, both in luxury and fast fashion, have laid off and laid off workers, Herms is committed maintain the base salaries of its 15,500 employees worldwide, in part by suppressing a dividend increase planned for shareholders and by renouncing the annual salary increases of CEO Henri-Louis Bauer and Axel Dumas. (The house also felt the human impact of the new coronavirus: its legendary designer of windows, Leila Menchari, died of the virus earlier this month.)

The silk scarf, as directed by the CDC, is a last resort to combat the spread of the virus. But in its unlikely way, it became a little comfort in the midst of the tragic disruption of daily life or at least a new obsession to dive in for all those hours inside.