From Kim Kardashian and Lady Gaga, to Versace, Prada and Armani – how much are luxury brands donating to help fight coronavirus?
Sales may be suffering due to Covid-19 but luxury and celebrity brands are digging deep to help fight the virus
Just like the rest of us, luxury brands are feeling the effects of the coronavirus pandemic with many of their stores closed around the world. But they have also been generous in their contributions towards the fight against the virus. Luxury brands leapt into the fray early, donating to efforts to contain and treat the virus when it first emerged in China.
Now that the panic over the virus’s spread has gone global, to the places where many of these brands are based, the number of brands pitching in has grown. Here are some of the high-profile donors.
Many of the biggest donations have been in Italy, which has overtaken China as the country to suffer the most coronavirus deaths. Number one in terms of generosity is the French-born, Italian-based outdoor wear brand Moncler, which has its headquarters in Milan, the epicentre of virus in Europe. It has given 10 million euros (US$11.07 million) towards the construction of a new hospital housing 400 intensive care beds.
Gucci, meanwhile, has donated 1 million euros to Italy’s National Civil Protection Department through a crowdfunding platform established by banking group Intesa Sanpaolo, to support health services and in particular the creation of new intensive care beds, and has also given 1 million euros to the United Nations Foundation’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund; while Marco Bizzarri, the chief executive of the company, has also dug into his own pocket to hand 100,000 euros to hospitals in the badly hit Emilia-Romagna region.
Italian fashion business mogul Giorgio Armani has given 1.25 million euros to four Italian hospitals and the country’s Civil Protection Agency, and has added another action to use all of its Italian plants to manufacture single-use medical overalls. Donatella Versace and her daughter Allegra have donated 200,000 euros to Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital, and the Carla Fendi Foundation, the philanthropy institution of the president of Fendi, has given 100,000 euros to Rome’s Presidio Sanitario Columbus Hospital.
Shoemaker Sergio Rossi has donated 100,000 euros plus all profits from online sales profits between March 14 and 20 to ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco Hospital in Milan; and sportswear brand Colmar has handed 100,000 euros to San Gerardo Hospital in Monza, near Milan.