An Melbourne upmarket knitwear company is in overdrive producing masks for corporate and government clients.

“The take-up rate has been incredible,” she said, adding there have been some amusing fashion surprises, such as the Southern Metropolitan Cemetery Trust asking for 1000 masks in “any dark colour but black” for its staff to wear. They went with navy and charcoal.
“The Department of Defence ordered 5000 masks in navy cotton, which we call the ‘aspiration’ range,” she said. Navy is overwhelmingly the most popular colour, particularly for corporates, which never order a pattern. Other ranges are called “courageous”, “valiant”, “intrepid”, “hero” and “brave”.
A jungle print mask by Fella Hamilton is also proving popular, while homemakers tend to opt for a “pretty flowers” pattern.
“Corporates are always a mono colour, usually navy,” she said. A large media company, a university, and a hospital have all ordered navy blue.
One large building company, which Ms Hamilton declines to name, has ordered 500 face masks imprinted with its logo.
Meanwhile, the local Kingston City Council ordered 5000 water-resistant masks in sky blue and navy, while the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity ordered 2000 masks in pink, yellow and blue, (not for use in a medical capacity, but in staff communal areas).
In a feelgood story for Melbourne small businesses struggling under the weight of the six-week lockdown, Ms Hamilton has been able to provide jobs for luxury travel agent staff employed by her sister, Yvonne Verstandig, head of the leisure division of Executive Edge.
“Yvonne and I are very close and we talk all the time so I fully understood how decimated her industry has been,” Ms Hamilton said. “Yvonne loves her team and they are amazing, dedicated workers. She was concerned they are on JobKeeper without much work and I said, ‘well we are so busy we need more staff to cope with all the orders’.
“The skills set has a lot of overlap, given my ladies are mainly helping out with customer service, packing and sorting out orders,” said Mrs Verstandig. “They are all hard workers and even though it’s a bit different to what they’re used to, they love it, as it’s such meaningful work in these terrible times.”
Given most travel advisers and agents are now processing cancellations and postponed travel plans, it has a more immediate, positive bent.
“It’s really put a spring in all our steps,” said Mrs Verstandig. “It means we can all still go to work and it’s keeping us connected.”