By NAOKO KAWAMURA/ Staff Writer
May 18, 2020 at 17:19 JST
A worker stretches her neck for a moment while she continues sewing blue laminated nonwoven medical gowns without taking a break on May 12 in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward. (Naoko Kawamura)
Dozens of skilled seamstresses in Tokyo who normally would be turning out creations for the Paris Collections are now sewing gowns for health care workers battling the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The gowns are in short supply at medical institutions due to the pandemic. At Fashion Shiraishi, a sewing company in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward, all its approximately 30 workers are now making about 800 nonwoven cloth medical gowns a day using sewing machines.
Masahiro Shiraishi, 58, who heads the company, has been working to deliver the gowns to the government since he returned to Japan in early March from a business trip to see the Paris Collection.
Shiraishi also serves as the vice-chair of the Federation of Japan Sewing Industry Association, which comprises about 150 small and midsize sewing factories.
After the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry asked the association to sew the gowns, about 45,000 were completed by the end of April. The association is aiming to deliver some 1.4 million gowns by the end of September.
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