Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Many people behind-the-scenes at KPCC have been feeling under the weather, lately. It's not pretty seeing hacking coworkers through the cubicle slats.
But designers are finding ways to turn germs into fashion gems.
Flu- and cold-fighting clothes are hitting the market, says Fashion Trends Daily's Michelle Dalton Tyree.
The Germinator jacket, for example, by Betabrand and Gravity Tank, includes anti-microbial fabric on the collar, cuffs that can wrap around your hands to prevent contamination and more.
"It was based on observations that the team at Gravity Tank saw about how hard it was to protect yourself on public transportation the moment someone sneezes," she says. But she adds, "I wondered how much of this is a gimmick and how much of this is based on science."
Tyree found out that one of the developers of the jacket Amy Seng from the firm Gravity Tank had ties with Mayo Clinic, and has also been working with other doctors who say they'd love to see their scrubs outfitted with this anti-microbial fabric, too.
This jacket isn't the only one of its kind out there, either.
Out of Brooklyn is the Scough.
"Think of the Scough as like a fashionable cross between a face mask and a scarf," she says.
Hidden inside the fabric is a filter designed to trap, neutralize and kill germs.
Tyree says it's probably the closest Americans might get to the Japanese practice — and sometimes fashion statement — of wearing surgical masks.
"It's odd for Westerners, so it's kind of a way to have a little bit of both."