Australian sleepwear brand Papinelle sold out of its silk facemasks in a matter of hours after restocking them yesterday, the brand has told Ragtrader.
Launching and selling out of the silk masks in April during the height of the first wave, the brand has been inundated with requests for a restock, especially since masks will be required in metro Melbourne and Mitchell Shire from 11.59pm Wednesday.
Restocking the masks on 20 July with 150 on pre-order, the brand sold out of the silk masks in four hours and 40 minutes.
Papinelle founder Renae James said that some customers are ordering multiple masks in one order.
"When we decided to make face masks at the beginning of the pandemic, we were conscious not to make anything medical-grade, as we did not want to take away from the resources that were needed for medical face masks.
"We've had hundreds of emails of customers asking to be informed of when we would restock, and we reached out to them once they were back online as a pre-order.
"We also posted on our IG to let our followers know.
"We have noticed that some customers have purchased one mask per order, whereas others have ordered up to four in one order," she said.
Unsurprisingly, given the state of COVID-19 cases across the country, 60.5% of the brand's site traffic is coming from Victoria, followed by NSW at 34.7%.
Masks are also driving interest from new customers, with the split between returning and new at 87.75% first-time customers and 12.25% returning.
James added that the brand initially introduced the masks thinking about when travel begins again.
"For us, it was about looking into the future when travel reopens.
"That's our main goal - we wanted to offer something for travel that's breathable, washable, biodegradable and falls into the loungewear category.
"We use our own factory to make our masks, with fabric remnants.
"We also popped a pocket at the front that allows for a single-use medical filter insert, should they become available later on. Plus the mask is washable and reusable," she said.
To keep up with demand, Papinelle is ordering the masks in blocks of 200 and offering consumers the option to pre-order the product.
Papinelle has masks available in black and pink.
Each mask retails for $39.95.