With millions of Chinese forced to wear the protective gear, Chinese designers decided to turn the glum-looking face mask into fashion items.

Chinese designer Masha Ma included Swarovski crystals in her collection, which were modeled in October at the 2014 Paris Fashion Week, reports ThinkProgress. Ma paired the stylish face masks with quilted bomber jackets and modern separates.

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Ma's creations could be found in Yoox, a luxury e-commerce portal that is part of a green initiative called Yooxygen. Besides Ma, other Chinese designers whose designer masks are featured in Yoox are SANKUANZ, Qiu Hao and Xander Zhou.

The release of the fashionable face mask is timely because Beijing's air pollution warning was raised on Oct. 10 to orange from yellow, with pollution levels exceeding 20 times the recommended limits. The Air Quality Index in the capital city peaked at 470 at 4 p.m. of Oct. 10. An index higher than 300 is classified severe pollution. Outside Beijing, Hebei Province registered PM2.5 particles higher than 500 micrograms per cubic meter.

The China Fashion Week was held while Beijing hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to be attended by global leaders such as U.S. President Barack Obama.

To curb pollution, Beijing and nearby Chinese provinces ordered the closure of factories for 12 days and schools for one week, and for vehicles to stay off the road, according to Washington Post.

The capitol city's record-high air pollution readings also made foreign participant at the recent Beijing International Marathon include face masks and sponges as part of their running attires.

Since pollution levels are also rising in other global cities, other companies such as Vogmask and Respro feature functional fashion with urban sportsmen as their target market. The idea has spread in other areas such as China and Singapore where the need for protective gear is strongly felt.

In March, cosmetic giant Max Factor was the sponsor of a photo contest among Sina Weibo members with selfies of themselves wearing eye makeup while donning a face mask as the requirement. The online competition got more than 33,000 entries.

Wearing face masks is a must for Chinese urban residents since 15 percent of deaths in China in 2010 or 1.2 million premature deaths in the Asian giant were due to air pollution, according to a 2013 World Health Organization report.

Tagsface mask, Beijing Pollution, china fashion week