German jewellery designer Saskia Diez has created face masks with detachable chains plated in silver and gold.
Diez told Dezeen she hoped the design would make the devices, which have become mandatory in many situations due to the coronavirus pandemic, feel "less medical".
"It feels more like wearing an accessory than something you're being forced to wear," she told Dezeen.
The Munich-based designer produced the first batch of lightweight cotton masks with 50-centimetre-long metal or nylon chains that allow them to be worn like a necklace for her store in April, before publicising the products on her website and Instagram account in May.

However, with designers rushing to put their own spin on face masks, covers with chain-link attachments have proved controversial. In an Instagram post by fashion watchdog Diet Prada, clothing seller We Wore What was called out for allegedly copying the design from fellow New York brand Second Wind. After By Second Wind had launched its own chained masks in June, We Wore What direct messaged the brand asking for a mask, only to launch chained masks with a very similar design soon after being gifted it in July.
Diez believes she was the first to launch chained masks in April this year, but sees the addition of chains to face masks as a natural progression from the chains used to hold reading glasses.

"The date I made them and launched them was clearly before these two brands, and I did not see anyone else doing an...