The New York Times Style section just featured a story on masks popping up on the runway. They attributed this to the influence of Swine Flu (and maybe the fear of other pandemics) while the comments following the article attributed Comme des Garçons, Margiela and Junya Watanabe looks to everything from burkas to the horribly cold winter we just had. I was at a student Fashion show last week and one of the designers, Elizabeth Dran, also created a very chic masked outfit. She was influenced by underwater creatures when she created the two looks but when they came down the runway all I could think was that they looked like awfully stylish versions of the outfits so many Muslim women are forced to wear.