Bernstein concluded, “Wearing a mask is so important right now. I definitely encourage you guys to check out her brand, too. My goal has and always will be to help as many small businesses as possible. That’s why I created WeGaveWhat and we’ll just continue to do so.”
WeGaveWhat is a platform the WeWoreWhat team launched in late April ”to support charitable initiatives and raise awareness for small businesses,” its Instagram account description reads.
As she had mentioned, Bernstein also later shared on her Instagram Story several other brands selling versions of masks with chains.
Later Tuesday, she addressed the public again via her Instagram Story. “This has gotten a bit out of hand because I’m now getting death threats, which is really scary and not cool, and so I wanted to let you know that I started the process of creating masks on May 19 and I’m gonna share the email that proves that,” she said. Second Wind had reached out to me three times in June before we actually got in touch on June 29. I really love her masks and think you guys should still support her.”
“A chain on a mask is not an original concept and I’ve never claimed for that to be my own,” she continued. “I think that the point of all of this is that we’re still in a pandemic and we’ve created these masks to not only protect ourselves, but others around us and we can’t lose sight of that.”
Following the new statement, she posted a screenshot of an email chain, which featured the date May 19, 2020 and the subject line “Re: Linen Masks.” A PDF file was also included, showing white, beige and black mask design mock-ups with both gold and silver chain options.