Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdown had left fashion designers like Melinda Looi and Khoon Hooi in a bit of a spot as orders were cancelled and demand for new apparel fell drastically. Despite the gloom, Looi felt the need to turn this into something positive—and that was by harnessing her skill as a garment-maker to produce PPE gear for medical frontliners. However, she knew she couldn't possibly do much on her own.
As president of the Malaysia Official Designers Association (MODA), she rallied a community of designers to volunteer their services. Combining forces, they managed to raise enough money to buy the first sets of material for the PPEs—MODA eventually raised RM700,000 for this purpose.