Haute couture gas masks

Gas masks have begun showing up on high fashion runways. A rhinestone one paraded down the runway at China Fashion Week in Beijing last March but it seemed to be a form of samizdat protest against the environmental disaster that is China. Is it possible riot cops are now the inspiration for haute couture? Or do these fashion houses know something we don’t? Are the rich preparing for nuclear Armageddon? Or does the stinky air just get to them too? (Photographer not identified)