Q&A: #WRECares Partners with Siren Swimwear to Donate Face Masks

Miami, FL – April 17, 2020 –  #WRECares is proud to partner with Kat Palumbo, founder of Siren Swimwear. Kat has shifted her swimwear business to create face masks for frontline workers.

New York native Kat Palumbo her business after living in the Florida Keys in her early twenties and living a lifestyle that tends to be more underwater than on land. Kat was having a hard time finding extremely stylish and sexy bikinis that caters to my New York sense of style, as a result she wanted to make high fashion swimwear. At the age of 24 years-old Siren Swimwear was born. Five years later and her brand has become a boutique brand among bikini collectors, with one of a kind pieces that are not for the faint of heart. Her passion for bikinis stems from her obsession with the ocean. Palumbo’s company hopes to continue to do work with charities for all sorts of causes, but especially ocean conservation and shark conservation.

Read the full Q&A below about how Kat Palumbo is helping fight COVID-19.

WRE: How did you get connected with #WRECares?

Kat Palumbo: I followed WRE on Instagram and with my resources to manufacture masks I saw they were accepting donations and my partner Martha Aponte and I decided to donate a bulk of our masks to the cause to help our city. WRE is a great presence in our community and we trusted that they would help us place these masks to the right institutions and individuals.

WRE: How is your company helping to fight COVID-19?

KP: We are donating masks to WRE to donate to places in our community. We are also helping our friends and family during this time by providing masks for them. Most of my family is in New York and on Long Island where it has been hit the hardest.

WRE: Why did you want to get involved? 

KP: I love being a part of a cause and helping people. I also was very passionate about protecting our city of Miami Beach during this time because of the fear and helplessness of the people. If I can help our community feel safer I will make it my objective to do so. Its more important than bikinis at this time- and to say that in Miami means you know we need some help! donate to places in our community. We are also helping our friends and family during this time by providing masks for them. Most of my family is in New York and on Long Island where it has been hit the hardest.

If I can help our community feel safer I will make it my objective to do so. Its more important than bikinis at this time- and to say that in Miami means you know we need some help!

Kat Palumbo

WRE: How were you able to involve your industry in the making of masks?

KP: We have the resources, seamstresses, a factory, thread, elastic, fabric etc, so it felt like our duty to switch from bikinis to masks. Life is about adaptation and with manufacturing you need to cater to the people when their needs change and I think that we saw we could do it and we went all in. Now we are only manufacturing masks and no bikinis at this time.

WRE: What resources do you need to help increase your production of masks? 

KP: Elastic! Elastic around the country and the world is becoming a finite resource for PPE and we are learning that materials that once were easy to access, are now becoming as valuable as gold. Ofcourse the donations to pay the seamstresses has been keeping our mask donations going and allowing us to donate a lot more. So far we have donated around 300 masks and we plan to donate about 250 more this week. In retrospect, this has been quite the experience for all of us as humans, to adapt and to turn on our survival skills, but most importantly what I learned during this time is that we all have a deeper level of compassion than any of us knew we had. People are helping each other in any way they can, and we are trying to protect each other, even strangers. I have to admit I am excited to go back to making bikinis though! Then we know the beaches are finally open 🙂