Convenient drop-down respirator

A respirator (15) has a harness (10) that allows the respirator body (20) to be conveniently disposed beneath a wearer's chin when not in use. The harness (10) includes a substantially flat, flexible strap (14) and an element (12) that contains a curved elongated slot (16). The substantially flat, flexible strap (14) is threaded through the curved elongated slot (16). The curved configuration of the slot (16) causes the flat flexible strap (14) to be deformed to assume the curved configuration of the slot. This deformation of the strap (14) allows the strap (14) to frictionally engage element (12), and the frictional engagement allows the respirator body (20) to be incrementally withdrawn from the wearer's face so that it can be temporarily stored beneath the wearer's chin, and allows the respirator body (20) to be conveniently repositioned over the nose and mouth of the wearer by simply pulling on free ends (34) of each strap (14) and joining a buckle (32) behind the wearer's neck.