Designer adds stylish masks to fashion work

Dallas-area fashion designer and Texarkana native Brandon Norman thought two weeks away from his day job might be relaxing, but now he's full-time busy making a hot commodity: masks.  (Submitted photo)
Dallas-area fashion designer and Texarkana native Brandon Norman thought two weeks away from his day job might be relaxing, but now he's full-time busy making a hot commodity: masks. (Submitted photo)

Dallas-area fashion designer and Texarkana native Brandon Norman thought two weeks away from his day job might be relaxing, but now he's full-time busy making a hot commodity: masks.

Norman works as an alterations specialist at Molly's Bridal Closet in downtown Dallas, but he also runs his own fashion business, Duhbuhlyoo, which focuses on custom formal wear like prom dresses.

Norman has long possessed artistic and design prowess, so he's putting that to use creating useful, fashionable cotton masks for anyone who wants to buy them, complete with unique designs, whether it's sports with a Dallas Cowboys theme or an African print theme or more.

In this time of the coronavirus pandemic, everyone from everyday people seeking to add a measure of protection to nurses on the front lines of critical care have purchased Norman's masks since he started making them this past Saturday.

The designer also aims to match these purchases by donating masks to a Texarkana organization needing help. He's not sure who that will be yet, but he's considering hospitals or local urgent care centers.

"Initially I wasn't planning on doing this," Norman admits, but a friend suggested he make a mask, post it online and see what happens. "Overnight I got like over 20 inquiries. They wanted masks in large numbers. It literally started Saturday. It hasn't even been a week yet."

On average, he receives five to 10 requests per hour, and since he started he's made between 350 to 400 masks. Buyers hail from across the country, including pandemic hot spots.

"I had people buy from New York and Brooklyn and the Bronx. And I shipped off yesterday to Oakland, California. I had three in L.A. and I am talking to a lady in Nebraska at a hospital. She's talking to her manager, seeing if she can get a large shipment to Nebraska's hospitals," Norman said.

Some buyers are people who want a small measure of protection. A Texas police officer reached out about getting masks for the department. He's not promoting these masks as something to save the wearer from the coronavirus.

"I'm just doing something stylish to keep you safe, a little bit," Norman said.

His job let workers go home for two weeks, and the next day he started. "Since then it's been keeping me busy," he said. He thought the time off might help him prepare for prom season, but no such luck. Those dresses are largely on hold now.

"This has been the busiest I think I've ever been," Norman said. No down time for him.

As for those prom dresses, that's an uncertain situation, he said. He did one for a March prom. Some proms are canceled, while others are up in the air. "It's a weird situation right now," Norman said. As for dress making, he'll be going into his third official year of the work.

Mask orders range from two or three to 10 or a dozen or more. Some customers are particular about what they want, but he has to work with what he finds with materials and resources. He's limited in a pandemic. The mask's outer layer is regular cotton, and for the inner layer primarily he uses a fusible middleweight fabric that acts as something of a stabilizer.

"It's the closest to get to the N95 to be safe to use," Norman said. The inner layer acts as filtration fabric. His masks are washable.

Norman's been getting the word out via Facebook. He has two pages under the names Be Norman (his personal account) and Duhbuhlyoo (his fashion business account).

Masks sell as follows: one for $15, two for $20 and three for $25 with anything more at $9 each. Orders can be placed via his email, [email protected].

He'll be matching the mask sales with a donation. He'd like to hear from an organization here in Texarkana that may need masks donated. "I feel like the masks are more beneficial than money, at this point," Norman said.

 

(More info: [email protected]. Or find Brandon Norman's personal or business pages on Facebook, names noted above.)

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