Waltham Designer Trades Wedding Dresses For Hospital Masks

Waltham-based fashion designer David Josef creates wedding dresses and gowns for Broadway glitterati. Now, he's making face masks.

Last month, he and husband Daniel Forrester turned Josef's studio into a mass production line for the masks, which are donated to medical facilities, nursing homes and front line workers.

"I thought, hysterically, we'd bang out a couple hundred and be done," he said. "Now three weeks later, seven days a week, eight hours a day, we’re still doing it and we’re a little over 2000 masks that we’ve made and shipped."

Josef also used social media to show how he creates his masks, and to teach others how to make their own. He said the process can be monotonous, but he will not stop working.

"This truly is a roller coaster ride of emotions," Josef said of the joy of getting masks to people, and the sorrow of not making enough. "It’s on our shoulders. An overwhelming feeling of we’ve taken on the responsibility and we don’t want to let anyone down."

Josef spoke with WBUR All Things Considered's Lisa Mullins about his new operation.