CoutureMask takes Chelsea by storm

"My inspiration is always cohesiveness and a full show of garments and masks. I honestly don't really think about what I'm making before hand," says Bradley Douglas Jordan, the designer behind CoutureMask. "I just get to work and start drafting patterns when a show is on the horizon."

This might seem a very unconventional approach compared to most designers who go on entire journeys, literally and spiritually, to find inspiration for their latest collection, but Jordan prides himself in the unconventional.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not have a formal design education. His passion when he first started designing clothes was snowboarding, and he started making clothes for himself because everything he bought kept ripping. His sewing knowledge came from childhood summers spent with his grandmother.

Last week, he held a fashion show at the Church of Holy Apostles in New York's Chelsea neighborhood. The church is a space used by TheSet, an organization that hosts numerous art gatherings to showcase to the public while staying within a small budget. The architecture and ambiance offered a welcome attribute that is often hard to find for spaces in New York City.

Bradley Douglas Jordan presents CoutureMask show in Chelsea

Jordan took an avant garde approach to the collection and a unique approach to menswear with looks that included pieces like a plastic see-through shirt, the now trendy man romper and even dresses for men.

In the age of breaking gender barriers, Jordan has no fear or traditional conventions about what men should and shouldn't be wearing. Fashion is for everyone, it has no gender.

Every single look featured one of his signature masks, because as he says, "Masks have been integrated in our lives since the beginning of time. There is a special place in all of our wardrobes for a mask (or two), just depends on whether the individual has the confidence to put on a mask or a mask gives the person confidence in public."

Overall, the pieces all came together well, and showed us the beauty of breaking down both gender barriers along with the power of masking.

Images: FashionUnited