Why a Wedding Dress Designer Created a New Ebola Suit

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A wedding dress designer is making her debut at New York fashion week today and her latest creation doesn't come with a veil.

It does, however, come with a face shield.

That's because Jill Andrews put her talents toward designing a better protective Ebola suit with a team at Johns Hopkins University.

"Its all engineering," Andrews said in a statement. "If you can build a bra, you can build a bridge."

JHU/Jhpiego/Clinvue

PHOTO: The current personal protective equipment is shown next to the new prototype Ebola protective suit in this infographic.

At its largest, the team had about 80 people, and worked since October to perfect the existing Ebola suit, said project manager Matthew Petney, who works at the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design. Although the suit is still a work in progress, Petney said he hopes it will save time, money and energy -- not to mention that it will better protect people working with patients.

The suit is one piece instead of five, and can be removed in less than five minutes instead of more than 20 minutes, according to an infographic from Johns Hopkins. Because of this and other features of the design, the new Ebola suit would have fewer contamination points.

Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News chief health and medical editor, donned full Ebola protective gear in September when he visited Liberia and became the first journalist to enter an Ebola ward. He said the suit was incredibly hot, limiting the amount of time doctors could spend with patients, and it was difficult to make eye contact with patients through the small eye opening. This new suit has a large face shield, he said.

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Why a Wedding Dress Designer Created a New Ebola Suit