Palisadians Shift Their Focus to Making Masks

The Palisadian-Post checked in with mask-making avenues to see how businesses and individuals are making and providing masks for locals and beyond.

City Threads

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Run by Highlands residents Joe Willis and Shayna Samuels, City Threads is a children’s clothing company that typically offers everything from swimwear to sensory friendly apparel for kids 0 through 16 years old. But recently, in response to COVID-19, they have switched to producing thousands of masks.

City Threads was founded by Samuels in 2001 while Willis was in graduate school at USC. When Samuels needed help with the growing company, Willis agreed to help for six months and “here we are,” he said with a laugh.

The two, who grew up on the Westside, were living in West Hollywood at the time.

“We started as a boutique brand,” Samuels explained. Now, the apparel is sold online through places like Amazon.

Their objective, the two shared, is to create items that boast a good quality and nice fabric, are super comfortable, and remain at a fair price point. And everything is made in Los Angeles.

In mid-March, when Safer at Home orders were put in place across the city, Samuels and Willis prepared to temporarily halt their business.

“The night we were put on lockdown, we were watching the news,” Willis explained. “It was tragic in New York because hospital workers were getting sick because they didn’t have protective gear. We were helpless and thought, like we all did, ‘How could this be happening?’ and wished there was something we could do to help besides just stay home and watch. Then literally the next scene on the news was the mayor asking for supplies and literally said, ‘If anyone has a sewing machine or makes clothes, start making masks.’”

The next day, the two worked morning until night with their pattern maker, who was happy to be doing something helpful, to come up with a design. They spent the day going back and forth, making samples and getting the fit right.

Usually it takes six months to a year for City Threads to design a new style, Samuels explained, but in this case, the mask was ready to go in a week and a half.

“One day later, the mayor of LA said that everybody needs to be wearing masks,” Willis shared.

The 100% cotton masks are reusable, washable and can be worn during everyday outings. They can be worn to visit essential businesses that require face coverings under Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Worker Protection Order, which went into effect Friday, April 10.

Willis estimated that City Threads has sold 4,000 to 5,000 masks, with another 13,000 launching within a week and 35,000 the next week. Offered in a full range of sizes, the masks are available in more than 15 colors and are $9.99 each.

“I feel like this pandemic and with the mayor, he’s been talking about how we have very good, strong manufacturing in LA and it’s kind of showing a positive light that we can do things, especially when we’re given the chance,” Samuels shared.

For more information or to order a mask, visit citythreads.com/face-masks.

Natalie Tirrell

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

Castellammare resident Natalie Tirrell was inspired to take action and make face masks for doctors’ offices and the community to protect them from COVID-19.

Tirrell explained that she has been following news of the virus since its outbreak in China. With past research experience at the Scripps Research Institute and in biochemistry, she shared that her thesis was on unknown viruses—the topic has always been a fascination for Tirrell.

“When I saw how quickly [the virus] was spreading and how it couldn’t be contained, I realized that masks were going to be very necessary,” Tirrell said to the Palisadian-Post.

Tirrell knits professionally for a shop in Brentwood and started creating a pattern weeks ago following CDC guidelines. She started by offering her prototypes to her doctor and their office.

Tirrell then turned to making some for the community in hopes of freeing up medical masks for those who are in dire need of them: doctors, nurses and medical staff.

Following that, Tirrell shared her efforts on Nextdoor and garnered additional support.

“I put a notice on the 19th that I’m making masks and had a pattern if anybody wanted to join,” Tirrell said. “Not physically, but virtually.”

Community members began offering fabric, elastic, shoe laces and eventually themselves. Tirrell shared that she received approximately 200 responses, and that there are now 28 others also making masks.

“It’s really a community effort, it’s not just me now, it started something,” Tirrell said.

For the masks, Tirrell uses fine, tightly woven cotton on the outside and flannel on the inside. She uses elastic for the straps around the ears, but recently, she has been working on masks for young children as well. The children’s masks instead have a tie, made with a shoelace, because their ears aren’t fully developed.

Tirrell has lived in the Palisades since 2005 and she said her efforts stem from a place of love for the community.

“I’ve lived all over the world—I’ve lived in Paris and Florence and on a Greek island—but this is my favorite place,” Tirrell said. “I adore it and that’s one of the reasons I want to get the community covered.”

Tirrell added that she would be happy to share her pattern with anybody else in the community who wishes to help. She would also benefit from donations of white thread and shoe laces. If community members have old cotton shirts to donate, she asks that they are washed, dried, ironed and cut into 9×6 rectangles.

To contact Tirrell about donations, email natalietirrell@gmail.com.

Traveler Surf Club

By JENNIKA INGRAM | Reporter

Co-owners of Traveler Surf Club Julie Cox and Rel Lavizzo-Mourey—along with a pattern designed by the store manager, Palisadian Stacy Johnson—are donating and selling masks to help with the COVID-19 pandemic.

To date, they have made more than 5,000 masks, of which they have donated about 2,500 to healthcare providers.

“We have kind of a one-to-one match essentially where people can buy masks and donate masks to healthcare providers for free,” Lavizzo-Mourey said to the Palisadian-Post.

Traveler Surf Club operates two locations: Malibu and Pacifica, in the San Francisco Bay area. For the past four years, the shop has focused on being a retail space with a little surf club for surfers to store their boards and shower, Lavizzo-Mourey explained.

That course changed around the middle of March in response to COVID-19.

“Now we’re transitioning into making face masks out of cloth material,” Lavizzo-Mourey said, “and that kind of came about maybe a week into the lockdown.”

After speaking to their friends who are doctors in different parts of the country, Lavizzo-Mourey explained they started to hear the news about how healthcare workers were having to reuse masks and personal protective equipment.

When the governor of New York made a call out to garment industry workers to start making masks, Lavizzo-Mourey and Cox realized because of their relationships with factories in LA and the SF Bay area, they could start to mobilize that effort on their end.

“This is one of those situations where being a company that makes things in the U.S. is actually a really big benefit to being able to mobilize quickly to provide something that people are needing right now,” Lavizzo-Mourey said.

Their store manager, Johnson, a Highlands resident for 10 years, designed the functional mask. Johnson, who has her own clothing brand, Stacia, knows how to sew and design clothing.

“She was one of the first people that actually stepped up and came up with a prototype,” Lavizzo-Mourey said of the masks they are creating out of their LA factory.

Johnson is helping the team ship out the masks to healthcare workers and with outreach in the Palisades.

Those who are a proficient home or technical sewist, seamstress or tailor with access to their own materials and supplies are encouraged to join the Traveler Sew Club and donate 10 to 20 masks at a time. Drop offs are accepted at the Malibu location.

The shop is offering multiple donation options on its website—from donating funds for masks to an online form for organizations to request masks.

For more information, including a link to Johnson’s mask pattern, visit travelersurfclub.com/collections/fabric-face-masks.