(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Crystal Lee Early.
- And I'm Natalie Mumford
and we are Three Women. - Three Women
- Three Women is a sustainable fashion brand located
in Downtown Long Beach.
- The third woman in our hearts is all the people
that we've had the pleasure of connecting with
and creating with and collaborating with.
- Back in the depression era a lot of people out
of necessity had to use seed bags to make household goods
like a hand towel or dress.
And during war time,
all of the fabric was rationed anyway.
So these companies that were producing the seed sacks
had a great idea to start printing on them.
So in the 40's,
they started printing on the fabrics
and all these beautiful floral prints.
And a lot of the women would go
and try to find like the same bag and trade with each other.
And you could find these dresses and clothes from that era.
To finding them unused is pretty rare.
We're honored to carry on
this tradition of upcycling these bags.
It kind of transcends to another bigger picture
which now we have to focus on the environment.
So this is the most sustainable way to carry forward
is by using fabric that's already been made.
We're not creating a new textile.
It's something that already exists.
- Our first design was made from vintage rice sack
from my family's Chinese frozen food business
in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
I wanted to use a dragon food rice sack
from my family's business in particular
to just keep myself connected with my heritage,
being able to carry that on with a garment
and represent my Chinese, Canadian background
always have a piece of that history with me,
I realized when I put them out
that people connected with a vintage rice sack.
A lot of people they had seen rice sacks used
and saved in their family's kitchen,
like their grandparents.
So not just sentimental for me
but also for so many other people.
- When you come into the shop,
we have a wide variety of vintage textiles
and you would work with Crystal,
in the design process.
- And then I would take you over
to custom corner right here.
And we would look through our selection
of rotating vintage fabric
including the iconic ruson flower bags,
which are really, really hard to find.
So if we have them,
you've got to scoop them up
but we go through the creative process together.
It's a collaboration,
what resonates with you the fabric that resonates with you.
And then we have conversations and you can choose
from the different styles that you have to get a button up
or a jumpsuit or a dress or pants.
- And then it's locally made by our incredible seamstress
in Long Beach and her wonderful team of women.
It doesn't take very long.
Usually our lead time is under two weeks
or even less and you could come
and pick it or we could ship it directly to you.
But if you pick it up,
it's nice because you could do another fitting
just to make sure it fits perfect.
(upbeat music)