Clothing has been a necessity since Adam and Eve. Eve had no idea that her bite on the forbidden fruit would lead to centuries of fashion evolution. Clothing has become art, self-expression and a multi-trillion-dollar industry. Phoenix has made fashion a major business.
Arizona is a fashion hotspot that has grown rapidly in recent years.
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Angela Johnson is an Arizonan, who began her fashion career in Los Angeles.
After earning a fashion design degree from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, she worked in various positions in the industry until launching her brand in 1990.
“I would contract out each step along the way,” she says. “I ’d go to pattern makers, graders, marking companies, cutting services and sewing contractors. Then I’d source the materials and drive them from place to place and double-check everything. And that was the secret sauce to be able to make small batches.”
She moved back to Arizona for her family and found that it was impossible to continue her brand because the resources she needed didn’t exist in Arizona, and she knew she needed to be where she was manufacturing to check each step of the process.
Johnson, whose brand was shut down by her company, began teaching and consulting.
“[I started] helping these other brands,” she says, “who were either hobbyists: They were selling out of their own house and wanted to grow and start manufacturing. Or they were people with a really good idea, and they just didn’t know anything and just needed help understanding what it would take to make clothing. That led into creating a directory for Arizona so that everybody could find each other.”
Johnson explains that the directory quickly “filled up with a bunch of people who needed resources.”
Phoenix Fashion Business
Johnson was consulting when Sherri Barry met her. Barry, who had worked in retail management and marketing for over 20 years decided to pursue her dream of launching her own fashion brand. She had big issues.
Barry had sent her file with the close-together patterns to a company that manufactures products. She never imagined what happened.
It was sent in inches, but the company converted it into centimeters to make it compatible with their system. But they didn’t change the sizes of any numbers.
“They manufactured 5,000 pieces of my order in doll size and shipped them to me,” Barry says. “I ended up having to pay for it. The amount was more than $30,000. I couldn’t fulfill the order, and it shut down my business.”
Barry and Johnson took different paths in the fashion industry but both came to the same conclusion: Arizona’s fashion industry needed resources.
“Fashion is a really hard business,” Barry says. “There’s a lot of obstacles to overcome and the resources [needed to overcome] those obstacles are pretty scarce because a lot of this is done overseas right now.”
That’s when FABRIC was born to help pump up the Phoenix fashion business.
Fashion and Business Resource Innovation Center, or FABRIC has enabled the Arizona fashion industry to achieve new heights in 2016.
More than 1,000 apparel entrepreneurs have benefited from the resource in the last seven year, and Johnson and Barry are hoping to continue their support.
Wendee Saunders created her brand eclisse in collaboration with FABRIC. She uses the resources available to create cute, sun-protective clothing.
“It’s the newest addition to your beauty routine, keeping you protected from the aging rays of the sun,” she says.
Saunders, who is thrilled to be finally launching her brand knows that she couldn’t have done it with FABRIC.
“I have only ever been a fashion and beauty consumer,” she says. “Now being on the other side of actually creating a brand — there’s so many ins and outs, and the knowledge that is in-house has been invaluable.”
Getting Creative
David Parrish launched Off The Trail Recreation on his own, in 2021. He says his initial launch went well, but he soon found himself in a “sophomore slump.”
He says, “connecting with Sherri and Angela and their team got me out of that funk, and it got me to start using other parts of my brain that I obviously wasn’t using. And it’s been incredible.”
Jolene, Kyle and Dillon Taylor created MAVERIX – a stylish new golf clothing brand.
“It’s really exciting,” says Melendez. “We’re excited to get our product out. We’re excited to see how everybody likes it, and it’s definitely something that’s not been done before, nor is it in any golf shops or anything like that.”
Saunders and the MAVERIX team utilized a specialized program created by FABRIC called the “Road Map.” It is available through the Apparel Entrepreneur Membership and is a digital step-by-step guide that houses hundreds of resources and explanations for how to build a fashion brand and manufacture the product.
According to the FABRIC website, “It’s like having a virtual production manager, technical designer, quality controller, business coach, and branding expert guide you.”
Johnson said she worked on the Road Map project for most of her life.
“I have a lot of knowledge about everything that it takes [to start a fashion business],” Johnson says. “When the pandemic happened, it gave me that opportunity to sit down in front of my computer, pull all of those resources together in a format that can be easily shared with somebody where I don’t have to be the person, walking them through it myself day to day.”
Apparel designers can learn how to start their own brand on their time by joining the Apparel Business Membership.
FABRIC recently relocated to a new facility in Tempe where the incubator is leaning into their technology and specialized equipment to create the world’s first “phygital” fashion innovation center which opened in April.
“There’s a digital production flow going on out there that nobody sees,” Barry says. “All the information for that brand’s specific garment, when that order comes through, transmits through the factory so that we can manufacture it with the exact materials and trims that designer picked out, get the right labels in it, get the custom print on it — if that’s part of their brand — get the construction right all the way … And then at the end we can pull that order for that customer, print the label and ship direct out of the factory, even package it exactly the way the designer wants.”
This process is known as on-demand manufacturing, but Barry says FABRIC has shifted a little bit to do “batched on demand.”
It means they allow the orders to pile up in order to simplify the process.
“It’s not a lot, but 20 or 25 and it depends on the complexity of the garment,” Barry says.
Tailored to tech
A digital production floor is included in the new building, which allows designers to access all of the necessary technology to produce 3D renderings. The software has all the knowledge of the different fabrics — how it will look, fit and lay depending on what it is made of — so a designer can see their work come to life and create digital samples.
The purpose of samples is to help designers see any problems or mistakes so that they can improve the design. The digital sample allows designers to complete all their work without needing to sew or cut anything.
Kornit Presto Printer is located on the production floor of this new building. Barry explains that most sublimation printers only allow designers to print designs onto polyester — “a pretty unsustainable material” — but not this printer.
The Kornit Presto allows designers to print on almost any material they can imagine from cotton to chiffon — one designer even printed on cactus leather. Johnson claims that it allows designers create unique items to sell.
Some might say that FABRIC is currently leading Arizona’s growing fashion industry, but it certainly existed before FABRIC, too.
Arizona’s fashion had been reported upon before its statehood. An 1882 edition of Arizona Daily Star reported, “It would be difficult to find anywhere ladies who pay more attention to the elegance and beauty of costume than those in Arizona.” The article went on to describe elaborately designed dresses donned by Arizona residents.
An early brand in Arizona is Saba’s Western Wear founded in 1927.
Arizona Costume Institute, founded in 1996 to support the Phoenix Art Museum’s permanent fashion collection. More than 8,000 items representing men’s, women’s and children fashion from the early 17th century until the present day are housed within the collection.
Since 2008, the first Phoenix Fashion Week brings fashion shows to live each autumn. Scottsdale Fashion week began at the same time, and was revamped by Steve LeVine Entertainment in 2017.
State Forty-Eight is an Arizona clothing brand that was established in 2013. It has become one of Arizona’s most recognized local brands.
Arizona is really coming up in the fashion industry and both Johnson and Barry have big hopes for the industry’s future.
Johnson says “I hope the fashion industry embraces sustainability a lot more than it is. People are trying to embrace it, but obviously it takes a lot of systematic change, and the big brands are the ones that have to lead that.”
Barry would also like to see a more sustainable industry overall, but says “hopefully here in Arizona, the cotton that’s grown in Casa Grande can be spun into beautiful quality cotton materials that can be designed here locally, manufactured on demand.”