Clothing has been a necessity since Adam and Eve. Eve didn’t know that when she ate the forbidden fruit she would inspire centuries in fashion. Clothing has become art, self-expression and a multi-trillion-dollar industry. Fashion has become a big business in Phoenix.
Arizona has a thriving fashion industry. Although we tend to think of New York or Paris when we think about fashion, it is also a place where the industry is flourishing.
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Angela Johnson is a native Arizonan who began her career as a fashion designer in Los Angeles.
She received a degree in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and then worked in various jobs in the fashion industry before launching a brand of her own in the 1990s.
“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. I would go out and buy materials and drive the fabric to different places and inspect 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, 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 met Sherri, co-founder FABRIC and the fashion incubator, when she was consulting. Barry, who had worked in retail management for over 20 years decided to pursue her dream of launching her own brand. She had big problems.
Barry sent her file of markers, with all the patterns arranged closely together, to a manufacturer, and she was surprised by what happened.
The company received the file in inches, imported it and then exported it to centimeters so that it would be compatible with their system. However, they did not change the numbers in order for it to be the right size.
“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.
Since 2016, the Fashion and Business Resource Innovation Center has helped the fashion industry of Arizona reach new heights.
More than 1,000 entrepreneurs in the apparel industry have used the resources over the past seven-year period, and Johnson and Barry are hoping to help even more.
Wendee Sunders, with the help of FABRIC, launched her brand eclisse and uses resources to produce 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 launching her brand, knows that she couldn’t have done it without 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 Melendez founded MAVERIX with Kyle Norgren, Dillon Taylor and Dillon Taylor.
“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 almost all 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 entrepreneurs can now access the knowledge of apparel designers around the globe through the Apparel Business Membership, and launch their brands at their convenience.
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.”
They let the order stack up to make it easier to manage.
“It’s not a lot, but 20 or 25 and it depends on the complexity of the garment,” Barry says.
Tailored to tech
The new building features a digital floor, which provides designers with all the necessary technology to create 3D digital renderings for their garments. 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.
Samples are garments that designers use to test the design and see if there are any problems or mistakes. This allows them to perfect it. Designers can create digital samples without having to cut or sew anything.
The Kornit Presto is installed on the manufacturing floor of the 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 says that designers can create truly unique pieces of clothing to sell.
Some might say that FABRIC is currently leading Arizona’s growing fashion industry, but it certainly existed before FABRIC, too.
Arizona fashion was reported before the state became a state. 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 (ACI) was created to support the Phoenix Art Museum’s permanent fashion collection, which began in 1966. More than 8,000 items representing men’s, women’s and children fashion from the late 17th to present day are housed in this collection.
Since 2008, the first Phoenix Fashion Week brings fashion shows to life every fall. Scottsdale Fashion Week was also launched around the same period and was redesigned in 2017 by Steve LeVine Entertainment.
State Forty-Eight is an Arizona apparel company founded in 2013. It has become one of the best-known brands in Arizona.
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.”