A lot of them come in and they'll literally
hand us a picture and they'll go,
"How much to make this and when can you have it done?"
We're like, "There's no easy button here,
but we can help you."
- We're at FABRIC,
the Fashion and Business Resource Innovation Center.
It's a fashion incubator in Tempe, Arizona.
It has everything that a designer would need
to be able to create their ideas from concept
all the way through small batch manufacturing.
And then market that and get it to their customer.
The whole point here is that
we can make everything under one roof.
- My interest in fashion design
started when I was really young 'cause I'm an identical
twin. Our parents dressed us alike for way too long,
so we started ripping apart our clothes and redesigning them
so we would have different outfits.
I got my MBA so I could figure out
all the stuff I needed to do to actually scale a company.
And then 'cause there were no resources here,
I thought, we'll we just need a local resource
where people care about the designer.
- I'm actually from Arizona and I thought,
I wanna create a space that has everything.
For small brands making niche products
in small quantities, it needs to all be under one roof.
Sherry and I crossed paths and she brought
a lot of the business savvy to my creative process.
- The story ends up with probably
the luckiest day of our lives.
We had an opportunity to buy a bunch of equipment.
I call it a bungee jump off of a bridge,
'cause we wrote a really big check with no place.
We had a meeting with the city of Tempe.
The economic development director,
she walked us over to this building.
This was a former performing arts theater.
- When we first acquired this building,
we made a really unique arrangement with the city of Tempe.
Our non-profit, Arizona Apparel Foundation,
is responsible for giving back
free and discounted resources to the community.
The request was about $300,000 a year.
In the three years we've been here,
we've been able to provide about 1.5 million dollars
in give-back to the community.
This is our fabric store.
When we first moved in here, I got lost all the time.
- What are you doing?
- Can we come in?
- Absolutely.
My wife was consulting for another brand
and she just randomly, through a Google search, found
FABRIC. That's what lead to our new brand, Naked Rebellion.
- This is going to, I think, be the biggest brand
that we've launched out of this building.
(laughing)
- That would be amazing.
- This is an office for OXDX Clothing.
- Started here as a designer in residence.
It's nice to have the resources here at hand,
and the power of the community has been really nice.
- Tell them what you make. It's so amazing.
- Thank you so much.
So I actually focus on making modest evening wear.
So it all starts from this, you know.
Something very beautiful, very rich,
and then just focus on the woman herself,
on her accomplishments and achievements.
I'm very blessed that FABRIC
has kinda been helping me to create that.
- We basically can do almost everything here,
and we really have.
We have made everything
from yoga pants to wedding dressings
and so, to support this, you're also seeing our event space.
And so this whole space transforms.
It's filled with hundreds of people watching runway shows
and everything happens in here to support this.
When we first opened this,
I had already had a directory for the fashion community.
So when we created FABRIC,
we had a need to create more websites
so that we could share the other things that we were doing.
It's really there to point everybody in the right direction,
and this is where you can find the manufacturing,
this is where you can find the events,
this is where you can find the calendar
and the classifieds and the directory and everything we do.
- We're lucky.
This is a big city and there's a lot of people
who have really great industry experience that move here.
And this isn't just a bunch of designers and home sewers
that got together to help each other.
This is really the real deal.
Because we live it every day,
we know what's going on here and how special it is.
What I'm most grateful for
is that others are starting to recognize it.
- Every so often, one of the brand owners or designers
will get my attention and say,
"I just want you to know,
because of FABRIC, I'm able
to run a business here in Arizona."
That's the kind of stuff that, you know,
brings up emotions and makes me teary eyed.
When a designer tells you something like that,
that they're life has changed,
all that work every day when we're plunging a toilet,
that's the kind of stuff you gotta think about
to be able to keep going.
- It's craziness and it's just fueled by
passion. - Passion.
Passion and gumption and coffee and no sleep.
(upbeat music)