Angela Johnson ( left ) and Sherri Barry ( right ) are co-founders of F.A.B.R.I.C. — Fashion and Business Resource Innovation Center — a business incubator, production facility and education resource for Arizona’s burgeoning fashion industry.

Angela Johnson is an award-winning designer known for transforming recycled T-shirts into couture, washable ball gowns. Her work is currently on display at Tempe Center for the Arts. But before she was a player in Arizona’s fashion scene, she was another young designer trying to build her brand in Los Angeles. She faced a lot of challenges. Without the money to fund big manufacturing orders, she sold in batches of 50 or 100 and did the legwork herself. “I would go to a patternmaker; take the pattern to a grader, who makes it into different sizes; then take this template they create called a marker to a cutting service,” Johnson said. “Then I would go and pick up wholesale fabrics from different fabric vendors and deliver those to the cutter. They would cut them and I would deliver them to different sewing contractors, depending on what they specialized in.” It was a time- and labor-intensive process, but one that allowed her company to turn a small profit. That changed when she moved to Arizona. “I couldn’t find those manufacturing resources here,” she said. “I had to close that business because of it.” Meanwhile, Sherri Barry was chasing her childhood dream. Barry grew up as an identical twin who hated to dress like her sister. Her grandmother had taught the girls how to sew, so they deconstructed their matching outfits to look different. Though she dreamed of becoming a designer, Barry considered it impractical and instead went into retail, where she worked 17 years to become an executive running 350 stores in 13 states. Burned out, she decided to take time off and launch her own line. “I had a really good idea. ANGELA JOHNSON AND SHERRI BARRY CREATED A FASHION INCUBATOR THAT HELPS LOCAL DESIGNERS THRIVE MARCH 2019 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 21 COVER STORY {by karen werner and tyler butler}