Team,
So I know there are many vintage fab'rik ladies that have heard this story but for all of the newbies, I wanted to take a minute to share the behind the scenes fab'rik story because while fab'rik is chic and cool now, the beginning was anything but :)
As most of you know, fab'rik came to be out of a break up with my 7 year boyfriend....I was supposed to be moving to NYC to start our life together and I called him on my bday in June many years ago to discuss flight info and heard a girl in the background...not good news for me at the time but great news for the rest of my life. I can't lie, I did the typical, can't get out of my bed, sobbing, crying, pranking him, crying, maybe we can work it out, crying routine until my roommates took away the phone (yes we had one in the house, not a cell back in the day.) I remember paying for my gas at the gas station one day and the guy said 'how are you today" and I gave him a 5 minute speech on my breakup and asked him what he would do?!?!? About a month later, I decided, well really my best friends decided I had to figure out what made me happy, what I wanted to do with my life, what in the world could take away this pain and frankly had to get out of bed and live again. So after many online tests and wine dinners with friends, strumming through the dictionary for a name...fab'rik was born-or atleast the idea. I started the business plan, came up with the name and I was off!
August 1st 2000: I woke up that morning, the first morning in a long time where I could get out of bed without my heart 100% broken, got dressed in what would later be called my court outfit :) and went downtown to get fab'rik incorporated, it was official. While all I had was a piece of paper, it was the beginning of a dream. As most of you know I love the quote "A goal is just a dream with a deadline" so I gave myself one. I told myself in 1 year I am going to open this store. So that night my girlfriends came over to require me to go out. Now this was a huge deal because since my breakup, I didn't go out. I liked to stay at home so I could cry as much as I wanted and tell the same old theories of why I could make it work with this guy, maybe that was his sister on the phone, I know he loves me....blah blah blah. They weren't having it. They were not only taking me out, they were taking me dancing in the old school Buckhead area...for those of you who are too young, this place was like no other, streets and streets of bars. Beyond fun...beyond cheesy. Long story short....we were dancing and all of a sudden looked over at my friend Counts and said" That guy right there, that's my husband" She kinda laughed but then she knew me so well so knew I was probably going to go tell him that....which I did. I walked up to my now Husband Angelo and said"I know this sounds crazy but I'm going to marry you" He gave his signature Angelo smile and with 8 guys surrounding didn't call me crazy to my face :). As if that wasn't awkward enough I also told him my mom told me I was going to marry a Taurus so had to make sure he was one. After explaining several times it was a sun sign not a tourist, he showed me his license and May 1st confirmed he was in fact a Taurus :) We decided to go on a date that saturday night, he asked for my number of which I wouldn't give him and got his...I was not letting this one get away and wanted to make sure our date happened. It did and so did every day since then. Starting my dream business in the morning and finding the love of my life that day, that is a productive day!
I feel like I was just a kid at 26 trying to come up with a vision for this company...what I wanted to put in that blank (but my banker wouldn't let me) was: "My vision is that we are still open in a year"...but after many hours of hashing one out I put " to create a boutique where everyone can afford to feel beautiful." fab'rik does that, you all do that each day as you remind a mom who just had a baby that she can wear skinny jeans or when you share the joy of a newly engaged customer or most importantly you listen to the girl who just got broken up with and she leaves with a pair of shoes but really with the hope that she is beautiful even as she is broken.
As I woke up this morning, this side of story, the messy side of the story was running through my head and my heart and wanted to share it with you all. I am so grateful that God has given me the ability to discern what I want and the courage to go after what I need. Now, there are times I have messed this up-what I want and what I need :) but I have been given the endurance to try again, to wipe away ego and fight for what I believe in, follow my passion and finally now live for the purpose that I believe God wanted all along for fab'rik. Thank you all for doing this with me.
I love you all more than you ever will know. My entire heart is in this company and I would do anything for any of you. I have tears as i am typing this because I wish you all were here so I could tell each of you individually, thank you! Thank you for loving fab'rik so much. We have so much to look forward to and I'm so blessed to be on this adventure with all of you! Believe it or not, it's only just begun!
xoxo
I graduated from Valdosta State University in the summer of 2007 and moved to the "big" city of Atlanta thinking that I would walk right into Corporate America, land a job and become a successful business woman in a matter of NO time.... WRONG. Post graduation, job hunting and trying to find an entry level position proved to be more difficult than I could have ever imagined. While waiting on a dream job, a friend recommended that I look in to working at this cute boutique downtown. I had no other leads at the time, so I thought, why not? (Ramen noodles were starting to get old.) I submitted my resume along with the reasons why I would be perfect for the company, including franchising in the future as a dream of mine. (That might have been a slight fudge. I NEVER thought I could actually own my own franchise!) I interviewed with one manager, followed up with a second and was then hired as a part time stylist with another! I will never forget my first day at fab'rik Forum. I can still remember my outfit: a very business casual look, accessorized with terrible shoes and your standard sorority girl pearls. After a short time as a part timer I quickly moved into full time, solidifying that I LOVE this industry and this company. Seven months passed and a management position opened up, I had no idea that I would have qualified at that point, but Ally, my manager, (now the fab'rik Operations Manager) believed in me enough to help push me in to the roll, and Dana (CEO) gave me a chance to run one of her fab'rik babies. Looking back I now know what an honor it was that they both believed in me with no management experience and very little time in the retail industry to take on this responsibility. 
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