fab’rik and its CEO, Dana Spinola, were recently awarded the goBeyondProfit Champion Award for weaving purpose into their business model and improving the lives of thousands of women every day – both in their stores and in the larger community. 

In our latest CEO interview with fab’rik Founder and CEO, Dana Spinola, she shares with us how she infused purpose into the brand with the creation of free fab’rik, a free one-of-a-kind boutique experience for women experiencing crisis to help restore their strength, dignity and hope. 

Turning Passion into Profit

As a child, I didn’t grow up with money. My mom made all my clothing – which I thought was like having a personal stylist. The idea of shopping at a boutique seemed like such a dream to me – walking around a beautiful store, being offered a glass of champagne – all the little things that make a boutique experience so special. However, seeing the $400 price tags, I quickly realized that this experience was not something that could be a part of my daily life. So, I asked myself, “Could I create a place that you didn’t have to have a million dollars to feel like a million dollars?”

That was the entire idea behind fab’rik. It’s all about making women feel beautiful, one piece of fabric at a time.

As I grew the company, I wanted to keep this mission simple. As leaders, we’ve all created a mission statement that is seven pages long and if you ask your team what the mission is, they all try to avoid making eye contact. I wanted to create something at fab’rik that’s real and attainable for all our employees.

Our mission is simple, with each customer and each dress, we want to make our customers feel more beautiful than when they walked in our store.

Adding Purpose that Inspires

There was a moment when my definition of success changed. All the success I experienced, as much as I can say I was building my business for my customers and my team, I could feel something was missing. That year, I took my whole team on a mission trip to Africa, and we were sitting in our Jeep, driving around, and I just thought, there’s got to be more.

When I came home from that trip, I pulled my whole team together and said, “Y’all, we’re going to be changing our mission from simply focusing on our passion and adding in purpose. We will always serve our customers, but what if we could have a boutique where everything doesn’t cost less than $100, but instead, is completely free?”

That was the idea behind free fab’rik, a completely free boutique experience, with beautiful chandeliers and beautiful clothing, but located inside of safehouses and shelters. This experience is something we offer to women facing difficult circumstances, for whom clothing may not be a priority, but it’s something that makes them feel more beautiful, powerful and dignified.

One of the most beautiful parts of free fab’rik is that we’re able to have women from the community volunteer in our boutiques and we have local safe houses kindly let us come in and be with the women and setup a one-on-one personal styling. These women aren’t searching through bins of hand-me-downs in the basement of a church. At free fab’rik, none of the clothing has a hole in it or is missing a button. We want to offer these women the same experience they would get at a fab’rik store.

At first, many of the women are scared and ask us why we are there. But, by the end, we’re playing Beyonce, doing runway shows, and you can see a light that comes back, a confidence. It reminds me of a verse that says, “She is clothed in strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” That’s the free fab’rik experience. You witness this surge of confidence. You hear stories of these women who are total rock stars, you see their strength and the transformative power a piece of clothing can have on a woman’s life.

I’ve heard women say that we helped them find the dress they are going to wear to go get their son back in court or the one they’ll wear when they stand up to their pimp. These clothes help them feel strong and dignified. It is so powerful to witness.

The power of an outfit is so beautiful, but for me, the idea that my passion – clothing – could do something so powerful in these women’s lives that was incredible to see. Bringing together passion and purpose is really what makes fab’rik.

When you’re a founder and a CEO, and you don’t have to change your business model, you just find a purpose that fits perfectly into your racks and inspires your team. It’s a pretty special thing.

Thanks to the fab’rik Team

I am a creator, I’m a builder. I can put an idea out there, but my teammates are the ones who do the hard work of creating the operations manuals and maintaining the consistency that enabled fab’rik to grow. It gives me chills to think that I get so much credit for creating this dream, but so many people, so selflessly and with so much heart, talk to the customers every single day and make this dream a reality.

As CEO, I don’t get to talk to my customers every day, so I want to thank my team for caring about them. Thank you for seeing what our customers need, not only the fabulous outfits, but to see their heart and add the little thing in their bag to make their day. The number of hearts we’ve been able to touch because of my team is incredible. There is no possible way that fab’rik and free fab’rik would be able to provide love and confidence for so many women in ways without my team. I dreamed one thing and they made it a reality in an expanded, beautiful way.