On a balmy Friday afternoon in late February, the teens who work at Fab Fits, Fab Youth Philly’s new youth-run thrift store, are waiting for their first customers of the day. A chirp through a walkie-talkie alerts staff member Brianna Valente, 18, to head downstairs to the building’s ground floor. She greets a pair of teenagers and leads them up the winding staircase to the third-floor space, which resembles a homey boutique. Then, she hands each girl a red tote bag, which they can fill with secondhand clothes from the store’s racks and take home, free of charge.
Fab Fits, which opened Feb. 12, offers teens from Kensington and across the city a place to shop for casual, everyday clothes as well as garments for special events like proms and job interviews. The inventory is sourced from donations by community members and partner organizations, says Rebecca Fabiano, executive director of Fab Youth Philly, and thus, it is constantly changing. Today, the prom dress room is especially well-stocked with pre-loved tulle and sequin gowns, but the growing crowd of shoppers are quickly clearing the casual racks of any pieces that could fit the Y2K aesthetic.
Fabiano says the idea for the store came from youth who had enjoyed the organization’s annual Fab Fashion Boutique, a promwear giveaway event first held in 2023 that expanded to workwear in 2024. Teens who had attended began requesting a permanent location to shop on a regular basis. Besides being a place for young people to get free clothing for the important (and often expensive) events in a teenager’s life, Fab Fits — and Fab Youth Philly as a whole — is also a space for youth to connect.
“In Kensington, like many parts of the city, frankly, there are not a lot of third spaces for young people,” says Fabiano, who founded Fab Youth Philly in 2015. Third spaces are places outside of school or work and one’s home where people can gather without being expected to spend money.
In addition to the thrift store, the youth workforce development nonprofit offers workshops, spaces for meditation and yoga, computer access and more at 2025 E. Atlantic St., which has housed the nonprofit in part for more than five years and is now its headquarters. “I’m hoping that this space provides an emotionally and physically safe place for young people who are looking for a positive, safe place to spend time after school,” Fabiano says.
The store is staffed by four teenagers, all of whom are interested in thrifting, fashion, social media and sustainability. Fab Youth Philly offers all of its youth employees a starting pay rate of $15 an hour, Fabiano says. While on the job, Fab Fits staff learn customer service and retail management skills, like communicating with their peers who are shopping, tracking inventory and styling mannequins. The teens even run the store’s Instagram page, where they post promotional videos showing off unique finds in the store.
They also have conversations about making more sustainable closets, says Fab Fits employee Destiny Providence, 17, especially as they process, sort and wash donated garments, deciding whether they should be stocked in the store, donated to a partner organization, or upcycled.
“If it’s something we feel like could be upcycled, we’ll take it to the makerspace,” Providence says.
Downstairs, Fab Youth Philly’s makerspace is lined with sewing machines and other tools, where Fab Youth alum and climate justice educator Mazzi Aquilla hosts free upcycling workshops as part of the organization’s “Skills for a Fab Life” series.
“You can go to our thrift store, find a few items, bring it downstairs, and Mazzi will help you repurpose it into something else,” Fabiano says.
Fabiano hopes the store’s inventory can expand both in size and variety, and that the organization as a whole can identify ways to serve young adults into their twenties, as they enter college or their first apartments.
Fab Fits is open to 15- to 19-year-olds Thursdays and Fridays, 3:30-6 p.m., and accepts donation drop-offs Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at 2025 E. Atlantic St.
