Fringe and Frayed hopes to give back, offer a place for everybody to shop

BONAIRE, Ga. — Shopping for clothes can be a tall order for some; certain clothes fit just right in the length but not in the width, or vice versa. Everybody is shaped differently, and one local woman is hoping to provide some options for those folks who can find clothes shopping to be a drag.

“We want everybody to feel beautiful, no matter what size or shape they are,” Jacki Lasher, owner of Fringe and Frayed Boutique in Bonaire, said.

Lasher grew up in New York, moving to the area in 2001. Newspaper advertising and government work for the Department of Defense occupied Lasher previous to what she is currently pursuing.

Her Fringe and Frayed Boutique has seen success in its three years of business despite opening before an international pandemic. February marks the upcoming anniversary for the store.

“I worked on the base for 37 years, and I didn’t know what to do with myself when I was getting ready to retire,” Lasher said. “I jokingly told a friend of mine, I said, ‘you know, the only thing I’m good at is spending money and buying clothes’ — and it just kind of clicked.”

She started her venture into the industry as a vendor at another boutique before giving it a shot solo once she officially retired.

Serving customers “from 11 to 85,” Lasher and her boutique serve customers from size S-3X.

Despite opening her Bonaire location and trying to gain momentum during some tough times of COVID-19, she said the store saw an expansion, including a wide array of clothing sizes, clothes for kids as well as a T-shirt shop.

The Flip Side, an extension of the original store ran by Lasher’s daughter and husband, offers clothes in sizes 6 months to size 12 for kids.

Sublimation, vinyl and screen printing services can be found at the Flip Side T-shirt shop. She said business can get crazy around the holidays for custom orders. She made the shirts for the Warner Robins Little League Baseball All-Stars last year.

“You can get us pictures of your father, your mother, your kids,” Lasher said. “We can do anything with a T-shirt.”

School shirts, business logo T-shirts and cheerleading shirts are also popular orders. Expect same-day service for your shirt order, or, at most, a turnaround of 24 hours.

“We specialize in special orders,” Lasher added.

T-shirt orders ramp up right before football season, and other orders pick up in October, November and December, with their craziest months being February and June.

Lasher shared that her mother passed away about a year ago, and she takes clothes to the nursing home that cared for her mother, allowing all of the ladies there to shop for free. She said her love for retail and fashion came from her mother.

“We’re not just a store,” Lasher said. “We love our customers, we love our community and we love giving back to those who need it … You should see their faces when I pull up with two racks of clothes and say, ‘ladies, shop for free.’”

Fringe and Frayed Boutique is also paying for all the women of one Butler nursing home to have their hair cut.

Lasher opened another Fringe and Frayed location in Eastman last month. She said that she spends the majority of her time at the Bonaire location, but she will travel to the Eastman location about once a week.

“I have a lot of Cochran, Hawkinsville, Eastman customers, and they’ve been telling me to come out there and open up a store,” Lasher said. “A friend of mine opened up this beauty salon, and she had an extra 1,000 square feet in the back.”

She said Middle Georgia has always felt like home to her. Customer feedback regarding Fringe and Frayed has been very positive overall.

“It’s a great community, and they’ve just been wonderful — and I’m an outsider, I’m a Yankee,” Lasher said, laughing.

She said some may see owning a boutique as something exclusively glamorous, but there is more work to do than meets the eye.

“I’m very particular with the cleanliness of my store and the setup,” she added.

Are you not sure what you want, but you are still looking for that next piece of stylish garb? No worries.

“My favorite customers are those that don’t know what they want, and we get to dress them and accessorize them,” Lasher said. “We like to make people feel good; that’s what it’s all about.”

She said to expect a wholesome shopping experience if you come to her store.

“We treat everybody like family and friends,” Lasher said. “I’ve had that feedback, that [customers] love coming here, they feel like they’re shopping with their best friends. Me and my employees are very personable. I think that matters — a lot.”

Six other people work there with Lasher, including her granddaughter; college students with aspirations of becoming teachers and cosmetologists; her son-in-law, Eric, operating the T-shirt portion of the store; her daughter running The Flip Side kid’s clothes section; as well as one other person that just came on board recently.

Follow Fringe and Frayed Boutique on Facebook and Instagram to see about placing a special order. Lasher said she does not take orders through the website, but she would prefer a direct message on Facebook or Instagram for order requests.

See Lasher and the team at 405 Hwy. 96, Suite 1100 in Bonaire. The store is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

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