On returning from London after graduation, Deeya Tamang tried to pursue different career paths—working at an event management company and even on television for a while—but none of it satisfied her. She wanted something to call her own.

Back in 2017, there were very few online shops in Nepal and only a few of them sold clothes. That was when Tamang, who was in her early 20s, decided to step in with ‘T’s Armoire’.

“I was always very passionate about fashion and clothing,” Tamang shares. “So I thought I’d do something on this line,” says Tamang, who took a few months’ fashion course at IEC College before venturing into her new business.

T’s Armoire was one of the first online stores in Nepal to bring in-house models to showcase their products professionally. “I wanted to be concise when it came to the content we put out,” Tamang shares. “I learned early on that you have to be transparent with your customers.”

Today, there are few young adult women in the valley who haven't heard of the brand. T’s Armoire is popular for its unique and edgy products that push the boundaries of Nepali fashion. Aside from its quality products, Tamang’s brand is also appreciated for product displays on in-house models rather than on mannequins or lush carpets like other online stores.

“I wanted people to know exactly how the clothes would look on their bodies,” she shares. It was a decision that completely changed her brand’s look. Today, she has multiple models with different skin colors, ethnicities, and body types to advertise her clothing.

Along with in-house models, the brand also has two in-house designers, including Tamang herself. Even though she prefers comfortable casual clothing, she isn’t afraid to glam it up. And in her designs, she follows the same blueprint, glamorous but comfortable.

Gone are the days when she had to rely on wholesalers and import crews. Today, T’s Armoire makes its own designs and sends them to tailors in Nepal, Bangladesh, and even China.

“I want to experiment with more Nepali textiles and ingredients,” the entrepreneur tells ApEx. Much of her shop’s products are Western fashion for women but she wants to take the Nepali style to global markets.

And she believes her plan will work because she sees many orders coming from foreign countries. But Tamang says success didn’t come to her easily. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in this journey,” Tamang says. “But I learn from each mistake and never repeat it.”

It took a long time for her to gain her customers’ trust—especially in a society that bought cheap clothes from retail shops and only after trying them on. Now, Tamang feels she has earned that trust.

But her ambitions know no bounds. Her purpose has begun to take shape and she wants what many dream of but few achieve—global recognition. Her failures have taught her far more than has success. “I was fired from the event management company I worked for and until a few years ago, I was just a young dreamer who had started a shop with the little savings she had,” she shares. “And today I have my own successful company.”

“I think I’m the definition of self-made,” Tamang says. “No one believed in me at first and I had to prove myself to them.” With the brand’s outlet in Jhamsikhel turning into one of the most sought-after fashion hubs in the Valley and the online store amassing over 108,000 followers on Instagram, Tamang feels like she has.