DS Collections, Legend’s, Desire, Fuel, and Trauma are some of the fashion stores in the Valley, and they have something in common – their young investors, who have realized the importance of what good clothes can do to human beings.
Sanjay Shrestha of Legend’s, who is also involved in his family business, has opted to invest in clothing. For him, the reason was simple: men’s clothing section was limited and lacked variety.
Despite the fact that the Valley’s marketplaces already had enough cloth stores for girls, young entrepreneurs like Sharmila Gurung and Suni Awaley felt the crunch in the fashion market: while the hunger for fashionable clothes was growing, the market was failing to satisfy it. For Sharmila Lama, shareholder at several stores such as Attitude and D.S Collections, the market still lacked the kinds of clothes that young girls wanted.
“Yes, there were fashion stores with plenty of clothes, but all boring. Times change. Young girls want to experiment with their looks these days,” says Sharmila.
That is the very reason why stores like DS and Fuel are ahead of others, even though being in their infant stage.
But getting support and having trust from their elders, finding appropriate places to start the ventures, and then time and again dealing with the customs clearance at the airport warehouse were some of the many challenges on the road.
“I don’t know why, but perhaps it’s because I’m young and being a girl on top of that are some reasons people don’t want to take me seriously and professionally,” says Suni Awaley.
These youngsters have proven that money isn’t the only resource to start a business with, be it clothing stores or any other ventures.
“Dedication, camaraderie with your staffs, which many organizations lack, coupled with good public relationships are some aspects needed in this field,” opines Sameer Gurung of Trauma Clothing Store.
Apart from being able to involve themselves into their works, this young generation of investors is providing job opportunities to other youngsters as well. While medium sized fashion stores like Trauma and Desire provide jobs to at least one person, bigger stores such as D.S have more than six people employed.
INVESTOR PROFILES
Suni Awaley (28), Dima Thapa (26) and Shixa Piya (26)
Drawn together by the common fervor for stylish clothes and fashion, these three ladies decided to invest in the one indulgence that they loved. The result is Fuel, a small yet rakish clothing store on Durbar Marg. Besides their hard works in the selection of clothes, their joint efforts can be seen on the decorative parts of the shop as well. All three of them are graduates in Business Administration, and love to hang out together.
Anil Bajracharya, 29Amid the rows of clustered houses in the Maiti Devi Chowk stands Anil’s fashion store for guys. His store is a breath of fresh air in this dowdy part of town. Anil is a graduate in Business Studies. According to him, business was always in his genes. The idea of clothing store happened to him five months back when he realized that Maiti Devi really didn’t have a good clothing store.
Sameer Gurung, 28
Inspired by his father’s interests in clothing business, Sameer Gurung opened a fashion store of his own four years ago in the alley of Ranjana Galli. Originally from Pokhara, Sameer says he is not in this business for profits. For him, it is more about delivering good apparels to people. His store was nameless a few months back, and only recently he named it Trauma. Reason? He was traumatized by not being able to find an appropriate name for his shop.
Sharmila Lama, 21A-Level graduate, Sharmila is one of the investors in such successful clothing stores as DS Collections, Attitude, and Temptations. She aspires to continue her work in the clothing business while planning to join her Bachelors course very soon. Besides her successful projects in the Valley, she and her aunt Dolly Lama have expanded their business to Pokhara as well. The reason behind her success, she believes, is the input of her staffs and choice of clothes that her shops have in them.
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