How it started

In 2019, after more than 20 years in the military, I retired.  To mark it, I planned a family trip to Hawaii — the same place my first child was born.

Getting ready for that trip, I did what everyone does: shopped the sites that were hot at the time.  The orders came in.  I washed them — sensitive skin leaves no other option — and some of them didn’t survive the wash cycle.

That was the moment.  Not a business plan.  A worn-out shirt from a company that never expected me to wash it twice.

I saw the gap: affordable, quality couture — clothing built to actually hold up — didn’t exist.  So I started closing it.

The name and the logo took time to get right.  While I waited on those, I went to work on what mattered just as much — fabrics, materials, construction; everything that decides whether a garment lasts or lands in the trash after one cycle.

TAUGEMPIE became official in May 2021.  It launched in January 2022.

Every piece since has been held to the standard that started it: does this hold up?