Sophia couture ... the birth of an ethical womens clothing brand

After twenty years experience as a psychologist, I had no idea that the road I was about to embark upon would lead me to making indelible footprints in the desert.

Sophia-couture has emerged from a totally different way of being. Events gave me the opportunity to clear out the dead wood in my life. Deep down, I knew that to live my life fully, something had to change, so I finished my commercial business, stopped lecturing and saw fewer therapeutic clients. I had no idea what lay ahead, in fact I was determined not to think about it, it’s funny how things emerge. Somewhere within this two year process a good friend suggested I visit one of the charity shops at the end of my road, as they had original paintings donated to them it was a very non-descript shop so I'd never ventured inside but sure enough, sometimes they sell paintings, good original ones at that! A few months later, I was on a train to London and my attention was drawn to a charity trek advert through the semi desert lands of Rajasthan, in aid of the same charity at the bottom of my road! I’d never once thought of going to India, I knew no one - it just wasn’t on my radar. A year after my friend’s one liner about the shop I was in India walking with eight other women.

Our plane landed in Delhi on a warm November day and for the best part of eight hours we travelled in an air conditioned mini bus heading north westerly. The utter madness in which driving is conducted gave me a front seat view of the contradiction that is India. The roads are not dissimilar to those in the rest of the world, there are left and right hand lanes and that’s where the similarity ends! Cows, goats, sheep, walk along the edge down the middle, cross the road at will and un attended, while elephants and camels (the ships of the desert) are used for transporting people and equipment, then there are bicycles, rickshaws, motorbikes, cars, buses, mini taxis, lorries and men pulling the equivalent of our barrows laden with food or tie dyed material whilst people on foot are trying to cross. There are two speeds on Indian roads - stop and go.

In the west we have rules about staying in lanes that correspond to the direction the traffic generally travels in. In India, it’s quite normal to be rightfully driving down a lane while streams of car, come from the opposite direction, or veer across from the side towards you. Indicators have long been forgotten, if they function at all, so it takes a tiger’s nerves and lots of trust in the universe to steer away from the oncoming risk of collision. That's until you realise you're now on the wrong side of the road and are facing an oncoming vehicle! Change is constant and some things appear more sacred than others, in separate incidents I have seen a person and a camel killed on the road though so far I have never seen a cow!

This was my introduction to the colourful life style that is India.
Adriana Galimberti-Rennie