It's Never Too Late: Sima Azadegan On Going To New York Fashion Week At 50.
“It’s about showing women that you know it is possible at 50 to pursue your dream... to walk your journey and to manifest the life that you want to live. ”
Proving it’s truly never too late to pursue the life you want to create, Sima Azadegan is living proof. At the age of 50, with no fashion design background, she is taking her very first line of couture dresses to New York Fashion Week.
During our interview, it was clear to me that some people are just sent on missions in life to have these incredible journeys. Sima is one of these people. She described to me how inspiration just hit her and she found herself sketching these dresses one right after another. It was unbelievable to hear her speak of how quickly everything seemed to fall into place once she decided what she was going to do.
Her line is set to launch September 12th at New York Fashion Week with the help of Flying Solo, a company designed to help solo creators showcase their designs. But before her launch, she spoke with us about what we can expect and how exactly her journey transpired.
How did you decide to become a fashion designer?
My background, and I have mentioned it, I'm a housewife, never done fashion classes, never went to fashion school, but I always had a passion for it. I was never able to manifest what I was passionate about because I was so busy—busy going through the movements of life. I went to classical piano training; then, I went to the University of Southern California. I get married, and when I was raising children as well as doing community work. I'm doing this all the way to 50 years of age. Until I realized, oh, my God, I've done everything for everybody. 50 years of my life trying to make everything work for everybody, make sure the family is good, do charity work, and travel the world. I've done all of that. The most important that I've done for the last 15 years is a lot of introspective work within myself, getting to know who I am. You know, going through the journey of your inner consciousness trying to understand and deal with things. So when I turned 50, and this is during COVID, I realized, oh my god, I have done everything for everyone else, and half of my life is over now; what about me? That was when I then decided I was going to have a clothing company. I decided to shut everything out. For the first time, I decided I'm going to sit at my desk, and I'm going to follow this passion that I've had but was dormant for so many years. I started sketching designs. Now, when I would sketch these designs, these would come in a heartbeat of a second. I did not look at one book, nor one magazine, truly inspirational. These designs would come to me. So they would go from one to two and then three and then four and then five and then 10 and then 20 and then 30 and then 40 and then 50. And I finished that in one month. I am completely convinced no one has ever done this. And all 50 designs are different.
Can we talk about how crazy this is? First time designer, first-line ever, and you’re going to New York Fashion Week. How did this happen?
So one was the journey of my inner consciousness, which allows you to have that capability and have that clarity. Then I decided to start taking entrepreneurship classes online, and around April May, I was done with the sketches. After that, I got connected to a brand specialist in Italy. We formulated my brand with the mission to empower women by bringing out their inner beauty and light. At the same time, I help another woman, another people in need, through my brand charity. In September, I met an incredible PR person via LinkedIn who said Sima, I like your mission, and I want to put you on some press releases. Through that, I got on to Forbes, Bloomberg, US News Reporter, a lot of these things. In December, an application came across my table to apply for New York Fashion Week; of course, I thought to have nothing to lose, so I sent in all of my 50 sketches. In January, I got accepted, but I had to give them a commission. I had to pay for New York Fashion Week, you know, for the models and for all of that stuff. I said I'm going to do this. But you have to understand I'm just a housewife. I've never done anything like this before in my life. But I only listened to myself because I knew I was going to do this. At this time, I also met the most amazing lady through some connections that I had in this journey to create this line physically. I give her so much credit because she gets my vibe. I picked the stones, the color, the fabrics, but the fact that she has pulled it together made it alive. You know, oh my gosh, she gets the credit.
Can you give us a little taste of this collection?
Let me tell you, I'm bringing something on to New York Fashion Week that no one has ever done before. So each dress has its own story but the overall theme is the positive forces of nature. The first dress that's going to come out is called the pink butterfly dress. The pink butterfly dress has bold and vivid and I haven't used anything else just four ply, silk chiffon, charmeuse because I wanted refinement. I want it to be clean. I want it to be so elegant. Then on top of these dresses I have chosen beautiful Swarovski jewels to embellish these dresses. So it's the combination of the colors and the way that these jewels are on the designs that gives each dress its theme. The pink butterfly dress is going to be the first one that's going to walk out to the runway so it's a beautiful, bold solid pink with light pink. They've got Swarovski right in the center of it and then on the wings you see beautiful effervescent Swarovski rolling all the way around the the wings. The next dress is going to be a yellow dress. This dress is called the sunflower dress. The theme of this dress is about a sunflower beaming through the light of the sky and you will feel it. It has a long stem. It has a beautiful sunflower and it has Swarovski jewels right on the waist. And the fit of all of these dresses are very simple, nothing complicated. They've got bustiers, just beautiful, elegant, you know, long skirt, but both the pink butterfly and the sunflower, they do have some embellishments in the back.
that sounds stunning. in going on this journey did you have anyone telling you souldn’t?
I tell you I had a lot of resistance. Especially you know, from the people that are closest to you. They tell you, why do you want to do this? What do you have to prove? Aren’t you tired? Blah Blah Blah. You know, I'm telling you this very hard because it touches me because I truly believe I spent a lifetime doing everything for them. But as much as resistance I got, I want to teach ladies, to listen to yourself, and listen to your guiding intuition and tap into igniting intuition. Let them meet you with their resistance, just smile. It's painful, it's not an easy thing, it was very painful for me but you have to keep going.
This is all so inspiring. You’re proving it’s never really too late to do anything.
I tell you, it's about a dream. It’s about showing women that you know it is possible at 50 to pursue their dream. It is possible to work hard, and you have to work hard, obviously, to get a lot of that mental health straight and all of that stuff. But it is possible to come out of it, walk your journey, and manifest the life you want to live. We're so limited because of, you know, a society with what we have to do, what we're obligated to do, and that detracts your soul. My soul was not going to rest until I do this. And look, I'm doing good. I'm doing it.
Describe your slay.
I am here to tell ladies that you have to make it a point to really tapping into who you are, no matter how dark the world is, no matter what is happening. We cannot change the outer circumstances but what we can do is change ourselves from within. We can change and tap into who we are and understand how we want to live. We are still here. Nothing has happened to us. We're still living on Earth. Practice wanting to live your life; don't be so concerned about who is doing what.
Stay connected and up to date with Sima’s New York Fashion Week journey as well as her collection on her website and Instagram.