International fashion designer started her recording career with prayer | Entertainment

Sophia Dias has many facets, but globally, she is known as the innovator of the futuristic, full-coverage, unisex designer sunglasses GOA-Warp, with her latest collection handcrafted in Italy. Born to a Portuguese father and an East Indian mother, who she says fell in love in Goa, the former Portuguese enclave, Sophia found their story beautiful and used it as inspiration to brand her designs when she started her company in 2014.

I am lucky to have wonderful parents. Their lives have given me many opportunities, including exposure to the cultures that shape the world, says Sophia Sunday Collector.

His upbringing turned him into a world traveler from an early stage of development, living partly in India, China and Europe and spending holidays in Jamaica, which he calls his second home because I had spent so much time, from traveling to Jamaica on holidays as a child. [and] into my adult life [visited] so many times and have managed to forge great friendships here. I even spent time learning how to jerk chicken because of my love for cooking.

The designer made his home in Chicago and became a respected and loved presence in the cultural and business section of the city. However, the experience of domestic violence led him to find other creative outlets, including cooking and writing, from which he founded the Sophia Dias Supper Club and became the author of a book entitled Sbio: Culinary Journey, with a collection of approximately 30 dishes.

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE

The biggest setback was the part of my journey where after working hard to succeed, there was my husband’s estranged life partner who did everything to bring me down. Many people may wonder, but the scariest thing about leaving an abusive marriage, and the easiest thing to do is keep telling yourself that it will get better and he will change or that a miracle will happen, but it doesn’t. You must have the courage to ask people and God to help you. The man I married and whose hands I suffered great hardship and abuse after 17 years of blood, sweat and tears taking everything from me. To the point where I was literally left to die, Sophia opened up about the harsh reality she was facing.

Domestic violence only started when we started making money from the company we built together and grew into a multimillion dollar company that is in 12 cities in the US and now in more than 17 countries around the world. The more money we make, the more vile lifestyle becomes drugs, alcohol and even a second wife, you name it. When I won a criminal case in Chicago, he retaliated by taking everything I earned, every penny, and left me constantly with US$20.40 in my bank account, and I was ordered to move from my house to a one-room hotel with me. . pets, Sophia shared.

He focuses more on writing his emotions. As her days began with prayer, Sophia is now starting a music recording career. The first single is a prayer entitled Psalm 23, originally written in French. And it will not satisfy him, he says, if he does not step in that direction with the help of his Jamaican allies. The recording process was easy although at first she struggled to communicate her stress especially being a victim of any kind of abuse, it became very difficult to talk to anyone, but despite how difficult things were, Psalm 23 easy for me to convey.

Written at the height of the pandemic, while Sophia was in Istanbul, the song was recorded at Tuff Gong Studios by a team of experienced local musicians led by veteran producer Clive Hunt and mixed and mastered by Shane Brown. I became an expert at wearing masks. I really don’t know how to reach my God but have picked up a hotel Bible to read the Psalms, [and] a year later, I was in Jamaica recording my single, and it was a dream come true.

MUSIC LIFE

Music has become an important part of my life. When I was bored, my parents made me do art (music) lessons, and it lasted about 10 years. As boarding school students, we had to be involved in the chorus, and now, I can use it. I am truly blessed to have worked with some of the best musicians like Hector Lewis, Michael Fletcher, and Dean Fraser, among others. They will help me to realize my ideas for an album, says Sophia of the full project, which will be a distillation of several genres, not just reggae music.

Her husband was convicted of aggravated domestic assault in a criminal court in Chicago, but Sophia’s battles didn’t stop there. In fact, she said that the divorce process was nearing its end, but I still question her reasons for everything she has done. He could have gone and given me what was rightfully mine. Another song on the album, Why, is about that.

His creativity, he says, is a family gift. Sophia, like her mother, is a clothing maker, but her perspective evolves from seeing the rich cultural tapestry of people and places through volunteering to women’s shelters during her travels, her involvement in children’s charities, and her hard work as an activist. animal rights has had a profound effect on his entire life, not just his design business. She currently serves on the Women’s Board of the Catholic Charities.

I volunteered at a shelter as a teenager and continue to do so in my travels because it reminds me of a lesson I was taught, and with my own experience I want to show young women that help is there and people who care, she says.

What he wanted most, was to carry the message that God is real and Jesus walks with us wherever we go. Some people talk about sex, drugs, and rock and roll in their music, but I think it’s sexy to talk about God and His power. I walk through the valley of the shadows of death, but I am not afraid of evil because I feel You are with me. I want everyone to pray for and with me.

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