From Silence to Spotlight, Sima Azadegan Builds Global Fashion Brand After Reclaiming Her Voice

WCTU CLEVELAND 13 — At 50 years old, Sima Azadegan launched Sima Collezione, a luxury fashion brand rooted in self-expression and spiritual transformation. “This is going to be my voice,” she said. “My story and the dresses are a testament of my voice.” Founded in March 2020 during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the brand has since graced the runways of New York, Milan, Paris and Los Angeles, garnering international press coverage and establishing a foothold in Europe.

Azadegan’s journey began decades earlier when, at the age of nine, she and her family immigrated to the United States. “At that time, it was just more of a survival,” she said. “My parents didn’t know how to speak English. We had to start from scratch.” Shortly after arriving, she was enrolled in classical piano lessons with a neighbor who became a major source of emotional distress. “The teacher was extremely abusive to me,” she said. “I thought that I don’t have a voice. I have to listen to others. I have to be submissive to the powerful, to the dominating.”

She continued with the teacher for seven years and graduated from the University of Southern California at age 20, completing a double major in political science and music within three years. Four months later, she married through a cultural matchmaking process. “I didn’t even know any better,” she said. “There were so many opportunities that I could have done with my life rather than get married at an early age.” She became a piano teacher and raised two children while living with her in-laws for a decade. “I was very, very scared … I swallowed a lot. I didn’t have boundaries to stand up.”

At age 36, the sudden death of a close friend shook her to her core. “She passed away from ovarian cancer in four months,” Azadegan said. “She did not want to make an effort to live because she was under a very suppressive husband.” That loss became a turning point. “I either had to go work on myself or get a divorce. Or die.”

She chose to live.

Azadegan entered spiritual therapy and eventually took up Bikram yoga. “It’s a heated yoga that triggers every cell, every tissue, every bone in a systematic way,” she said. “Somehow the trauma and the emotions were getting released through the yoga and opening up my channels.” Over the next 15 years, she embarked on a journey of deep healing. “Nobody knew what I was going through because I had the persona of looking pretty, dressing well and going to the public,” she said.

During that time, she and her husband adopted a child from a different culture and religion, and she became involved with four Los Angeles-based charities. She also traveled the world, teaching spirituality and gathering strength. “I really did work on myself. I worked so hard.”

On her 50th birthday, Azadegan made an announcement to a room full of women: “I’m done with act one of my life. I’m ready for act two.” She had no idea what that meant at the time, but during the isolation of the pandemic, she began sketching fashion designs in a leather notebook. “Have I ever done this before? No,” she said. “I just took a leap of faith.”

Sima Collezione was born from those sketches. Within six months, she received an invitation to New York Fashion Week in September 2021—before she had even produced a single dress. “I didn’t have a big team. It was only me. But I got there,” she said. Her collection went on to appear at Milan Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, Dubai World Festival of Awards, Forbes 30/50 Women’s Summit in Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles Fashion Week twice.

Despite her growing success, Azadegan said the journey has remained largely solo. “No one really supported me,” she said. “Not my kids, not my husband, not my charity circle. I did this 100% on my own.”

Her designs, made with Italian fabrics and embellished with Swarovski crystals, reflect the essence of what she calls “the woman who is standing.” The fashion house now operates from a showroom in a historic Milan building and collaborates with Italian artisans. “This is not about fame or influencers or celebrities. Nobody has worn a Sima Collezione design yet. I’ve kept it intact. It’s my voice,” she said.

Azadegan continues to operate the business guided by instinct rather than industry playbooks. “I’m literally working with faith and trust and patience,” she said. “Somebody would say, ‘How can you build a business like that?’ I don’t know, but I did.”

For her, success is measured in healing, not headlines. “The dresses will help heal humanity. What I overcame to come into this, come into the light, follow my dream, my purpose...this will take the brand forward,” she said. “This is to serve humanity overall.”

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