MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT

In 2010, Lavinia Brennan, 32, set up luxury, ethical womenswear brand Beulah London with her friend, Lady natasha Rufus Isaacs, 36. Their clothes are worn by the Duchess of Cambridge, Pippa Middleton and Sienna Miller. Lavinia lives in London with her husband, Jamie, who works for Pommery champagne.

NAT and I have known each other for ever. Our grannies were great friends and my father and her uncle went to school together.

In 2009, we travelled to Delhi in India to teach English and textile skills in safe houses for women who had been rescued from sex trafficking. We saw how employment can transform lives and decided to found a fashion line to provide an alternative, sustainable livelihood for the women.

This was my lightbulb moment. We met with charity partners and factories out there and returned to London with dress samples we’d had made up, with the goal of founding a company run between the UK and India. Beulah is a Hebrew name that means coming from darkness into light.

We design clothes in the UK, have a sample mocked up, then send it to India to be made by women

Royal fan: The Duchess of Cambridge wearing the Shibani scarf (£95, beulahlondon.com) who are paid a fair wage. In 2011, the Duchess of Cambridge wore our crimson poppy dress, and on her state visit to Pakistan last year, she wore a jacket from one of our early collections, which was a great example to set. I love how she re-wears so many clothes.

In 2013, we founded the Beulah Trust, which means that 10 per cent of our profits are invested in organisations that are fighting to eradicate modern-day slavery.

Our For Freedom T-shirts (£60) are made from organic cotton and sustainable wood fibres.

The embroidery and garment finishing processes provide a fair wage to migrant women working in London.

We opened our shop in Belgravia, London, last April. Nat and I have been on an amazing but slightly stressful adventure — it took six years to pay ourselves a salary.

But I also met my husband through Beulah because he kindly sponsored our first launch event.

It’s lovely to see celebrities in our clothes. When Holly Willoughby wore our shirt dress on Instagram, it crashed the website.

But if I’m on the Tube and see someone with one of our scarves, that’s just as exciting.