I would leave the house with my microphone in one hand and my friends’ couture dress swatches in another!

It was at a fundraising dinner, organised by her friend Imran Khan for the Shaukhat Khanun Cancer Hospital in Lahore, that Sophia Swire first set eyes on a Pashmina shawl. Later, working as a BBC World Service Radio Reporter in Kathmandu, Nepal, she encountered the shawls yet again at a tiny workshop close to the centre of town. On one of her trips back to London she showed these delicate creations to her friends and before long was taking orders for the London social set, an endeavour that would ultimately lead to a worldwide Pashmina revolution.

Up until the mid ’80s, Swire, a member of the famous Swire trading dynasty of Hong Kong, had been an investment banker with Kleinwort Benson in London, managing a client portfolio that included the Vatican and the Bank of Spain. Her strong adventurous spirit, “wasn’t in any sense being addressed or fulfilled by a daily trek on the tube into the city,” so she chucked it all up and decided to take off for Chitral, the former Principality on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, planning to work either as an aid worker or journalist.

On the very evening that she arrived in Chitral, she was approached by the local deputy commissioner to set up a school for the local children. “Whenever I make a decision for the course of my life, a whole lot of opportunities come my way – serendipity steps in.” Swire set up the school and spent a year teaching in the remote Hindu-Kush region. She adapted easily to local traditions, wearing salwar kameez made up by the local darzi and kept her hair covered at all times with a dupatta. According to Swire, her time in Chitral was, “up until then, one of the happiest years of my life.”

After a year, Swire decided she had done all she could for the school but she remained in the region, working as a radio reporter in Nepal as well as taking orders for her burgeoning Pashmina business back in London. As she wryly observes, “I would leave the house with my microphone in one hand and my friends’ couture dress swatches in another!”

Then came that fateful call from Lucinda Chambers, fashion director of British Vogue who was planning a fashion shoot in Nepal and wanted to photograph the Pashminas on Kate Moss and Christy Turlington. The feature, photographed by leading fashion photographer Arthur Elgort, was a massive success and saw the launch of the Sophia Swire label of Pashminas that ultimately led to a worldwide demand for the shawls, which in turn launched an industry in India, Nepal and Pakistan. Swire went on to introduce a luxury cashmere knitwear line and now her shawls and knitwear retail in 150 stores around the world including Harrods and Bergdorf Goodman in New York.

Swire’s charitable endeavours too were placed on a formal footing in 1993 with the conception of ‘Learning For Life’, a charity dedicated to the education of underprivileged children in South Asia, which she co-founded with Charlotte Bannister Parker. The charity supports more than 250 schools in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and has provided basic education for more than 30,000 children. A percentage of the profits from the Sophia Swire label are donated to the charity.

Swire’s commitment to South Asia meanwhile remains strong. She firmly believes that the region is her spiritual home. “When I’m there, I feel a strong connection. It’s as if I’ve come home.”