our story
As featured in Channel News Asia
It started with a coffee.
Before we get into that meet THE lily and sophia. My inspiration and moral compass (and sleep thieves).
So now you've met the real CEO's let me take you back to 2016, when I was living in Hanoi, Vietnam. Living there completely changed my life. I met the the kindest, most genuine people on Earth. I was also completely blown away by the skill of the local artists, in every form. I had never seen anything like it!
One afternoon I walked into a cafe and was handed my egg coffee in the most beautiful cup I had seen. The intricacy of the glaze was extraordinary. I asked the staff but they didnt know where it was made.
Fast forward to March 2023. I'm on holiday in Hoi An with my husband, Lily and Sophia. We arrive at our hotel, tired from travelling, and the welcome drinks come out.
In cups I recognised immediately.
Eight years. A different city. A different life. The same cup.
This time I wasn't letting it go.
What followed was pretty unhinged. Weeks of googling, translating, obsessing over obscure blogs until eventually I found an address for a studio. I got a kind friend in Vietnam to go visit the address- but the studio had moved! I didn't give up. Eventually we found it.
I flew to Hanoi.
Celebrating craftwomanship.
Finding the studio was everything I'd hoped for and more. Women-owned and led, it was so inspiring to see these incredible craftswomen at work.
They have been working with clay their whole lives — a craft passed down through generations, shaped slowly, fired with patience. I watched them work and felt the same thing I'd felt holding that café cup all those years earlier: that some things are just made differently.
I knew I wanted to share them with the world.
And so lily and sophia was born. Born from the idea that kindness matters. That the things we buy can reflect the world we want to live in.
That small choices can lead to big impact.
Every piece in our collection is made by hand, one at a time, by the women I was determined to find. Made slowly and with generations of skill and love.
I hope you love them as much as I do. Here's your chance to have beautiful things that do beautiful things.
With love,
Thushani
Founder, lily and sophia
