Fashion per se has always held a unique fascination for Sonali, who viewed her involvement with the field, more in the nature of an opportunity to allow for self-development, than as a serious business option. As a teenager, she enjoyed mixing and matching scraps of ideas and volumes of material to create impressive apparel statements for her friends and herself. It was at the tender enthusiastic age of 16, soon after Sonali completed her 10th Board examination that she teamed up with a friend to actually create and organize an exhibition of western wear. The success of this maiden venture spurred her creative juices and she knew her career focus for the feature was apparel creation.
It was around the same time, when ebullience was running a clear high that she had a brief encounter with a designer who convinced her about pursuing a course in pattern cutting in Mumbai, which she did. Thereafter, she did a stint with Ted Lapidus. A meeting with Olivier Lapidus only re-enforced her decision to study fashion abroad. British Fashion already held a fascination for her and London was her obvious destination.