The Person Behind Translife
Sophie Summers
My Story
Long before I was the person standing on the other side of the dressing table, I was the nervous person sitting in the chair. My journey as Sophie has taken me through makeovers, friendships, London's crossdressing community, television, events, retail and eventually to founding Translife Limited in 2002. Those experiences continue to shape the way I support people today.
Andrew & Sophie
One Person, Two Presentations
To understand my story, it helps to understand something very simple from the beginning. Andrew and Sophie are not two different people. Sophie is my feminine persona — an important part of my life, my experiences and ultimately the story of Translife.
Sophie Has Always Been Part of My Story
My everyday life is lived as Andrew, but for many years Sophie has been the name and presentation through which I have explored and expressed my feminine side.
That distinction is important because Translife was not created by someone looking at crossdressing from the outside. It grew from my own experiences — discovering makeup, learning about feminine presentation, finding other people with similar experiences and eventually having the confidence to go out into the world as Sophie.
I have always had a passion for makeup. What began as something intensely personal gradually became knowledge and practical experience that I could use to help other people discover their own feminine presentation.
I understand the nerves as well as the excitement because I have experienced them myself.
And what about the Dressing Service today?
I carry out the majority of Translife Dressing Service appointments as Andrew. Sophie is not another member of staff; she is part of me and part of the experience I bring to every appointment. For Platinum appointments, I can also prepare and present as Sophie where that would help support the experience.
“Long before I was the person standing on the other side of the dressing table, I was the nervous person sitting in the chair.”
Experience From Both Sides of the Dressing TableThe Early Years
I Thought I Was the Only One
Like so many people of my generation, my first experiences of crossdressing were something I largely had to understand for myself.
My fascination with feminine presentation began long before Translife. I had always had a passion for makeup and was fascinated by the difference that makeup, hair, clothing and the smallest details of presentation could make.
But growing up without today's internet, social media or instant access to information was a very different experience. There was no easy way to discover that there were countless other people asking themselves many of the same questions.
In my teens, I sometimes felt as though I must be the only crossdresser in the village. I certainly had no idea then where this part of my life would eventually take me.
What began privately would gradually lead me to London, to other crossdressers, to people who would have an enormous influence on my life and, eventually, to the creation of Translife itself.
“At that age I could never have imagined that one day my own experiences would help me give other people the confidence to explore this part of themselves.”
The turning point was discovering that I wasn't alone. London opened the door to a community I had barely known existed — beginning another important chapter in Sophie's story.
Finding a Community
Finding Out I Wasn't Alone
London opened a door onto a world I had barely known existed. It was not simply about finding somewhere Sophie could go; it was about finding people, friendships and a sense of belonging.
Ron Storm, the Philbeach and London Nights
Discovering Ron Storm was one of those moments when everything suddenly began to look different. The Philbeach Gardens Hotel became another important part of those years, including the Monday-night get-togethers with Jimmy behind the bar.
There was so much happening. Saturday nights at the WayOut, the Philbeach, people meeting one another and passing on information — all of it helped turn something that had once felt intensely private into part of a much wider social world.
Those places did more than provide somewhere to go. They allowed confidence to grow naturally, through conversation, friendship and simply being around other people who understood.
Janet Scott — Someone Who Changed My Life
I genuinely do not think my journey to where I am today would have happened in quite the same way without Janet Scott. Through the Beaumont Society, the events we attended and simply knowing her personally, she influenced me in so many ways.
Janet was part of the transition from feeling that Sophie was something I had to understand alone to recognising that there were friendships, experiences and a much wider community beyond that private world.
Some people become part of the history of your life. Janet is one of those people for me.
“Finding the community did not suddenly answer every question, but it meant I no longer had to ask all of them alone.”
Discovering Sophie
Sitting on the Other Side of the Dressing Table
Two experiences from those earlier years have stayed with me: having my own professional makeover and stepping in front of the camera for my first studio photographic session.
A Makeover by Pandora Depledge
I had always loved makeup, but there is something very different about placing yourself in somebody else's hands and allowing them to create a feminine look for you.
Having a makeover myself with Pandora Depledge gave me the opportunity to experience that process from the client's side of the dressing table.
You arrive with an idea of how you might look, but you also bring nerves, expectations and a certain amount of vulnerability. Then gradually the person looking back from the mirror begins to change.
That experience has never really left me. Years later, when I began providing makeovers myself, I already understood just how personal that moment in front of the mirror can be.
My First Studio Session with Nickie May
Another memorable step was my first proper studio photographic session with Nickie May at her private studio in London.
For me, photographs were about much more than simply recording what Sophie looked like. They allowed me to see the complete presentation from a different perspective — the makeup, wig, clothes, posture and expression all working together.
Looking back at these photographs now, they capture a particular stage in my journey. Styles have changed and Sophie has changed, but the excitement of seeing a feminine presentation brought together successfully is something I still understand very well.
It is also one reason photographs remain such an important part of the Translife Dressing Service today. They can become a lasting record of a moment that meant far more than simply having a picture taken.
“Those experiences taught me something I still remember when somebody sits in my makeup chair today: you are never simply working with makeup and clothes — you are working with how somebody hopes to see themselves.”
Experience From Both Sides of the Dressing TableLondon, Soho & a Changing Scene
Sophie Was No Longer Something That Stayed at Home
By the late 1990s, my experiences had moved a very long way from those early years when I wondered whether I was the only person who felt as I did.
London gave me something that had once seemed almost impossible: the freedom to go out, meet people, make friends and simply enjoy being Sophie.
These were not carefully constructed professional photographs. They were snapshots of real evenings, real friendships and a social scene that was becoming an important part of my life.
One particular evening in 1998 captures that period rather well. We met before taking part in an episode of UK Raw about dressing services and later continued the evening in Soho.
Before UK Raw
This photograph was taken at our get-together before an episode of UK Raw concerning dressing services.
What I particularly like about photographs such as this is that they capture the social side of those years. Behind the television programme was simply a group of people getting together and enjoying each other's company.
On to Steph's in Soho
Afterwards we moved on to the famous Steph's in Soho. This second photograph captures the evening rather better than any carefully posed portrait ever could.
For somebody who had once believed this part of their life had to remain hidden, sitting around a restaurant table in Soho with friends was quite a transformation in itself.
“These photographs remind me that confidence did not arrive all at once. It grew through going out, meeting people and discovering that Sophie could simply be part of life.”
From Private Beginnings to a Much Wider WorldThe wider world soon included television too. Those years brought appearances connected with programmes involving Esther Rantzen, Kilroy and Richard Littlejohn — another rather unexpected chapter in Sophie's story.
Television & Media
Learning to Question the Narrative
Television brought some fascinating experiences, but it also taught me an important lesson: being invited to take part is not the same thing as being represented fairly.
Kilroy, Janet & an Eye-Opener
I attended a number of events with Janet Scott, and one of the most memorable was an appearance on Kilroy. It was my first real introduction to the way television could arrive with its own idea of the story it wanted to tell about crossdressing and transgender people.
It was an eye-opener — particularly when it came to narratives. I also remember television experiences connected with Esther Rantzen and Richard Littlejohn, but Kilroy was formative because it made me think much more carefully about how the media framed our community.
The Doc Martin Conversation
Some years later, the producers of Doc Martin contacted us to discuss the possibility of including people they described as “trannies” in a funeral scene.
I was uncomfortable both with the language being used and with the attitude towards properly paying the people they wanted to appear. The conversation reinforced what earlier media experiences had already taught me.
Exposure Is Not the Same as Respectful Representation
Those experiences have served me well over the years. They taught me to look beyond the excitement of an invitation and ask what the purpose is, how people will be portrayed and whether the people involved are being treated with respect.
Friends & Pioneers
The People Who Made Those Years So Special
Looking back, some of my strongest memories are not of particular places or events. They are of the people I met, the friendships we formed and the confidence we gave one another.
Before social media and today's online communities, meeting other people face to face could change everything.
London introduced me to some extraordinary personalities. Some were already creating places, services and events for people like me; others would go on to become important figures in a community that was itself changing rapidly.
I was fortunate enough not simply to know some of these people, but to share evenings, outings and friendships with them. Those memories are an important part of Sophie's story.
Linda Edwards
A Real Personality
Linda Edwards was one of the memorable characters I came to know through the London scene. I remember Linda as having been involved with one of London's early dressing services and as somebody with enormous personality.
Linda also organised Ladies' Day outings to Ascot. I went on several of them, and they became some of those wonderful occasions when dressing was no longer about staying safely behind a closed door.
It was about getting ready, going somewhere special and sharing the day with other people who understood exactly why the experience mattered.
Ladies' Day at Ascot
Hats, Friendship and Going Out
This photograph from one of Linda's Ascot outings brings back a great many memories. Among the group are Steffan Whitfield and Vickie Lee, two people whose names became closely associated with another important part of London's community: the WayOut Club.
Days like this were fun, of course, but there was something more important happening too. Going out into the wider world helped turn confidence into something real. Each outing made the next one feel a little more natural.
For me, these were never just social photographs. They record a period when Sophie was becoming an increasingly comfortable and genuine part of my life.
Steffan Whitfield, Vickie Lee & WayOut
People Who Helped Create Somewhere to Belong
Steffan was much loved and is still very much missed. Together with Vickie Lee, he was there at the beginning of the WayOut Club in London in 1993 — a club that would become an important part of the social world for generations of people discovering the confidence to go out and meet others.
I remember Steffan and Vickie not simply because of what they helped create, but as people from a period of my life filled with friendships, evenings out and experiences that would have seemed unimaginable to the younger me.
“What I remember most is the people. We were all finding our own way, and somehow, by doing it together, the world became a much bigger and less frightening place.”
Friendship, Confidence & CommunityAnother of those friendships would lead into one of the happiest chapters of my story: the early years of Sparkle, working alongside people who were helping to build something that would become much bigger than any of us could have imagined.
A Special Chapter in My Story
The Sparkle Years
Sparkle became another important chapter in my life. I was fortunate to be involved during its early years, to work alongside some remarkable people and, most importantly, to form friendships and memories that have stayed with me ever since.
One of the judging panels from my Sparkle years — with Vickie Lee, Kimberley, Tanya Dawn Hughes and Martine Rose. Looking back, I may also have been showing rather more leg than was strictly necessary!
Being Part of Something New
I became involved with Sparkle during its early days, when there was an enormous amount of enthusiasm, energy and work going on behind the scenes to help it develop.
My involvement was not simply about attending the event. I became involved in the work around establishing its charity status and had the privilege of working alongside people who were giving a great deal of themselves to help Sparkle grow.
Kimberley in particular is someone I remember as a real driving force behind both UK Angels and Sparkle. Alongside people such as Vickie Lee, Tanya Dawn Hughes and Martine Rose, those early years brought together some extraordinary personalities.
People, Friendship & Community
What made those years so special for me was never simply the event itself. It was the people around it — the conversations, the laughter, the work behind the scenes and the feeling that something positive was being created together.
Some people passed through my life for a short time. Others became lasting friends. Those relationships are one of the reasons this period means so much to me when I look back today.
Eventually I stepped away from my involvement with the event, but that did not diminish what those years, or the people I shared them with, meant to me.
“When I think about Sparkle, I don't first think about organisations, meetings or events. I think about people, friendships, laughter and some very happy times.”
Leah True and Sue — two very special people in my life.
Leah True & Sue
Two people who became particularly important to me during those years were Leah True and her partner Sue. They both did so much during the early days of Sparkle, but my memories of them extend far beyond the work we shared there.
We became friends and shared some wonderful times together, including one unforgettable time in Ibiza. Those are memories I continue to treasure.
I feel privileged and proud to call them both my friends. Sue is a rock, and Leah is an inspiration. Their influence on my life deserves far more than a few lines on this page, and it is a story I hope to tell properly elsewhere.
Happy Times
Sparkle was another step in a journey that had already taken me from believing I was alone, to discovering a community, making friends and becoming increasingly involved in the world around me. More importantly, it gave me friendships that reached far beyond any single event. They really were happy times.
Before Google, Social Media & Online Shopping
How We Found Products, Places and Each Other
It is difficult now to remember just how hard information could be to find. Before the internet, discovering a supplier, a safe venue or even evidence that other people shared the same interests could involve a great deal of searching.
One of the few routes I remember was the small adverts in the back of Exchange & Mart. From there came specialist publications, organisations, word of mouth and the gradual discovery of a network that was largely invisible to anyone who did not already know where to look.
Vicki Lee's Tranny Guide
At the time, Vicki Lee's Tranny Guide was a wonderful resource. It brought together venues, places and articles and, as I remember it, grew to cover an extraordinary range of places around the world.
Magazines & Organisations
Repartee, Transliving, the Beaumont Society and Manchester Concord all formed part of the information network. I even wrote a column for Repartee for a brief period. And anyone around the scene at the time is likely to remember personalities such as Jenny Baker.
French Place, London
French Place was another early safe haven in London and is particularly memorable to me because it was where I first met Yvonne Sinclair. Places like this mattered enormously when simply finding somewhere welcoming could be difficult.
Why This Matters to Translife
I had experienced the problem from the customer's side: finding suitable products, useful information and people who genuinely understood could be frustrating. That experience later influenced the kind of specialist business I wanted Translife to become.
From Searching for Information to Providing It
Today's ecommerce shop and Knowledge Centre are modern answers to a problem I remember personally. What once involved classified adverts, specialist magazines and word of mouth can now be made accessible to somebody privately, wherever they happen to be.
From Passion to Profession
Dorren Fashions & Betty Freedman
By around 2000, another important change was taking place in my life. Something that had begun as an intensely personal journey was gradually becoming part of my professional life as well.
Betty Freedman at Dorren Fashions — an important part of the journey that eventually led me to Translife.
A New Direction
Around 2000 I left full-time employment and took a very different direction. I became a 50/50 owner of Dorren Fashions in London with Betty Freedman.
For me, this was an important bridge between the personal and community experiences of the previous years and what would eventually become my own business.
I had spent years learning about presentation, makeup, clothing, wigs and all the practical details that can make such a difference to how somebody feels. Dorren Fashions gave me the opportunity to experience another side of that world — working commercially and understanding what customers actually needed from a specialist business.
Working with Betty
Betty Freedman was already a well-known personality within the scene, and she was certainly a personality in every sense of the word. Working alongside her became another memorable chapter in my life.
It was also an education. The experience helped me understand the realities of running a specialist business and, perhaps even more importantly, reinforced something I had already learned through my own journey: people need to feel comfortable asking for help without embarrassment or judgement.
The products matter, but the way somebody is treated matters just as much. That principle would follow me into everything I subsequently created at Translife.
“Looking back, Dorren Fashions was an important bridge. My own experiences had taught me what it felt like to be the customer; working in the business began teaching me how to provide the understanding and service that customer deserved.”
Then Came Translife
Two years later, in 2002, I started my own business: Translife Limited. It wasn't the beginning of my story. It was the point at which everything that had come before — the personal journey, the friendships, the community, the makeup, the fashion and the commercial experience — began to come together.
A New Chapter
2002 — Translife Limited Begins
By 2002, the different parts of my life had begun to come together. My own experiences, the people I had met, my passion for makeup, the years within the community and my first experience of specialist retail had all taught me something. It was time to take the next step.
My Own Business, Built From My Own Experience
In 2002 I started Translife Limited. It was a new business, but the understanding behind it had been developing for many years.
I knew what it was like to search for somewhere to go, to wonder whether I would be understood, to need advice without wanting to feel embarrassed and to experience the excitement — and sometimes the nerves — that can accompany exploring this part of yourself.
Translife gave me the opportunity to turn those experiences into something practical for other people.
I Had Already Been the Customer
One of the most important things I brought to Translife could not be learned from a business manual. I had already been the person on the other side of the counter and the other side of the dressing table.
I understood the questions people sometimes find difficult to ask, the importance of discretion and the enormous difference that patient, knowledgeable help can make.
More Than Simply Selling Products
From the beginning, I wanted Translife to be about more than simply selling something. The right wig, clothing, footwear, makeup or other feminine products can be important, but so is helping somebody feel comfortable while choosing them.
That combination of specialist products and personal understanding became an important part of the way I wanted Translife to work.
Translife Didn't Begin From a Blank Sheet of Paper
By the time I started the company, every previous chapter had contributed something to the way I thought about the people Translife would serve.
Years of discovering and developing Sophie taught me what many customers themselves were experiencing.
London, the Philbeach, WayOut, Sparkle and the people I met showed me the importance of belonging and being understood.
Makeup, fashion and my time with Dorren Fashions helped turn personal knowledge into practical commercial experience.
“2002 wasn't the beginning of Sophie. It was the year a much longer personal journey finally became Translife.”
The Story Continued
Translife would continue to change and develop over the years, but the experience behind it remained personal. The business I started in 2002 grew from the same understanding that had shaped my own journey — and that experience would eventually become particularly important in the development of the Translife Dressing Service.
As Translife Grew
From Specialist Ecommerce to Theatre & Stage
As the commercial side of Translife developed, the specialist products we sourced began attracting enquiries from outside the original customer base — including theatre and production companies looking for things that were not always easy to find elsewhere.
Lara Croft
One enquiry I distinctly remember involved very large silicone breast forms for someone playing Lara Croft. It is the sort of specialist request that illustrates how unusual the product knowledge within Translife could sometimes be.
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Translife also supplied footwear connected with Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. As a supplier I attended a pre-opening rehearsal, and I particularly remember Priscilla at the Palace Theatre in March 2009.
Kinky Boots
We later supplied footwear connected with Kinky Boots. That had a special resonance for me because I had met Steve Pateman in Northampton years before the film and theatre production existed.
Meeting Steve Pateman Before Kinky Boots
I met Steve long before most people knew the story that would eventually become Kinky Boots. His original company had folded and, as I remember it, he was then involved with Divine Shoes.
At the time there was no way I could have known where his story would eventually lead. Years later, seeing the name connected with a major film and stage production — while Translife itself was supplying specialist footwear connected with the production — gave the whole thing a very personal sense of connection.
Business Was Growing, but Sophie Was Still Going Out
Around this same period I was also attending the Powder Room at Heaven, under the arches in London. That overlap says a great deal about those years: Translife was becoming a serious specialist commercial business while Sophie remained very much part of an active social life.
There Was a Life Beyond Translife Too
Travel, Discretion and a Wider World
People who know me through Translife are sometimes surprised by how different other parts of my life have been. Those experiences are not the main story of this page, but they have certainly influenced the person clients and customers meet today.
Discretion Was Not a New Concept
Earlier in my working life I spent time at AWRE — the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment — working under the Official Secrets Act.
I do not use that as a marketing claim, but it is perhaps fair to say that discretion, respecting private information and knowing when something should remain confidential were concepts I understood long before Translife existed.
A Life of Travel
I have travelled extensively — Australia, the United States, much of Europe, the Middle East and Asia among them. Egypt remains a particular favourite.
Travel has meant meeting people from very different cultures and backgrounds, along with more than a few memorable characters and stories along the way.
Sophie Beyond the UK
I have also gone out and presented femininely in a number of countries, including the USA, Finland, Thailand, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Spain and France. In Finland I also attended Pride. These were not simply holidays with a suitcase of clothes; they were experiences of being Sophie in unfamiliar surroundings, supporting events and seeing how different places responded.
“Perhaps one advantage of having lived a fairly varied life is that very little surprises me when someone walks through the door at Translife.”
From 2002 to Today
Shop, Learn & Experience
Translife today is much broader than any one part of the business. The ecommerce shop, information resources and Dressing Service all grew from the same basic idea: specialist knowledge is most useful when it is practical, accessible and delivered without judgement.
Specialist Ecommerce
The online shop provides the products Translife has spent years learning about — from wigs, breast forms and lingerie to hosiery, footwear and other elements of feminine presentation. The commercial side of Translife is not separate from my story; it grew directly from having once struggled to find suitable products myself.
Knowledge & Practical Guidance
The Translife Knowledge Centre and the material I share online are the modern counterpart to the magazines, guides, organisations and conversations that helped me years ago. Today that information can be available privately to someone at home, wherever they live.
The Dressing Service
The Dressing Service brings the personal side of Translife together in one-to-one appointments, combining makeup, styling, specialist products and the understanding that comes from having experienced the journey from both sides of the dressing table.
Crossdressing Lifestyle
The Crossdressing Lifestyle YouTube channel is another way I have been able to share what I have learned, including makeup demonstrations filmed in the Bognor Regis studio.
The technology is completely different from the classified adverts and specialist magazines of my early years, but the principle is very similar: useful information can give somebody confidence to take their next step.
Visit Crossdressing LifestyleAnd the Person Behind It?
Andrew and Sophie remain two presentations of the same person. I carry out most Dressing Service appointments as Andrew, while Sophie remains a very real part of the experience, history and understanding I bring to Translife. For Platinum appointments I can also prepare and present as Sophie where that would help support the experience.
A Personal History
Sophie Through the Years
No single photograph or date tells the whole story. These are some of the moments, people and places that mark the journey from those early years of uncertainty to the Sophie — and the Translife — you see today.
Believing I Was the Only One
Like many people growing up at that time, I had no idea how many others shared the same feelings. What initially seemed like something I had to understand alone eventually became the beginning of a much bigger journey.
Ron Storm, the Philbeach & a New World
Discovering Ron Storm and the Monday-night gatherings at the Philbeach Gardens Hotel opened the door to a world I had hardly known existed. Suddenly I was meeting people, making friends and discovering that I was far from alone.
Ron Storm photograph courtesy of Felicity Nicole April Kelly.
Monday Nights at the Philbeach
The Philbeach became one of those places where confidence grew naturally. Monday-night get-togethers, Jimmy behind the bar and the chance simply to spend time with other people made those evenings memorable.
My Makeover with Pandora Depledge
Sitting in somebody else's makeup chair and seeing the finished transformation gave me an experience I still remember when somebody sits at my own dressing table today.
In Front of Nickie May's Camera
My first proper studio photographic session with Nickie May in London was another milestone. Photographs could capture something that sometimes felt difficult to hold onto in everyday life.
London, Friends & Going Out
By this point Sophie was no longer somebody who existed only in private. London evenings, friends, social events and nights out helped turn uncertainty into confidence.
Friendship, Involvement & Happy Times
Sparkle brought another period of involvement, friendships and memories. I was fortunate to be part of those early years and to work alongside people who became important parts of my life.
Leah True & Sue
Some friendships became much bigger than the events where they began. Leah and Sue are two people I am privileged and proud to call friends — Sue a rock, and Leah an inspiration.
Finding Products, Information & Safe Places
Exchange & Mart, specialist magazines, Vicki Lee's Tranny Guide, organisations and word of mouth were part of the network that helped me find products, places and other people before today's online world existed.
Dorren Fashions & Betty Freedman
Becoming a 50/50 owner of Dorren Fashions with Betty Freedman marked the point where years of personal experience began turning into practical commercial experience.
Translife Limited Begins
In 2002 I started Translife Limited. It was not the beginning of Sophie, but the moment when a much longer journey — personal, social and professional — became my own business.
Ecommerce, Theatre & Specialist Supply
As Translife developed commercially, specialist products brought enquiries from theatre and production companies, including memorable connections with Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Kinky Boots.
Sophie Around the World
Over the years I have also gone out as Sophie in countries including the USA, Finland, Thailand, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Spain and France, including attending Pride in Finland.
Makeup, Translife & Crossdressing Lifestyle
Today the journey continues through Translife, the Dressing Service, makeup and the Crossdressing Lifestyle YouTube channel. The way I share experience has changed, but the reason for sharing it has not.
This Isn't a Finished Timeline
There are many other people, photographs and stories that belong somewhere between these moments — and some deserve pages of their own. This is simply a glimpse at a journey that has continued for decades and is still being written today.
What It Means Today
What My Journey Means for Today's Client
The history on this page matters to me personally, but there is also a practical reason for telling it. Everything I have experienced over the years influences the way I welcome and support somebody who comes to Translife today.
Experience from both sides of the dressing table. Long before I was helping somebody else discover their feminine presentation, I was learning, experimenting, worrying, asking questions and discovering Sophie for myself.
I Understand the Nerves
Walking into a dressing service for the first time can be a very big step. I understand that because there was a time when I was taking those first steps myself. You do not need to arrive knowing exactly what you want or knowing all the right terminology.
There Is No Single Way to Be Feminine
Years of makeup, styling and personal experience have taught me that femininity is individual. My role is not to impose a single look on everybody. It is to help discover the presentation that feels right for the person in front of me.
I Know Why the Details Matter
Makeup, wigs, clothing, footwear, shaping and accessories can all contribute to the finished look. Just as importantly, patience, privacy and being treated with respect can determine how the entire experience feels.
The Experience Does Not Come From Theory
My understanding comes from decades of personal experience, friendships, community involvement, specialist retail, makeup work and running Translife since 2002. I have lived much of the journey I am now helping other people explore.
Andrew, Sophie & Your Appointment
Andrew and Sophie are the same person. In everyday life I am Andrew, and it is as Andrew that I carry out the majority of Translife Dressing Service appointments.
Sophie is my feminine presentation and remains a very real part of my life and experience. For Platinum appointments, I can also prepare and present as Sophie where that would help support the experience.
Whichever presentation you meet, the knowledge, memories and personal understanding described throughout this page belong to the same person.
A Dressing Service Built Around the Individual
A private one-to-one setting where you can explore your feminine presentation without having to perform for anybody.
Support from someone who knows personally what uncertainty, excitement and discovery can feel like.
Practical knowledge developed over many years of makeup, styling, specialist products and working with clients.
Ready to Discover Your Own Feminine Presentation?
You do not need to have everything worked out before contacting me. If you are considering a Translife Dressing Service appointment, the enquiry form is simply the starting point for a conversation about what you would like from your experience.