About Sascha
With 3 degrees including BA in French & a Master of Science in International Relations from Edinburgh Uni, it was the year at Aix en Provence studying Political Science that made Sascha plan to work in the UN.
However, at 23 she landed her first job as a TV presenter on a travel documentary going to Cuba.
Speaking Spanish & with a drama background ( Webber Douglas Academy ) it proved to be a great success where she became fascinated & gained experience behind the camera, nearly getting a much coveted interview with Castro.
After this 'baptism of fire' she was then asked to set up, run, direct and produce Oxford’s local TV station, all while being the anchor presenter.
The responsibility of filming, editing & churning out a 2 hour show to deadline every week was challenging but proved to be an amazing grounding experience & a career in TV followed.
Painting
She worked her way up as a news journalist for Sky News, E! Entertainment TV & GMTV news as an input producer, later culminating in her own undercover small documentary about Moon Bears in China.
It was during her in-between days, working at Sky News that Sascha made up the rest of her money at an antiques shop. There, suddenly feeling desperate to paint, all she had was “ the coffee i was drinking and the ink in my pen! ” Thus started her first ever series of ‘Coffee & Ink’ paintings made from real coffee.
Sascha’s love for animals started at an early age with month long Christmases spent at her beloved granny’s house in the Maraval mountains in Trinidad when she would escape with her older brother Kirk, to explore the nearby jungle.
Instead of playing with plastic toys, she would rescue all sorts of animals along the way. This started a deep rooted connection with nature where she felt at one with the animals who became 'brothers and sisters'
Meanwhile, back at the house, her 'Granny Teddy' was running her own fashion business on the top floor.
“I remember walking in and the floors were strewn with beautiful lace, ribbons & all sorts of colourful material while all the girls were singing & laughing, happy at work, with the hum of the Singer sewing machines purring in the background.”
This childhood thundered. Growing up next to Portobello Road, buying 2nd hand vintage clothes with Granny Teds by her side, a love of fashion & self expression through clothes was sealed.
A stark contrast to life at St Mary’s Convent, Ascot.
Sascha's first fashion design was made for her bridesmaids dresses
Her mother was also a fashion designer & owned a cool boutique in Barbados in Sandy Lane in the 70’s, later turning her hands to interior design & putting Holland Park on the map. With this background, it made Sascha question as a teenager, how & where new clothes were coming from.
The journalist in her soon uncovered the horror story of how fast fashion not only disempowered poor women & children but kept them in cycle of slavery, while polluting their home environment.
She learnt that, through the dying process, the effluent from the factories brings toxicity ( lead and mercury) into the rivers and waterways where mothers & children bathe, causing cancer.
Babe Rainbow
This triggered Sascha’s determination to change the system & protect these vulnerable families from the detrimental effects of the fast fashion industry.
She teamed up with Georgie Macintyre to create their own sustainable fashion label.
‘Babe Rainbow’ was born & it was the first collection to use a completely new technology in India that bypassed the whole dying process.
The brainwave was to create NEW Vintage of the iconic Sixties style. By re-using the old sewing patterns of the 1960’s when the housewives used to sew copies of high glam outfits.
They trialed the first dress at Ascot with Sascha’s Brazilian painting on Tencil fabric ( Biodegradable & made from Eucalyptus trees ) and it worked !
Activism
On a deeper level at the young age of 21, Sascha found herself on a spiritual journey to holy place in Venezuela (where Mary appeared to a peasant girl in Betania ) here she underwent a transformative experience.
With phenomena happening in the sky, the sun spinning on its axis , she had a full enlightenment experience where she suddenly saw the colour of people’s auras, filled with immense bliss & joy she also received downloads of knowledge. However, Sascha decided to keep this quiet as she felt people at the time would not understand.
Years later, as a mother of 3 boys, living in the countryside Sascha fell ill from mould poisoning in her home (the basement had flooded). This then triggered a virus, chronic fatigue, insomnia & early onset menopause .
This ‘breakdown' kicked off a whole new healing journey that soon became a new catalyst for spiritual growth.
The process of fighting to heal herself reflected deeply for her in the healing of the planet & she stepped up her activism.
Painting once again came to the rescue & she finally conquered the illness to come out even stronger & happier than before.
Inspiration for Sascha has been drawn from times such as a month long honeymoon exploring the Amazon Jungle studying animals or falling in love with Brazil & life on Rio beach to Kenya’s wildlife and SriLanka’s elephants.
Sascha is also a teacher (project to help re-introduce art back into the curriculum), a ‘Stop Ecocide’ advocate & lives in West London with her husband & 3 kids.