An artist at heart, Sigrid discovered her passion for textiles in 1974 after graduating from Montserrat College of Art in Beverly MA. She explored a variety of media—weaving, painting, printmaking—until she discovered she could hand print fabric with stamps she cut from potatoes. From there, she developed a line of unique printed items that she sold through craft markets and her small coop gallery in Rockport MA.
Through out the early eighties, Sigrid’s funky, artistic designs grew in popularity. And then in in 1985, she founded Segrets Sun Prints with two partners and her fashion line was born.Her prints highlighted imagery from nature--birds, fish, leaves, flowers, clouds and ocean waves.
Over the next two decades, the company (renamed Sigrid Olsen) grew exponentially, and was eventually sold to Liz Claiborne Inc in 1999. As creative Director, she oversaw the expansion of the brand until it was closed during the economic downturn in 2008.
The next decade gave Sigrid a chance to return to her roots as an artist and also to integrate her love for yoga and meditation with her commitment to making women’s lives better. She has led numerous Creative Wellbeing Retreats in the US and abroad, and continues teaching yoga and online guided meditations to this day. Her post-corporate reinvention is artfully told in her visual memoir My Life Re-designed, which was published in 2016.
Fast forward to 2020— during a pre-pandemic trip to India, Sigrid was introduced to Mandira, a fellow textile designer and owner of a small factory workshop in Delhi. Together, they began to produce a collection of hand-crafted clothing featuring Sigrid’s original prints, embroideries and island-inspired color palette. Since then, they have collaborated on countless styles—interpreting Sigrid’s hand carved stamps into wooden blocks for hand printing on woven fabrics  and now Beach to Bistro is well on its way to expanding far beyond Sigrid’s website store to specialty boutiques and resorts across the US.
This new enterprise is Sigrid’s personal expression, an ode to all the things she loves in life: nature (the ocean in particular), art and wellness. Her sense of purpose, happiness, and inner peace stems from the intersection of all these things...and contributes to the uplifting effect of her colorful designs. For Sigrid, Beach to Bistro feels like coming full circle--back to her roots as an artisan entrepreneur, steeped in the serenity of her yoga practice and as always, just a few steps away from her beloved salty sea.
Follow Sigrid on Instagram (@sigridolsen_design, @beachtobistro), Facebook (sigridolsen_design) and Pinterest (Sigrid Olsen). Sign up for more info on yoga, online sharing circles, and retreats (www.sigridolsen.com) and Beach to Bistro news on (www.beachtobistro.com