It’s been less than eight years since Savannah Engel (who got her public relations start with Michael Kors and later Barney’s) decided to branch out on her own, but she’s quickly set herself apart from the traditional PR set. With the launch of Savi in 2017, Engel put the focus on community, working with fashion clients like Markarian, PatBO and Ciao Lucia across all areas of their business to connect with customers in a new way.
“We really want to change the game,” Engel tells Observer of expanding brands’ reach beyond traditional press. “I came from the old world of fashion, which was quite structured and inaccessible in a way, but our industry has changed so much, so quickly,” she explains. “Social media has opened up the fashion industry so that it’s accessible to everyone. In the U.S., it’s not just about New York, Miami and Los Angeles, anymore; there are consumers across the country to consider, and they are culturally very different.”
To keep up with these changes, Engel and her New York City-based team, which doubled in size in 2023, prioritize brand-building through collaborations and VIP and influencer relationships. And while that can mean dressing Beyoncé (as was the case when the singer wore custom PatBO during her Renaissance world tour in 2023), Engel notes that it can also be something less traditional, such as working with a chef in Memphis, Tennessee, or throwing a block party in support of a charitable organization (the latter of which Savi did for newly-signed luxury sunglass label Krewe when they shut down NYC’s Gansevoort Street for a New Orleans-inspired crawfish bowl that raised funds for Memorial Sloan Kettering).
But before all of that, Engel started the year in Washington, D.C., alongside Markarian designer Alexandra O’Neill and Dr. Jill Biden. Attending the ceremony that placed Dr. Jill Biden’s inaugural look (created by O’Neill) alongside the First Ladies Collection in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Engel spoke of the sense of pride she had in celebrating the historical moment with O’Neill—a longtime friend of Engel’s and Savi’s first official client. And that can be said for each of the brands Savi works with. “I’m very lucky that my team is super passionate about what they do, and we’re a family,” says Engel, who notes they’ll be working on some exciting rebrands in the year ahead. “Our clients are family, too, and when they have a win, we’re cheering with them.”
