Savanna
Savanna’s life has been shaped by movement, motherhood and an instinct to keep asking: what are we doing next?
I met Savanna after we moved to Dunsborough and our children started kindergarten together.
Neither child found the morning separation easy. While they struggled to let us leave, Savanna and I found ourselves spending those early drop-offs together, and becoming friends.
Those children are now close to finishing high school, which feels almost impossible to believe.
Over the years, Savanna has become a friend I value enormously. We do not always see each other often, but whenever we do, we pick up easily. There is nothing forced or complicated about our friendship. Savanna is natural, candid and deeply honest, and that honesty runs through this conversation.
Long before those kindergarten mornings, her life had been shaped by movement. She grew up travelling widely, spending long stretches of time in the United States, where her father is from. Later came modelling, living overseas and a life built around independence and the possibility of somewhere new.
Motherhood changed that rhythm completely.
Savanna had her first daughter, Lolah, at twenty-eight and went on to raise two daughters. After years of looking after herself, she was suddenly responsible for everyone else, all the time.
She speaks honestly about the culture shock of that shift: the love, the demands and the blur of raising two young children. Those years were filled with beach days, parks, horse riding and friends constantly coming and going. Looking back, she sometimes wonders how she managed it all.
Her relationship with clothes changed alongside her life. The short skirts and skinny jeans of her twenties gave way to longer dresses, relaxed denim and pieces she could move in.
Yet her wardrobe still holds earlier versions of herself: a small black motorcycle-style jacket bought while living in London at twenty-two, skeleton-print Converse she could only find overseas, a designer top bought at nineteen and the green earrings she has always loved.
She does not describe herself as materialistic. What matters is the memory held by an object and the life she was living when she found it.
Travel still brings her back to that earlier sense of freedom. Away from home and routine, she worries less, dresses up more and enjoys the anonymity of being somewhere new. It gives her room to feel like herself rather than who other people need her to be.
For our fourth Del Mar Women portrait, Savanna speaks about getting dressed, the reality of motherhood, creating memories, the freedom she finds in travel and having the confidence to follow her own direction.
How has your relationship with getting dressed changed over the years? What do you find yourself reaching for now?
I reach for long skirts, longer dresses and looser-fitting jeans now. In my twenties, it was short skirts and skinny jeans.
These days, comfort matters more. I’m always on the go and I want clothes that are easy to wear and easy to move in.
I remember being at the playground with the girls and realising my old clothes just weren’t going to cut it. I needed to be able to run if I had to.
Do you feel more comfortable in your own skin today than you did when you were younger?
No, probably not.
I was more comfortable physically in my twenties. I was modelling then, so there was a constant expectation that everything had to be perfect, but I was also very fit and had more time for myself.
Afterwards, I rebelled against that pressure a little. I let things go and stopped feeling as though I always had to look a certain way.
Now I know I haven’t made myself enough of a priority. I’m at the point where I want to start walking more and feel stronger again.
I’ve never weighed myself. Even when I was modelling, I would put on a pair of jeans and know whether I needed to eat a little more healthily that week. I notice how I feel, how my clothes fit and whether I feel tired or puffy.
It has always been more intuitive than numbers.
Where in the world do you feel most like yourself?
Probably whenever I’m away from home. It doesn’t even really matter where.
When I travel, I stop worrying. I dress up a little more and it makes me feel good. There is an anonymity to being away; you can just be who you are.
I love my routine, but when I’m outside it, I feel much more alive and more like myself. It brings back the energy and independence I had in my twenties, when I was travelling and discovering somewhere new.
At home, you are often being what someone else needs you to be. When you are away, there is space to be yourself.
Looking back, what experience or season of life has shaped you the most?
Having children flipped my life.
I grew up fiercely independent. I was used to looking after myself, and suddenly I was looking after everyone else, all the time. It was a huge culture shock.
I had Lolah at twenty-eight. Raising two young children is now such a blur that I sometimes wonder how I did it.
We were always doing something. We would be at the beach, the park or horse riding, and we had friends over constantly. It was very go, go, go.
I love being a mother, but I can also be honest about how demanding that change was. I’m glad I had my girls when I was younger. I had the energy for those years, even if I can’t remember all of them clearly now.
As you’ve grown older, what have you learned to hold onto—and what have you learned to let go of?
I’ve learned that memories and experiences are more important.
You have to make an effort to do things that create a memory, especially with children. Otherwise, life can become school, work, home and the same day repeated.
I try to make things fun because that is what they will remember.
I’m also learning not to get caught up in things, hold onto grudges or worry so much about other people’s opinions. As you get older, you realise that life moves on and it is too short to carry all of that.
Tell us about something you own that you could never replace. What story does it carry?
My photographs and photo albums. I love the memories they hold.
I’ve also kept clothes from different parts of my life. I’m not very materialistic, but I find it hard to throw away things that have meaning.
I still have a small black motorcycle-style jacket I bought while living in London when I was twenty-two. I have a pair of Converse with skeletons on them that I found there, and a designer top I bought when I was nineteen.
They are all still hanging in my wardrobe. I always think I might wear them again—and sometimes I do.
I’ve kept jewellery from those years too, especially green earrings. I used to wear a lot of big jewellery, and those pieces still hold memories for me.
What would you want to tell the younger woman you once were?
Do what you want to do and go in your own direction instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing.
Have the confidence to pave your own way.
A Few Things Savanna Loves
A place I’ll always return to…
Yallingup.
A meal that always feels like home…
Mexican.
A book that has stayed with me…
The Man Who Listens to Horses.
A piece of clothing I’ll never part with…
My jeans.
An object I treasure…
My green earrings.
The scent that instantly grounds me…
The ocean.
A daily ritual I couldn’t live without…
Feeding the horses.
A woman I admire…
My mother.
Something I’m learning to embrace…
Other people’s opinions.
Luxury, to me, is…
White sheets.
With Thanks
With thanks to Yala Yallingup for so generously welcoming us and allowing us to photograph Savanna’s portrait at their beautiful Yallingup retreat.
Del Mar Women is an ongoing portrait series celebrating women through personal style, lived experience and the stories that shape who we become.
