Savannah Miller Biography

Savannah Miller (born 1980) is an Anglo-American fashion designer. After working with Alexander McQueen and Matthew Williamson, she created the label "Twenty8Twelve" with her sister, Sienna Miller. In October 2012 she launched her own collection, "Savannah".

Early life

Miller was born in New York City. Her father, Ed Miller, is an American dealer in Chinese art, previously a banker, while her mother, Josephine Miller, is a South African model, now retired. She has a sister, Sienna, and two half-brothers, Charles and Stephen. Miller moved to London with her family in the 1980s. On leaving school she went to the Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, graduating in 2004 with a first-class honours BA degree in Fashion and Knitwear.

Career

Miller's first jobs were with Alexander McQueen and Matthew Williamson. In 2006 it was announced that Miller's sister Sienna was to design a "fashion capsule" for Pepe Jeans; this project developed into a fashion label called Twenty8Twelve, still backed by Pepe Jeans, and its first collection, designed by the two sisters, was shown in September 2007. They worked together as joint creative directors until 2012. In October of that year Miller left Twenty8Twelve and launched her own collection, "Savannah", commenting "'It was really time to stand on my own two feet. The first Savannah line focussed on "luxurious basics" and was marketed by Nelly.com. This led on to a Spring 2013 collection, reported as "heavily influenced by the 1970s". The logo of the "Savannah" line is a swallow.

Sometimes associated with the term "boho-chic", in 2006 Miller described a "real bohemian" as "someone who has the ability to appreciate beauty on a deep level, is a profound romantic, doesn't know any limits, whose world is their own creation, rather than living in a box". However, she dislikes the word "bohemian", and the Sunday Times used the term "rural chic" for a collection she designed and modelled for the Hong Kong label Shanghai Tang.

Also an occasional model, Miller has appeared on the cover of Nylon magazine and Sunday Times Style.

Private life

In 2005, Miller married Nick Skinner, a teacher of Bushcraft from Devon, and their first child was a son called Moses. She now lives in London and Gloucestershire with her husband and three children and also has a step-son, Java Skinner.

At home, Miller is an enthusiastic cook and gardener. In Gloucestershire, where the family arrived in 2009, she was inspired by Alys Fowler's The Edible Garden to plant a vegetable garden, and she also grows French and English lavender and sweet-smelling roses. She has described the garden before her arrival as "worryingly ornamental".