Savannah Friedkin has long felt a calling to design fine jewelry. “It’s a form of self-expression,” she muses. “I’ve never owned—or seen—a piece of jewelry that honors all of the unique facets of what makes me beautiful: the broken pieces, the twists and turns in my life.”
But as someone who grew up committed to conservation—her father, Dan Friedkin, is the chairman and CEO of Friedkin Group, which owns Auberge Resorts Collection and champions conservation efforts in both Texas and Tanzania—she struggled to find a fine jewelry company that reflected her values. “It was clear to me when I was looking for my path in fine jewelry that there were very few brands, if any, that were focused on sustainability,” she says. “When a brand did claim to be focused on sustainability, their claims weren’t very transparent—or, on occasion, even consisted of misinformation.”
So, in the spring of 2024, she launched her own namesake brand for people who love the planet. Friedkin follows strict guidelines. For one thing, she only uses earth-friendly materials, including recycled gold and carbon-neutral lab-grown diamonds. “Our diamonds are 100 percent traceable,” she says. “I have personally seen where they are grown, cut, and set.” Each supplier and manufacturer the brand employs undergoes an independent audit to ensure they comply with green standards.
But the pieces can’t simply be beautiful. They must serve as vessels for deep personal meaning. Broken, the first collection Friedkin designed, is reflective of “the resilience inherent in women. I believe the broken within all of us can be beautiful—and should be celebrated,” she adds. The pieces feature a crack motif, a message to the wearer that “the negative space in each of us, the things left unseen, are often some of the most beautiful and interesting elements.”
Next came Emergence, a collection inspired by wild plants that grow in the cracks of buildings or sidewalks. It’s an image that the designer finds powerful: “It reminds me of when you’re going through a difficult time, in a situation you never thought you would be in. You take one step forward day-by-day, finding your path over time and eventually learning to flourish.”
SAV, the third collection, taps into a brighter facet of the human experience. Put plainly, it’s about “the simple and fun,” notes the designer.
Friedkin hopes that the more people interact with her work—she currently has a pop-up shop traveling the United States making stops at Hotel Jerome in Aspen; the Mayflower Inn and Spa in Litchfield County, Connecticut; the Barn, SoulCycle’s base in Bridgehampton; and Bowie House in Fort Worth, Texas—the more she can inspire people to share her approach to sustainable (and meaningful) jewelry-making standards.
“I believe the industry is in the process of a major shift,” asserts Friedkin. In the end, she muses, what matters most is that that one’s treasured jewelry “has zero impact on the environment and only positive impacts on human beings.”
