How Millie Savage Became the Rockstar of Australian Jewellery

AMONG Australian jewellery fans, no name makes faces light up quite like Millie Savage.

As a brand, Millie Savage has grown to become a beacon of creativity; infused with fun, colour and a distinct magnetism. As a person, founder Millie Savage is no different.

You would be forgiven for thinking Savage’s eponymous label was somewhat of an overnight success. After all, it seems as if Millie Savage entered our collective consciousness at the same time, where it has made welcome residency ever since. A hard launch for the ages, of sorts.

But, as much as we love an instant Aussie success story, that could not be further from the truth.

Savage began making jewellery nine years ago, having started out as a painter (which she soon found out she “wasn’t very good” at, she tells me) before discovering a love of jewellery making.

“When I started out, I wasn’t very good at making jewellery,” she tells me. “I just kind of taught myself… So I’ve always been like a firm believer in just doing it. And learning as you go.”

This trust in the process was somewhat of a hallmark of Millie Savage in its early days. In the beginning, Savage would make pieces for friends, sell them at markets or outside shops. Occasionally, she’d even swap them for meat pies. As long as she could cover her costs, she could do it again. And that was what mattered.

I like to see myself as a PICTURE FRAMER and the STONES are the ARTWORK

At the time, she explains “I just partied really hard… and I just wanted to paint and make jewellery and sort of be.” Naturally, she had to be her own boss. “I’d been fired from every job I’ve ever had. My own dad fired me twice,” she laughs.

An anecdote from when Savage was living in Bali for a period encapsulates the essence of the brand’s infancy, where the company was just her and a friend, “sitting in this tiny garage. We just play music in our bikinis on hot summer days, make jewellery, have a bath at lunchtime, and hang out.”

Today, with an in-person store and cult-favourite status, the brand is a different beast entirely.

Over COVID, the business grew rapidly — in Savage’s words, “it’s just gone absolutely bananas” — growing from three staff to 15 full-timers in the space of a few short years.

For many business owners, rapid mass growth indicates a need for substantial change. However, despite increasing demand, for Savage, the maintenance of quality and creativity is non-negotiable.

“I like to see myself as a picture framer and the stones are the artwork, Savage explains. “I just make the metal around it and frame it in a place where it’s harmonious… like a mini art piece for your finger”.

“I don’t want to create trash,” she says. “I do have like a cheaper line of jewellery, but I kind of say that it’s an opportunity for people who might not have as much money, or younger kids to get into the brand and understand and have a piece. And then when they’re 30, and they’re getting engaged, they pick my rings, and then that’s when I get to have the fun of it.”

The creative process is still “100 per cent chaos,” though. “We just take [the stones] on the bench, and I just scatter them like, Oh, these colours work really well together; these are very harmonious; these look good contrasting, and then I just kind of just see how they like to fit in in their frame and how they want to be together.”

It’s been about finding balance in the chaos; trying to find an equilibrium between expanding the business and keeping pieces authentic, maintaining the creative flair and quality on which the foundations of the brand’s status was built.

So, what has changed?

“I think the thing that’s changed the most is my responsibility — and my decision to actually have some,” she jokes. “I’ve always had ADD. I was medicated from when I was like seven to 15, and then I just refused to take tablets after that. But I was pretty f—cking wild. In primary school and high school my concentration was terrible. [Now] I feel like it’s my superpower, that I could really harness it. I still f*ck up all the time, but I also have this thing called hyperfocus, [so] I can sit down on a bench and make for 12 hours.”

“When I was younger, I didn’t like that responsibility. I didn’t like that aspect, so I didn’t try and take advantage of it. And now that I can, I’m happy to sit down and do 12 hours of work — and work really hard.”

Throughout our conversation, it is beyond clear just how hard Savage has worked for her business flourish, and to create authentic, high-quality, wearable art. She also refuses to take full credit for it.

Prior to COVID, Savage spent several years living in Indonesia. Working hard, playing hard, creating a team and laying the foundations for the brand that would soon go stratospheric.

“When I was a kid just doing this, it was fun and then one day, I just got up and I decided I could do this on a tropical island. So I moved to a country I’ve never been to, and I lived there for three years.” Again, an anecdote that both shaped and speaks to the underlying free spirit of the brand.

Jewellery-making is an incredibly male-dominated field — especially in Indonesia, where Savage explains it is very much considered “a man’s job”. So when it came time to find staff for the business, she built a team from the ground up.

“I just found some girls who I liked their attitude or they had really cool personalities that I thought I could spend and grow this journey with. And then I just trained them from scratch, and they’re still working for me.”

Since, as the company has grown, Savage has only hired women.

“Having a space where women don’t feel uncomfortable around men in a workshop is really important,” she explains. Plus, “Half the time we’re just running around joking… like we all work hard and we do buckle down, but we also hang out and get drinks together.” She adds, “It’s not that a male couldn’t fit in that environment, but it’s very safe and very feminine”.

Just KEEP MAKING — make as MUCH as you CAN

It’s through cultivating her superstar team that Savage has been able to take a step back.

She no longer has to “work 12 hours a day,” instead splitting her time between Naarm, where the Millie Savage store is located, and Anglesea (where she owns goats and horses and a peacock).

“I still design, but I’m a business person before I’m a jeweller,” she explains. Finding a work-life balance was a work-in-progress for many years, the final achievement of which, again, she credits largely to the help of her team.

“The thing about work is I actually really like it,” she tells me. The old adage, follow your passions and you’ll never work a day in your life, seems to ring true, in a way. But she cautions young creatives in entering a business model based on your creative love; “You really need to consider if you want to capitalise on your hobby, or this thing that you love, that sacred thing for you. Because if you do, it’s hard to get that special spot back, it turns into work.”

“And if you like work, that’s okay. But if you don’t like work, and it puts pressure on you, and it changes it into something else, well, then that’s not ideal.”

Another piece of advice she offers is to, “just keep making — make as much as you can.”

“And I couldn’t have done this without my team. I have a team of women that support me and make this happen with me. And I’m just really grateful to have them in my life,” she adds.

Now, it feels as if Millie Savage, both the person and brand, are at the height of their creative powers. But, for the rockstar of Australia’s jewellery industry, this is really just the beginning.

“I think right now I’m in a spot where I’m like, oh, it’s safe. So what are we doing next? Which is really fun, because you want to be pushing boundaries and finding out what’s next and where you’re going to go”.