JNS
“I am a mom who dresses my kids, and I’m also screaming into my megaphone about antisemitism,” the social-media influencer and clothing line designer told JNS.
When the children’s clothing company Tottini invited her to a design meeting in 2022 to discuss her curating a collection, Lizzy Savetsky wasn’t sure why she needed to schlep from Dallas to Lakewood, N.J.
“I thought, ‘Can’t we just do this over Zoom?’” the 39-year-old Jewish social media “influencer” and pro-Israel advocate told JNS. (Her following on Instagram was about 415,000 at press time.)
But after she had handled fabric samples in Tottini’s warehouse and outlined patterns and imagined outfits, Savetsky was brought back to a childhood dream.
“From when I was in the second grade, I used to stay up at night when my mom thought I would be sleeping and I’d be in my closet trying on clothes and putting together outfits,” she told JNS during an hour-long conversation in her apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “Fashion has always been such a huge part of my self-expression.”
Clad in a denim jacket and jeans and a large, diamond-encrusted, chai necklace, Savetsky told JNS that she opted for Uggs for comfort.
“I don’t think dressing well is frivolous at all,” she said. “If anything, it’s a reflection of how we want to present ourselves from the inside, and I think we actually don’t put enough thought about that, especially the Jewish community, into the idea of ‘packaging.’”
She cited the example of the “PR war” in which Israel is involved. “The idea of packaging matters, and I think it’s the same way for us as individuals,” she told JNS.
‘Wild West’
After earning a master’s degree in multicultural education at the University of Pennsylvania, Savetsky found herself feeling “so burnt out from the academic space and turned off by that pseudo-intellectual environment,” she told JNS.
“I didn't even know what the word ‘woke’ was, but this was 2010, and all of that was just starting, and I felt it in a very profound way,” she said. “I was so idealistic, and I loved doing my field work and working with the students, but in terms of the academic space, I just felt like these are not my people.”
She launched an online presence the following year and became a fashion and lifestyle blogger. In 2013, she shifted to Instagram.
“I remember going to my parents and saying, ‘I’m going to quit my job and just do my blog and Instagram full time,’ and they were like, ‘What’s a blog?’” she said. “They were so confused, because it was such a new career path. Nowadays, people see being an influencer as a career, but back then, nobody did that.”
Savetsky had listed that she is a Zionist on her social media biographies since 2017. But everything changed after war broke out between Gazan terror groups and Israel in 2021 in what would be called “Operation Guardian of the Walls.”
“Before May of 2021, I would have told you that I was a combination of a mommy fashion lifestyle hybrid influencer, who still was very outspoken about Judaism and Israel, though that wasn’t what I led with,” she said.
“I had been unapologetic about my stance and have been loud and proud, but 2021 was a real turning point for me when I saw the social-media world just explode with hate for Israel,” she told JNS. (She estimates that she lost 30,000 followers on social media in 2021.)
The Jew-hatred that spread online was a wake-up call for her to pivot in the way that she leveraged her prominent voice.
“I didn’t know that Instagram or social media could be used for advocacy, because obviously, when I started this platform in 2011, it was just aesthetically pleasing images and a grid,” she said. “I never in a million years thought that Instagram would be the vehicle that I would be using to stand up for the Jewish people.”
“It’s sort of like the Wild West for me, making it up as I go along and blazing a trail,” she told JNS. “It has felt so natural, even more so than the mommy fashion lifestyle blogging stuff, it feels like exactly what I was supposed to be doing.”
Juggling act
As her platform shifted toward full-time Jewish advocacy, Savetsky’s work as an influencer had to evolve, including the decision which sorts of brands made good partners.
The Jewish-owned brand Tottini felt like a natural fit that helped her align her work and her values.
“I am a mom who dresses my kids, and I’m also screaming into my megaphone about antisemitism,” she said. “I think Jewish people as a whole are juggling with this globally, trying to figure out how to live our normal lives and also step into this new role as being a voice for the Jewish people.”
She told JNS that she has sent “a ton” of shipments to Israel, particularly in the past year, from her Tottini line.
“When I call them up and I say, ‘Look, we need to hold on launching, because the war just started back up,’ they say to me, ‘Of course, no problem,’ because they understand,” she said of Tottini.
Domestically, she said it is important to her that her designs remain affordable for families. “They can come to one place and get Shabbos clothes, swimsuits, cover-ups and even camp clothes—all in a one-stop shop and not walk out having to get a second mortgage,” Savetsky said.
She told JNS that she is “on a very different path than other fashion influencers, and I had already made this commitment to myself that I wanted to devote my platform full time to the Jewish people and spreading the truth for Israel.”
“Especially after Oct. 7, I had a long-term partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue, and I had content due around Oct. 10, and I just said to them, ‘I can’t do this right now,’” she said. “I don’t know if I’d be able to work with a brand that didn’t get ideologically where I am right now. I could not ask for a better partner in Tottini, and I get emotional even talking about it.”
It feels like God “handed me this opportunity,” she said.
‘So fun’
Savetsky told JNS that she works with Tottini and its factories abroad to select fabric a year in advance. This year’s spring-summer line is inspired by her Texas upbringing.
“The seersucker and gingham fabric choices are a nod to my southern roots,” she said. “I grew up in Texas, and it just feels sweet and proper to have kids dressed in those styles.”
“Seeing how the factory is able to bring my vision to life is the coolest feeling in the world,” she said. “I can come up with these insane ideas and then execute them, and it’s so fun that they let me do it.”
“If I say I want to put a gingham ruffle on a strawberry swimsuit, they are like, that’s crazy, but OK, we’ll try it.”
