No Plain Jane
Jane Seymour dishes on Ralph Lauren, her three new furniture lines and the possession she always grabs when wildfires get too close to her Malibu home
By the numbers: Nine books, six children and three new furniture collections keep Jane Seymour on her creative toes. Image courtesy of Jane Seymour
The idea is to create an environment that speaks to your personality,” says actress Jane Seymour about her decorating philosophy. “Have fun with style and beauty and don’t be afraid if it is right or wrong.”
Seymour, who played the lead in the long-running TV show “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman” and has also starred in numerous films, is an accomplished designer. She has designed everything from accessories and jewelry to furniture, fabrics and carpeting, and she has authored nine books. On the personal side, Seymour and her husband, director James Keach, have six children between them. (Clearly, her next book should be on time management.)
This spring, Seymour begins a new chapter with three new furniture collections she is creating in association with designer Michael Amini. “I love taking something traditional and updating it,” she says. “My whole life I’ve been photographing and taking notes on things I like and think are interesting, and this is an opportunity to bring all these elements together.”
HOMESTYLE: Which is harder – acting or designing?
JANE SEYMOUR: They’re both hard. But that’s really not how I look at things. It’s more about how a project, whether it’s acting or designing, makes me feel. Am I excited by it? Do I feel passionate about it? Basically, I’m a happy camper as long as I feel I’m being creative.
HS: Does acting influence your designing?
JS: Very much so. As an actress, I get to travel and see things and work with talented people, and all that affects my design aesthetic. It’s a great privilege and I take full advantage of it. For example, I did a film in Nova Scotia recently that was shot during the fall. The colors of the trees and landscape there were so extraordinary. I came back wanting to use those colors in the fabrics I’m designing.
HS: This spring you’re going to be unveiling three new furniture collections. How would you describe them?
JS: One is very traditional, one has more of a country feel and the third is modern with some Hollywood touches. They’re mainly inspired by houses I’ve lived in and places I’ve visited over the years. The traditional collection, for example, was partially inspired by the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan, a beautiful old 19th century resort hotel where I shot “Somewhere In Time” with Christopher Reeve.
HS: I’ve been to the Grand. It’s Ralph Lauren before Ralph Lauren.
JS: And I love Ralph Lauren. In some ways he interprets what I grew up with. He has a beautiful vision.
HS: Do you make any kind of distinction between style and comfort?
JS: I’m not interested in designing museum pieces. I don’t think crazy lines and ridiculous color combinations do anybody much good. My customer wants furniture that’s stylish and different but he or she also wants something livable and, what’s especially important today, affordable. I’m basically a very practical person. You have to be when you have six children.
HS: Do you have a favorite style?
JS: I’m pretty objective about styles and periods. The only one I’m a little tired of is Scandinavian. I like furniture to be a little more substantial than that – when I lean on it, I want there to be something there to lean on.
HS: How important is color in your designs?
JS: I love color and I love coordinating colors. My favorites are natural colors, fall colors, saturated colors. I adore red. Red is passionate, powerful, warm and inviting. Almost every house I’ve ever had has had a bedroom with a lot of red in it.
HS: What kind of house do you live in today?
JS: A stone house overlooking the ocean in Malibu. My American friends describe it as English-looking but I don’t think anybody in England would say that. It’s stylish but comfortable.
HS: Any antiques or family pieces you are particularly attached to?
JS: I have an old desk my mother gave me when I was 15. It doesn’t really fit in this house but I love it anyway for the memories it evokes. We also have a grandfather clock we inherited from my husband’s family. I also have a green glass and silver Art Nouveau vase I bought at an auction years ago. That is one of the first things I grab whenever the wildfires out here get too close.
HS: What is your favorite house in the world?
JS: St. Catherine’s Court, the house my husband and I owned in Bath in England for many years. We sold it two years ago because we just didn’t spend enough time there to warrant the ridiculous cost of keeping it up.
HS: What was special about it?
JS: Well, parts of it dated from the 14th century, so I always felt a great sense of history and continuity when I was there. There were Tudor rooms and Victorian rooms and Edwardian rooms and lots of original antiques. We sold it fully furnished and still go back from time to time to visit. I still dream about that house.
HS: Did you grow up in a stylish house?
JS: No. I grew up in a tiny two-bedroom house in a not-so-good part of Wimbledon, which is on the outskirts of London. The house never changed. The gold flocked wallpaper and bedroom furniture I picked out when I was 13 was still there 40 years later when we sold the place after my mother died.
HS: How did designing begin for you?
JS: I was actually a designer before I was an actress. When I was 15 I needed money to go to ballet school, so I started a fashion business where I embroidered strategically placed birds on see-through blouses. I wound up selling them at Browns, which was and still is a big designer store in London. Design is my passion. I love what I do and especially love the fact that, unlike in the acting world, I can be creative whenever I feel like it and it doesn’t depend on my looks or age!
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