Pamela Anderson is turning the things she has lived with for decades into furniture. On April 8, she and Los Angeles lifestyle brand Olive Ateliers will launch The Sentimentalist, a collection of more than 40 pieces shaped by the restored British Columbia home she has tended for more than 30 years.
The line includes indoor-outdoor rattan furniture, a teak dining table and numerous baskets, and Anderson said it reflects her "very analog way of life." She said she was introduced to Olive Ateliers by one of her two sons, a connection that led to a collaboration centered on objects with memory rather than polish.
Anderson bought Arcady from her grandparents in Ladysmith, British Columbia, over 30 years ago and later restored it. She said the collection began by looking closely at her home and the wicker pieces she has kept and carried around, along with things left behind by her grandmother. "I just have such a soft spot [for these things]—and so many memories," she said.
That private attachment gives the collection its shape. Anderson said she walks every morning "in rain, snow, sleet, hail" and is usually out at "the first light," describing a routine that keeps her outside as much as possible. She said, "Right now I have thousands of daffodils, and they really remind me of [my grandmother]," adding that she puts broken blooms in a big basket and sees that habit as a lesson in not wasting anything and giving things second chances.
Kendall Knox, one of Olive Ateliers' cofounders along with Ben Knox and Laura Sotelo, said Anderson was not interested in anything "overly designed or precious." The collection is built around that restraint, with the partners describing it as a study in pieces that live well: a chair returned to each morning, a sofa that holds you, and warmth, softness and romance in every design.
Anderson said the project has been in her life all along. "This has been a passion project and I’m really proud of the pieces and love the sensibility behind it," she said, adding that she is glad people are responding to it even if the aesthetic comes from habits and objects she has long kept close. Her recent praise for The Last Showgirl and Naked Gun has made her a more visible cultural figure again, and she is also expected to appear in Rosebush Pruning alongside Elle Fanning, Callum Turner, Kristen Stewart and Riley Keough. But The Sentimentalist points to the same thing that has defined her most recent work away from the screen: a focus on home, memory and the life of ordinary objects.
