Pamela Anderson on living her best analog life: ‘I should be outside in every season, touching the earth with my feet and hands’

Launching on April 8, the collection of over 40 pieces with its namesake perfectly reflects Pamela’s whole ethos – The sentimentalist – Includes indoor-outdoor Rattan furnitureA teak dining table and numerous baskets, entirely inspired by Anderson’s life at Arcadia, a house in Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada, that she bought from her grandparents 30 years ago and lovingly restored. It evokes Anderson’s love of natural materials, flea market shopping, France, and most of all, his beloved grandmother. ‘We really started the collaboration by looking at my house and seeing all these amazing wicker pieces that I kept and took with me, or things that my grandmother left behind,’ says Anderson. ‘I have such a soft spot (for these things) – and so many memories.’

All the pieces are made to fit what Anderson calls her ‘very analog lifestyle’, in which she spends as much time outdoors as she can wherever she is. ‘I walk every morning, in rain, snow, sleet, hail. I’m running at first light. I’m in New York, I’m in Central Park. If I’m in LA, I’m going to Pepperdine in Malibu or on the beach. Being outdoors is really important to me,’ she says.

Anderson was introduced to Olive Ateliers by one of his two sons. “They have great taste,” she says.

Photo: Paige Powell

And if she’s home on Vancouver Island, she’s probably walking her property, basket in hand. ‘I have thousands of daffodils right now, and they really remind me of (my grandmother),’ says Anderson. ‘In the morning I go and pick up all the broken daffodils and put them in this big basket. It is very reminiscent of my grandmother not wasting anything, giving things a second chance. I always feel like it’s like another chance at love that can come in.’

For Olive Ateliers cofounders Kendall Knox, Ben Knox and Laura Sotello, Pamela’s nostalgic outlook made her the perfect partner. ‘He wasn’t interested in anything over-designed or expensive. It was always about how something would live: a chair that you return to every morning, a sofa that holds you, a warmth, a softness and romance in every design,” says Knox.

Although the rattan collection is largely inspired by her grandmother, Anderson also likes that it evokes the sensibility of the French countryside. “I started going to the South of France and fell in love with anything French,” he says.

Photo: Paige Powell

And working with a natural material like rattan, which will patina over time, just makes sense. ‘Ratan really has a kind of integrity like Pamela,’ says Sotelo. ‘It is light but strong, refined but never formal. It immediately softens the space and seamlessly crosses the threshold.’ Most of all, they are refined.