To the manor born

Jane Seymour to launch home fashions in Birmingham

KATHY KEMP
News staff writer

You don't have to be rich, beautiful and British to live like Jane Seymour.

OK, so you won't be starring in a TV miniseries or brushing your long, perfect tresses or pruning the shrubs outside your 14th century manor house - at least not any time soon.

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But you can enjoy the spirit of Seymour's lifestyle through her new line of her linens and home accessories, inspired by St. Catherine's Court, her home outside Bath, England.

"I never dreamed I'd live in a house like that, let alone own one," says the 52-year-old actress, who grew up in Wimbledon, England. But after years of starring in movies (she was the Bond girl in "Live and Let Die") and TV miniseries, Seymour was able to afford the stone castle-like dwelling.

The style and architecture of the home, as well as its rich, romantic furnishings, inspired the china, glass, bedding, linens, giftware and decorative accessories of the inaugural Jane Seymour Home Collection, on sale at Parisian. Seymour will be in Birmingham this weekend for a variety of events surrounding the launch of the products.

Birmingham resident George Jones, president and CEO of Saks Inc., the parent company of Parisian, approached Seymour with the idea of a home collection and spent time with her family in Bath. He then sent a team of designers to spend a week at St. Catherine's, touring the property and brainstorming with Seymour. Their designs - such as the Royal Dress bedding and the Tudor Banquet dinnerware - reflect the opulent dress and decor of England in centuries past. It also evokes artist Seymour's paintings and her own designing talent.

"What people may not know about me is that I grew up in very humble origins," Seymour says. "We lived in a tiny house with no money really for decorating or clothing, other than what was needed. I had to be clever if I wanted to make my room uniquely mine, and my first home uniquely mine."

She never lost her artistic bent. Even as she achieved major stardom in America as the star of the popular TV series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," Seymour was busy decorating and selling homes in California. "I'd buy a house for my family and decorate it myself, and my real estate friend would want to show it to someone, and the next thing I knew, I was being offered more money than made sense," she says.

These days, Seymour spends much of her time at her Malibu estate with her husband, actor/director James Keach, and their children. Because her twins go to school in California, their trips to St. Catherine's are limited to summers and holidays. During her absence, Seymour rents the estate to wealthy American visitors and uses the money for its upkeep.

Her Malibu home, with its expanse of windows overlooking the ocean, is the inspiration for a second home collection, Coral Canyon, due out next year. The actress has a line of children's clothing based on her children's book series, "This One n That One," also on sale at Parisian.

Although Seymour is in the midst of shooting a Hallmark TV series on adoption and generally works from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., she sounds passionate and energized. "It might be tough if I didn't love it all. But I do."