The Power of Glamour
By Rebecca Sherman
Jan Showers, doyenne of glamorous ‘40s French decoration, brought the stylish trend to Texas five years ago and since has made it her own. Rebecca Sherman shows us le style Showers, the chicest look going.
Lustrous interiors from the French ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s are the international design craze of the moment. Even the Parisian old guard, which this summer permitted the display of furniture and objects less than 50 years old in the prestigious Biennale Internationale des Antiquaires, has been smitten by French ‘40s decoration. And no one does it better than Dallas decorator Jan Showers. Showers’ showroom on Dragon Street is styled more to resemble a chic Parisian apartment than a store, and is filled with the hallmarks of her style: mirrored consoles and side tables, pale armoires in sycamore and parchment, Venetian glass lamps, sunburst mirrors and glass-top tables with slender bronze legs. Furniture and decoration from this period are deceptively restrained, and it takes a decorator with Showers’ confident personal style to pull it off. Some of the most smashing examples of her work are her own homes: a sleek Turtle Creek high-rise apartment she shares with her husband, James, and a large family home outside of Dallas, a white columned 1938 Greek Revival, whose interiors are exceedingly glamorous without looking out-of-place.
A serene Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief might have been Showers’ perfect client and she’s decorated the homes of some of the most stylish-women in the city, including socialites Jean Marie Clossey and Angie Barrett. Showers’ work seems a perfect match for fashion designer-to-the-stars Pamela Dennis, who recently hired her to glamorize her Manhattan offices. Her influences come from some of the masters of unstudied glamour. French furniture designer Jean-Michel Frank, who upholstered chairs and paneled walls in fawn-colored kidskin, and the distilled, pared down look of Billy Baldwin and David Hicks. “Understatement can be the most glamorous statement of all,” Showers says. The 1930s and ‘40s designs of Syrie Maugham, who created one of the century’s first all-white rooms, continue to inspire. Like famed designer Elsie de Wolfe, Showers is passionate about mixing mirrored furniture and glass lamps with other textures in a room to add sparkle. Mirrored trays fly out of her showroom almost the moment she unpacks them from Paris, because they’re perfect for grouping old perfume bottles and toiletries together on a mirrored dressing table, or to hold decanters on a rolling drinks cart. Five years ago, it was almost impossible to buy French ‘30s and ‘40s furnishings in Texas, and in 1996 when Showers opened her showroom, Jan Showers & Associates, even she was hesitant to buy much of it at first. “I wasn’t sure if Dallas was ready for it,” she admits. On come of those early trips to Paris to buy Louis XVI furniture for the showroom, Showers brought back a few pieces that caught her eye—some mirrored tables and light colored Moderne. The styles mixed beautifully together, but the mirrored pieces were clearly standouts. “Those were the pieces that sold first,” she remembers. “That gave me the incentive to buy more.” During the past two years, interest in decorating with mid-20th-century French furniture has exploded, and Showers now has wait lists for clients who want mirrored furniture. Although she continues to buy furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries because it mixes so beautifully with the newer pieces, her showroom houses one of the premiere collections in the country for ‘30s and ‘40s French. Designer James McInroe who worked for the late designer Tonny Foy, joined the company as a design associate five years ago, and Showers credits him for helping to bring cohesiveness and a modern hand to what is instantly recognizable as the Showers style. The business of glamour is booming, and this year Showers has launched two new lines inspired by the designs of such greats as Adnet and Frank. The Studio Luxe Collection, sold through her showroom, includes top-of-the-line custom sofas, mirrored furniture, slipper chairs and James McInroe-designed lamps with mineral bases. Studio Twenty One, a retail line sold exclusively in Dallas at Forty Five Ten beginning in mid-October, in one of the first mid-priced, mass-produced lines that replicates the glamorous look of the French ‘40s era (read more about it in this magazine in What’s Hot What’s Cool).
A trademark of Showers’ sumptuous look continues to be a neutral palette punctuated by the vivacious hues of mid-century Venetian glass—azure blue, Barovier and Seguso gold, amber and opaline white flecked with gold. Showers and McInroe give a neutral room dramatic impact by displaying a collection of Venetian glass in big blocks of a single color. Showers collects gold Venetian glass, while McInroe goes for unusual colors such as turquoise. Pottery in all white or turquoise by Jonathan Adler and Jean Royere are some of the hottest collectibles and the craze for Italian glass hasn’t even begun to peak, says Showers, with clients snapping up anything from Murano to Venice as far back as the 15th-century. A room decked out in fabulous ‘40s and Moderne requires the right backdrop, and Showers swears by wall paint by Donald Kaufman, whose pure pigments are the only ones on the market that don’t have black in them, so the finish has an elegant luster. Old French garden furniture used indoors can have a glamorous effect, and dramatic entryways and powder rooms, painted in Billy Baldwin’s signature chocolate brown or covered in silver-leaf tea paper, are a must. A mirror should hang in every room to add sparkle and depth, and rugs made from old skins such as French cowhide, ocelot, leopard, and tiger add a dash of old Hollywood movie mogul.
One of Showers’ favorite rooms to decorate is the bedroom, and it’s an area where it is okay to go a little over-the-top. So pile up satin pillow (in the right proportions, of course) on a bed draped in silk taffeta or white linen, and luxe it up with a mirrored vanity strewn with family photographs and beautiful perfume glasses. A small table in every room—even the bedroom, where one can sit down and have coffee or a casual dinner—is perhaps—the ultimate glamorous touch. Jan Showers’ rooms invite us to live comfortably in surroundings from a lavish era long gone. “Glamour is about having style,” she says. “And style is something that is timeless.”