Mayes' love of Tuscany brought home
Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, September 8, 2003
Orlando, Fla. — "We're celebrating a way of life that I have come to love," said author Frances Mayes.
She was attending the launch of her licensed furniture collection at the Drexel Heritage by Saxon-Clark store here, the first of several retail stops celebrating Drexel's At Home in Tuscany line.
A poet, writer and college professor, Mayes enjoyed visiting Italy's Tuscany region. After several trips there, she and her husband-to-be bought a home in Cortona, where Mayes wrote a memoir capturing her feelings about life in Tuscany.
Carl Levine, a former home furnishings executive at Bloomingdale's, got the idea for a furniture collection and approached Drexel Heritage and Mayes. Jeff Young, Drexel's president and chief executive officer, and chief designer Michael Black flew to Italy to visit her home and kick around ideas.
Mayes said she was pleased with the working relationship as Drexel Heritage sought her input often. The collection premiered at the High Point market in April.
"I started crying when I walked in the showroom," she said, because of the effort that had gone into the collection as well as the beauty of the pieces themselves.
At the retail event, she pointed to an armoire with a bluish-gray finish, a color that came from an antique bookcase she bought in Italy. "I love that finish. It looks like it's about to rain in Tuscany," she said.
A tall armoire with an arched top has doors patterned after the doors of her home. Another armoire is a copy of one in her study. Homes in Tuscany don't have closets, she said, so people use armoires to store their clothing.
The furniture is patterned after antiques, but updated and improved. She said Italian chairs and sofas are austere, more upright and less comfortable, and Drexel Heritage has "Americanized" the goods to be more user-friendly.
Drexel said the first cutting of the collection, with over 60 pieces, sold out by the third day of the April market. More is on tap for the October market.
