Q And A

Conversation Carolyne Roehm

Former model. Socialite. Entrepreneur. Equestrian. Dog lover. Party planner. Floral arranger. Interior designer. Great gift-wrapper? It's hard to pigeonhole Carolyne Roehm.

For anyone who ever slipped on one of her dresses or once pored over the pages of her mail-order catalog, the name Carolyne Roehm evokes a sense of elegance and savoir-vivre. Once the creator of the Carolyne Roehm Collection (the sort of classic clothes Audrey Hepburn might have worn), once the wife of billionaire Henry Kravitz, once a resident of Kirksville, Mo., and then graduate of Parkway High School and Washington University, Roehm is embarking upon a new chapter in her life.

Already the author of a number of books on interiors, flowers and entertaining, she has just completed yet another, a volume dedicated to beautiful and creative gift wrappings titled Presentations, released this month. At the same time, she has launched a line of gift wraps, rib- bons and embellishments (as seen in the book and available at www.carolyneroehm.com) and has joined the venerable New York interiordesign firm McMillen Inc. She still comes back to St. Louis to visit her mother, but we called her at Weatherstone, her farm in Connecticut.

You dedicated A Passion for Flowers to your grandmother [Anita Beaty]. What was she like? She was one of those women who was interested in all aspects of design. My mother always says it is the gene jump from grandmother to granddaughter because my mother is totally a left-brain person who is well-read and analyzes things. My grandma was amazing.

Where did she live? My grandfather had had a reasonably successful heating and cooling business in Kirksville and decided to retire in his forties. They bought a farm and built a lovely house. My grandmother was always redecorating. When I was 7 or 8, she started Country House Gifts. She was quite special--her sense of display and her sense of gift-wrapping. That is when gift-wrapping really turned into a big thing for me. She started that.

What would she do? She got beautiful colored foil papers. She would put fuchsia with bright green. She would do big luscious bows, by hand, with wide ribbon. Then--it sounds so dorky now--she would make flowers out of coordinating tissue paper or ribbon and put them on the packages; at the time, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I learned from her to put snow on branches and pinecones and wrap them to give a dimensional aspect to presents. It was that kind of thing, which I still do to this day. I really should call this "Grandma's Collection" because she was the one who got me involved.

How did this gift-wrap venture evolve? People have come to me over the years saying, "Oh, you should do Target" or "you should do Sears" or "you should do QVC." Every single time, I just didn't have the chemistry for it. But I love to design everything. I love to design houses; I love to design clothes; I love to design gift wrap; I love to design food and gardens. When I started writing Presentations, we started designing things on the computer. It was fun. And I said, "You know what? I am going to start a little gift- wrap business."

Where are you selling it? I decided to show that I am not a dinosaur and use e-commerce. I really, really wanted to get it directly to the consumer.

You've called Christmas one of the greatest loves of your life. How do you survive it? What do you love so much about it? I love everything about it. I don't love the shopping; I do it early. How do I survive it? Aging. I used to drive myself crazy. Some Christmases I'd be so exhausted that I was almost in tears; I was a goofball who wanted to make everything per- fect and was stretched too thin. Now I survive it by not taking it too seriously. I also survive it by trying to focus more on the seriousness of it as opposed to just the gift part.

What about this year? It's the old thing: If you want to cure your doughnut habit, work in a bakery. I may cure my gift-wrapping addiction because I have wrapped so many packages for the book. I said to my mother, "You may get whatever I get you for Christmas in a brown paper bag."

You are officially becoming a professional interior designer? I am going to join McMillen Inc. at the beginning of the year.

Why not just open your own firm? I don't want to have the back office. When I had my dress business, I had 75 employees. With all those houses when I was married, I had 55. I just don't want to have that type of thing. McMillen is the oldest interior design firm in the United States and one of the oldest in the world.

Which do you prefer, fashion or interior design? I love interiors. Working with interior fabrics, architecture and furnishings is probably my first love.

What was your favorite project? When I had my apartment in Paris, I really got into doing everything--working with the contractors, with painters, upholstery people. I just find it fascinating and fun. My houseman says, "You are the only person I know who will get up at one in the morning to move furniture." I said, "It is my favorite thing in life. You can have a whole new look without buying a thing."

What is your style? Classical. To me, style is style. Taste is taste. Design is design. Regardless of whether you are modern or rustic or traditional or classical or contemporary, each of those has a threshold of taste. And good modern is good modern. Do I personally want to live in it? No. Do I enjoy it when someone's house is done that way? Absolutely. Would I want to design some modern things? Absolutely.

What are your basic design tenets? First of all, comfort. I think the single most important thing in a room is its architecture, and you work to enhance that architecture. If you don't have the luxury of that, then you have to take another path with either color or fabric, to take the eye away from the lack of architecture. Keeping the lifestyle of the people who live in the house is also paramount.

You seem to be cost-conscious. Is that true? I once lived in a world where money was not even a question, but even then if I saw something on sale, I was thrilled to get it. We live in such an amazing time; you can get beautiful things that don't cost a lot of money. I have always said, "Yes, I am very fortunate. I do have 18th century Delft; I do have 18th century Chinese blue-and-white." But if you keep your eyes open, there are also wonderful reproductions. Mixing them is definitely a possibility; I do it all the time. And I never try to pass the reproduction off as anything but what it is.

But bottom line: Isn't great design expensive? I really feel that great style has nothing to do with money. And I am of the old school that I would rather have one good thing than a lot of less-good things. But if you can't afford the one good thing, there are a lot of less-good things that are very, very nice. I really search for fabrics, I search for trims, I search for accessory items and furnishings that are affordable but have style.

Where is your favorite shopping spot? My favorite place in the world is the [Marches aux] Puces [de Saint-Ouen] in Paris. But I love scouring around up in Connecticut. Because I travel, I have the ability to go to other cities where things are not New York prices. I have a great sense of accomplishment when I find something I consider well-priced. I don't think everything has to be a signed piece of 18th century French furniture.

How did growing up in Kirksville and in St. Louis affect you? We didn't have all the things to do and all the museums, so we had to use our imagination a lot more. I think that when you cultivate that imagination at a young age, it manifests itself in your work. Think of Bill Blass, Halston, Mark Hampton--just a few creative people who came out of the Midwest. I'm very proud to be a Midwesterner. But I'm glad I don't live in St. Louis in the summer.