Given that Pamela’s passions are bread and sustainability, Copenhagen Fashion Week is right up her alley. We meet the icon and Pandora ambassador to chat jewellery, vegetables and sourdough starters
It’s Pamela Anderson’s first time in Copenhagen and already she’s enamoured with it. “It just seems a really incredible quality of life,” she says. Aesthetically, she fits right in, with sparse makeup (after several seasons totally bare-faced, she’s begun experimenting with just a bit of no-makeup makeup, done herself), signature blonde hair and an easy, minimalist wardrobe (she is part Finnish, after all). When I meet Anderson in her suite at Hotel D’Angelterre, which boasts sweeping views of Kongens Nytorv (she’s been walking around the square each morning since she’s arrived), she wears an ice blue slip dress and stacks of silver, charm-heavy Pandora jewellery. She’s barefoot.
Speaking of Pandora, it’s the Danish jewellery brand that brought Anderson to Copenhagen Fashion Week. “Everyone says of all the fashion weeks, this is a really fun one to go to,” says Anderson. “It’s very aligned with how I feel – having fun with sustainability.” She’s been an ambassador of the brand for some time now and she authentically backs their jewellery, both for its aesthetic and for its values. “I like that it’s sustainable, I like that it’s for everyone,” she says. “It’s not just high-priced stuff for just the few.” She’s particularly emphatic about the lab-grown diamonds. “They’re exactly the same as mined diamonds – you can’t tell the difference,” she says. “I’m always very much into animal preservation and wildlife preservation and it’s really nice to know that nobody was harmed, no animals were harmed, during the making of these.”
Recently Anderson has become bolder and more experimental with her jewellery choices. “I’m layering now,” she says, noting that wearing less makeup has empowered her to wear more jewellery. “It’s not super serious all the time, but you can also go very glamorous. I love pearls too because it reminds me of Grace Kelly, Carolina Herrera’s old style – I love that style – Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy… those are my style icons.” The first piece of jewellery Anderson fell in love with? “Everyone loves a wedding ring, or an engagement right,” she says. “Maybe I like those too much.”
Earlier this morning she stopped by Pandora’s showroom to make her own charm bracelet, picking out a ‘B’ and a ‘D’ for her sons Brandon and Dylan (they’ve joined her in town) as well as a little rose. The experience sparked an idea for Pandora. “I said, ‘Why don’t you do vegetables?’,” Anderson says. “I’m obsessed with my garden, I don’t see any zucchini’s or carrots or anything here. Cabbages?”
When Anderson isn’t staying in lush hotel suites for work obligations, she’s back home on Vancouver Island, Canada, gardening and baking bread. “That’s my whole life right now,” she says, noting that she has a cookbook coming out in a couple months. “The heirlooms are popping in now – I have every colour tomato – and I grew everything from seed. I’m just blown away that these massive plants come from a seed,” she says. “I have an incredible rose garden, too. I like making these baskets for my neighbours and friends and really curating with the roses and I’ll through some of my pickles in there and mustards and things that I make. And some sourdough.”
Anderson is a self-described “bread lady”, bringing breads and muffins to film sets and taking pictures of her creations to send to her kids (“They’re like, ‘OK, that’s enough’,” she says). She even names her sourdough starters, imbuing them with their own bread personalities. First there was Vixen, a bubbly, tenacious starter always ready to spring to action. Now there’s Astrid. “I’ve been really lucky with my sourdough lately,” she says. “I went away for four months and I came home and she was just tucked away back in the fridge and I’m like, ‘OK Astrid, you’re coming out. You’re going to work’.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Anderson’s visit to Copenhagen will culminate in a visit to Noma. “I’ll get to meet the baker and they’re taking me to the garden,” she says. “I’m really excited, because that’s my vibe right now.” But first she’ll attend a Pandora dinner at Væksthuset Restaurant, in the lush Operaparken, with views of the water.
Has Anderson dared to do as the Danes do and dive in? Not yet. “Both my sons said they would dive in so I’m curious if they’re going to follow through. I need to get them funny little bathing suits,” she says. “I’ll definitely dip my toes in the water.”