She got it from her grandma! Reese Witherspoon’s fashion career nearly rivals her steady stream of box office hits. The Oscar winner, 40, fused her Southern-inspired sense of style and preppy aesthetic into Draper James, her lifestyle brand named after her grandparents which launched in May 2015. But her taste is also inherited from a special source, she told reporters, including Us Weekly, at a Tiffany & Co. event in Beverly Hills on Thursday, October 13.
“I always remember my grandmother telling me, ‘Don’t wear sweatpants to the airport. You never know: Someone could take your picture!’ So I just try to remember my grandma’s advice,” she said of her late paternal grandmother, Dorothea Draper.
That isn’t the only tip that she picked up from Draper. Witherspoon also learned the art of making things work, even when resources are limited. “She didn’t have a lot of dresses or anything, but she always looked put together,” Witherspoon said in her September 2015 Southern Living cover story. “She’d say, ‘If you look good, you feel good.’ It’s a tenet I’ve carried all my life — whether I’m doing movies or at home with the kids.”
That attitude wasn’t just within her household, though. In the South, “it’s just how we were raised,” Witherspoon, who’s writing a book about Southern living, continued. “My grandmother would always say things like ‘spruce the goose’ and ‘put your face on.'”
The yet-to-be titled book is sure to be chock-full of similar proverbs and so much more. “It’s about what it’s like to be a Southern woman living all over the world, and I’m going to reminisce about my past and growing up,” she revealed at the event. “I’m really excited to share that with people.”
Aside from her grandmother, Witherspoon looks to a few other muses for inspiration. “There are so many great designers,” she continued. “I love Carolina Herrera, Giambattista Valli, Oscar de la Renta. I knew him and he was wonderful and created gorgeous clothes that made women feel beautiful.”