At 84 and a trim size eight, she still downhill skis.
She studiously tends to her idyllic mountainside garden.
Oh,good girl!
Polly Mellen and her ten-year-old granddaughter, Molly, in the garden of her Connecticut home. Mellen wears a Comme des Garçons shirt, Helmut Lang pants, and Prada sandals, all her own.
she says with the commanding Connecticut Yankee tones that have made generations of fashion assistants jump.
Mellen hadand hasit all.
An illustrious career, an enduring, 44-year marriage.
In Mellen’s bedroom, family photos frame a French Provincial dresser and Venetian-glass mirror given to her by her mother when she was sixteen.
She has raised four children, five grandchildren, and generations of fashion editors.
Vera Wang was one.
And, like I said, she still skis.
In the master bedroom’s sitting room, a 19th-century French Provincial bench bought in the late 1920s by Mellen’s mother-in-law. The large canvas is by Gloria Vanderbilt.
The large canvas is by Gloria Vanderbilt.
Yes, Ive heard about that, she says.
Throw Polly a fish!
Mellen with her granddaughter Molly.
I don’t remember clapping that way, but people tell me I did.
I get caught up.
After a show, the Saint Laurent people would ask, Did we make you cry, Polly?
Vintage Saint Laurent LOVE posters in the downstairs powder room.
Weekends are busy with visits to and from children and their children.
Her fitness regimen is more varied, rigorous, and disciplined than that of many women half her age.
In the winter, the aforementioned downhill skiing (her husband prefers cross-country).
The living room, with a rug and pillows of Mellen’s making.
In the summer, she swims.
Mellen cites regular exercise as one of the best changes in women’s lives.
She began Pilates in the seventies, at Joseph Pilatess studio on West 57th Street.
She continued with a local Connecticut trainer, who introduced her to Gyrotronics.
I comment on her excellent posture.
No, she says.
I won the posture prize at Miss Porters School.
She leads me into the library alcove where she does floor work.
I put my mat down every day, she says.
I set a timer.
Her daughter, Leslie, feels she overcompensates.
But I care, Mellen says honestly.
I like to look good; I like to get into my clothes.
Mellen with her granddaughter Molly.
Today, a lot of those clothes are Prada, Marc Jacobs.
Her look is and always has been classic, gutsy, impeccable.
I dont like fancy.
I love glamour, but glamour in my estimation may not be someone elses.
I gravitate toward what I feel comfortable in and what looks good on me.
I love fabrics, and I love well-made clothes, she continues.
I want to wear something that’s great.
It’s time well spent, and it costs more money.
Still, though, she speaks Gap.
She’s in fact wearing the Gap jeans from that Peter Lindbergh ad.
We talk bathing suits, too: A disaster, the dressing rooms.
She recently ordered a successful one-piece from L.L.
Always a black maillot.
And I love a classic Speedo, she says.
Lunch was always cottage cheese and fruit.
This afternoon, she’s made corn chowder.
My husband cooks very good food, she says.
We cook together, but he does most of it.
All fresh, all organic.
Mellen doesnt worry about the sour cream, she says, as she doesn’t snack between meals.
Her weakness, though, is late night.
All my cravings have to do with bread and butter.
Bread, delicious bread.
I dont go in for sweets.
Ive always been interested in good health, good skin, and bright eyes, she says.
But that also happens with age.
Its a fighting battle, but I refuse to think of it as a losing battle.
Im a positive thinker.
I dont believe in failure.
Oh, how I loved Yves Saint Laurent, she says.
He was so fragile.
Vintage Saint Laurent LOVE posters in the downstairs powder room.
I did it square by square on airplanes and on shoots, waiting for hair and makeup.
You see that piece?
It took the time of Way Bandy doing one eyebrow.
I miss her, and I will always miss her.
She was my mother and my best friend.
Her style and innovation proved inspiration for her daughter.
The living room, with a rug and pillows of Mellens making.
Mellen points out a needlework by her motherIt was a bag.
I had it made into a pillowand many throw pillows that she made herself.
She shows me a current embroidery project, a calla lily designed after Georgia OKeeffe.
(She always understood fashion is not just about clothes.)
Theres Kate Moss on the beach by Mario Testino.
She is topless, a long black skirt low on her hips.
Her back is to the camera, but not her face.
Its unpublished, says Mellen.
Linda Wells [editor ofAllure] thought it was too provocative.
Its not too provocative, its just a great picture.
When I was working, I didnt have a chance to read certain books.
I took courses to keep my mind.
With reading, you are on your own path.
For me, reading is essential.
She’s just finished UpdikesRabbitseries andTo Siberia,by Per Petterson.
Shes on to Christopher Plummers autobiography.
Im always fascinated by the Marquis de Sade, she says, perusing the shelves.
She loves this house.
It is surrounded by a 400-acre nature conservancy on three sides.
I got out, and we did buy it.
Woods were cleared, which opened up this view, she says, pointing out a window.
An architect was found.
The living room had a dirt floor when we bought it.
I love a green garden, she says.
Bushes and grasses and trees and a certain formality.
Beyond a stone semicircle bloom all kinds of hostas.
I like a perennial garden; I can’t afford annuals.
It gives me such pleasure to get my hands in that soil.
One tree bears white blossoms that smell like lemon verbena.
I wanted something that has a wonderful odor that oozes when you sit on the terrace at night.
You have to take care of your garden, says Mellen.
It’s very time-consuming and very expensive, but you have to take care of your garden.
