PaperCity Magazine

September 2016 - Dallas

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"WHEN I SAW KIM NOVAK TURN AROUND IN THAT GORGEOUS EMERALD GOWN AT ERNIE'S IN VERTIGO, I SAID, 'THAT'S HOW I WANT TO LIVE.'" — JAN SHOWERS where Stanley Marcus would greet them. At the end of the day, they would retire to the opulent Adolphus hotel next door or the stylish Statler Hilton across the street. Bookish and beautiful, Showers devoured Nancy Drew mysteries and was the edi- tor of the Hillsboro High School yearbook, El Aguila; in 1958, she was voted Most Beautiful. Alfred Hitchcock's movie sets fas- cinated her, and she dreamed of being a film star. "Hitchcock loved glamorous blondes," she says. "I totally related to Grace Kelly in Rear Window. And when I saw Kim Novak turn around in that gorgeous emerald gown at Ernie's in Vertigo, I said, 'That's how I want to live.'" Interior design grabbed Showers' atten- tion early. At seven or eight years old, she tore pages from House Beautiful and created her own shelter magazine full of rooms using her favorite photographs. When she got older, her mother included her in meetings with the family's interior decorator, Lucille Neblett, a Sister Parish who was full of terse Southern wit and sage advice. "She was hilarious," Showers says. "If you suggested a grouping of pictures on a wall and Mrs. Neblett didn't like it, she'd say something like, 'I'd rather be nibbled to death by a gnat.'" Showers learned some of the foundations of design from Neblett: A touch of black grounds a space; use at least one good antique in every room; and a chair always needs a table and lamp next to it. "They seem like obvious things now," Showers says, "but back then they weren't." Mr. Right During her senior year in high school, 18-year- old Jan, who was standing in the front yard dressed in her costume for the school play, caught the eye of 19-year-old TCU student Jim Showers, in town visiting a friend. The young man soon arranged for a reason to drop over, ostensibly to see Jan's brother's train set. "He asked me out, but I said no," she remem- bers. "I had a boyfriend and was headed to TCU, so I wasn't interested." That fall, Jan and Jim ran into each other on campus. (By then, she had broken up with her boyfriend.) "Jim was great looking and more mature than the other boys," she says. "He acted like the guys I admired in movies — strong, smart, cool. Our first date, he took me to a nice restaurant and knew how to order." Six months later, they were married and living in a cottage near TCU. Two daughters and several decades later, the fun hasn't stopped. Today, the couple spends extensive time traveling together. They just re- turned from four weeks on Lake Como — their annual vacation to escape the Texas heat and to power down before the busy social season in Dallas. Each winter, the family heads to St. Barths for a few weeks and to Harbour Island in the Bahamas, where the whole family gath- ers for vacation, in June. Weekends are spent together at the family house in Hillsboro when- ever possible. And then there are Jan's weeks- long buying trips to Paris, with stopovers in Murano to oversee production on her lamps for the Jan Showers Collection. Jim, an attor- ney, always tags along on these overseas work excursions. "We have fun," says Jan. "It has a lot to do with us having a good marriage." Aesthetic Evolution Upon entering her freshman year at Texas Christian University, Jan wanted to study act- ing and psychology but deferred to her father's wishes to pursue a degree in business. Taking 22 hours a semester, plus summer school, she graduated in three years with honors. Post grad, Jan and Jim moved to Austin, where Jim attended law school at University of Texas (Continued on page 154) Jan and Jim Showers' 1938 Greek Revival-style house in Hillsboro Jan and daughter Susanna, Christmas 1969 Jan and Susanna in Maui, 1974 Jane Wexler's 1997 photograph of Susanna, Jan, and Elizabeth at home 125

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