It was at the back of her mind that someday she would launch her own company, it was just a matter of finding a concept to match her natural inventiveness, fashion sense and foodie passion. But with the launch of her new website Preserve, Blake Lively is on the way to becoming the world’s next big lifestyle guru. The former Gossip Girl star has long been an avid student of style (fashion and furniture) and food (she’s apprenticed at top restaurants in Paris, Barcelona, and New Orleans) and even famously first seduced her husband Ryan Reynolds with a wicked combination of “cupcakes and smiles” while shooting the film Green Lantern in 2010.
“I spent a lot of my spare time cooking on the set in New Orleans and I kept feeding Ryan cupcakes,” Lively recalls. “It was just a way to sabotage Ryan. He was working out so much, and I was the girl in the movie. I’m supposed to be the good-looking one. It wasn’t fair. So, I tried to sabotage him with cupcakes and smiles.”
Sabotage or not, Reynolds was evidently impressed by Lively’s culinary skills more than either of them could have imagined. Although their romance took a while to flourish (Lively was ending her relationship with her Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley, Reynolds was still married to Scarlett Johansson), three years later they exchanged wedding vows and Blake confesses to being “ridiculously happy”. She was looking for a man like Reynolds with whom she could begin a different kind of life, one that was less centred on her acting career and more on indulging her passion for cooking and homemaking, and building a “big family” of her own.
And while she and Reynolds are now expectant parents, Lively has remained true to her ambitious nature. She’s devoted the past two years to developing Preserve, a digital monthly magazine, video blog, and e-commerce venture that promotes and sells artisan-made or indie-brand products as well as talented handicrafts people who have a knack for making things.
Preserve features articles, recipes and fashion spreads in addition to a Lively-curated collection of products for sale: bow ties, sterling silver jewellery, jars of vegan hot fudge, porcelain vases, California-shaped cutting boards and more. Says Lively: “It’s been a dream of mine to get this project off the ground.”
The website is a far more pleasant alternative to Gywneth Paltrow’s Goop site which has been publicly and critically mocked in recent years for the star’s extreme dieting tips and arrogant lifestyle advice.
Lively, however, has no intentions of lecturing people about how to live. Rather, she has taken advice from her good friend and mentor Martha Stewart and adopted a very practical and user-friendly approach to Preserve.
In a recent interview with Vogue, Lively was positively gushing in her praise for Stewart: “I’ve only ever found her to be completely generous and kind. She’s one of those people who connect people with each other. She’s there for you.”
Lively also credits Stewart for having stepped in and taken charge of Lively and Reynolds’ September 2012 wedding. “Our wedding was becoming a disaster, and we didn’t know what to do, so we called Martha! She said, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll handle it.’ She sent her team down to save us. And then she called her friends who have a home in South Carolina and set us up at the most amazing getaway. This [all happened on] the day of our wedding!”
Meanwhile, Lively has just finished work on the romantic drama, The Age of Adaline, co-starring Harrison Ford, her first film since Oliver Stone’s Savages in 2012.
In addition to her work as a campaign spokesmodel for Chanel — she’s good friends with Karl Lagerfeld — Lively is also the face of Gucci Premiere fragrance and official spokesperson for L’Oreal Paris.
