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Keeping Family First Exclusive Interview
In 1976 B. Smith was the first African American super model to grace the cover of Mademoiselle magazine. Now, thirty years later, B. Smith is making history again as the first African American woman to have a furniture line presented for national distribution. Building on her success as a restaurateur, lifestyle expert, author and TV show host, B. Smith continues to make her mark in society. B. Smith owns the highly acclaimed "B. Smith" restaurants in Manhattan, New York's Sag Harbor and Washington D.C. She hosts the nationally syndicated TV show, B. Smith with Style, and is the author of two books; B. Smith: Rituals and Celebrations and B. Smith’s Cooking and Entertaining for Friends. B. Smith carries a full line of domestics merchandise and home furnishings at Bed Bath and Beyond; and has her own line of jewelry sold on QVC. I am excited to bring back B. Smith to give us an inside look into her exciting new furniture collection! KFF: B. Smith, thank you so much for joining us today. B. SMITH: It is my pleasure. Thank you. KFF: You're welcome. Let's start with the latest news. During this year's international home furnishing spring market in high port North Carolina you launched "At home with B. Smith," a new 40-piece furniture collection. What was that experience like for you? B. SMITH: It was so awesome. It was like a dream come true. You know, it's interesting when I was a child my mother wanted to be an interior decorator, but at the time, being African American and living in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, there was no way that that was going to happen. So I feel like she's looking down from heaven and she’s saying, "That's my girl. She's doing it's for me." KFF: That's fantastic. B. SMITH: So it's really exciting. Plus, you have a dream, you work on it, you try to find manufacturers and you know, you get turned down and, but you don't get discouraged. I just keep going back. But it's helped that we have the foundation by being in Bed Bath and Beyond. I've been in there since the year 2000 and I started in bedding and I moved throughout the home. So it's not as though I just stepped into the furniture business. I built that foundation and slowly moved in that direction. KFF: That's great. Now you have three collections? B. SMITH: Three collections and they are entitled "Central Park South"— we have a home in Central Park South in New York city; one is titled Sag Harbor, we have a home and a restaurant in Sag Harbor, the home is more coastal, and the restaurant is more nautical. It's a marina with dark wood floors, very pale yellow wall color and thin white molding at the top. So it's very nautical, and I'm able to bring the various elements of my lifestyle to the furniture collections. And then the third collection is called Mosaic Treasures and that represents a global appeal to me. Like, some of the fabrics could be either southwestern or they could be African. They could be Aboriginal or they could be Asian. And the colors are really more like curry and red pepper and egg plant, and, you know, so it's much richer. Whereas Central Park is more contemporary and its chocolate browns and golds. And then Sag Harbor of course was much lighter and more whimsical and more beach-like or more coastal-like. So that's been pretty exciting. KFF: That's very exciting. How long did it take you to put the collection together? B. SMITH: Well, it took me about a year from the time I started and doing my homework and then once I knew what style furniture I wanted of, then making sure that I found the right company that could produce furniture the way I wanted it and the quality that I wanted and I'd say its priced higher than usual and the company that I'm with, Clayton Marcus, is excellent to work with. They're in North Carolina and the furniture gets upholstered there. After we got together with the company the next move was to go to Show Time, which is a fabric show and begin to choose fabrics for the collections. But I already had the themes and I already knew what I wanted in each collection. So there are three collections and each of the collections has three vignettes—three vignettes that look like rooms. And when you come into the showroom you sort of move through Central Park South’s three rooms—and I made sure that each room looked different but was under that banner of Central Park South or Mosaic Treasures or Sag Harbor. That was a lot of fun. You know, having been in the fashion business for so many years and getting to play “dress up,” wear designer clothes, be in fashion shows and be photographed, this was sort of a natural progression for me. Having decorated my three restaurants, because we have the New York restaurant which is more contemporary— it would be like in between Mosaic Treasures and Central Park South. The Sag Harbor collection is very nautical. And the other restaurant represents a little bit of D.C. because D.C. is a little bit more formal, so I had a good, a really strong foundation for what I wanted to do with the collection. KFF: I saw the collection. You can see them on line—so that our audience knows that they actually have a video on your website so that we can view your collections, too. B. SMITH: Well, you know, my husband and I have been in the television business for years, so it was important that we filmed the launch of the furniture collection. So you do get a walk through and you get to linger a little bit about the furniture and you get to see the furniture, so that's pretty exciting. KFF: When you launched your furniture line, the president of Clayton Marcus, Mack McCall said, and I quote, "It's been a long time since we've seen this kind of buzz at Clayton Marcus and B is a major component of that buzz." What do you think created the buzz around your new line? B. SMITH: Well, I think two things: I think having been a model and having been on television, once you get into the business people are like, “Oh!”—There's anticipation you know—what it's going to be, what it's going to look like. And also having had the restaurants, a lot of people have walked through my doors (you know, I've been in the restaurant business for 21 years) so I think that that created some excitement and just the fact that once they got there, there were lots of “oohs and aahs.” I think that I more than overwhelmed them. They didn't really know what to expect, but I think they understand why it's B. Smith with Style. So that was pretty exciting. And I think that my next collection, I have four collections now. I've added glam to it. KFF: Well, you know, glam is pretty popular now. B. SMITH: It certainly is. And for me, the glam group is sort of like old Hollywood, you know, rich velvets, rich damask, golds and bronze and teal, and you know, just very, very elegant. Like you'd see maybe Billy Dee Williams and Diana Ross, in Lady Sings the Blues in those elegant stills, or it could be Bogie and Bacall, but it has a richness to it. But Central Park South, this time I took a turn and I've got some black and gold and I have a pattern that's sort of Asian in there. So I've taken people on a journey and I feel like I have something for everyone. So again, I will go back to Central Park South which to me is elegant. It's the elegance of a New York townhouse or a New York penthouse, and Sag Harbor is a little richer, and this time I've done more prints. And it's the combinations, the way I've combined colors. But I still have a very light creamy room that has a stripe in it, it's creamy and kind of a muted gold. It's not a shiny gold in your face, it's more beach-like, Puffy would like that at his house. KFF: I think a lot of us would like that at our house. B. SMITH: I was thinking his beach house, you know. KFF: Right. Well, what do you hope customers see and experience when they test out your new line? B. SMITH: What I hope they do is I hope that they're able to bring a sense of their style and the style they’ve always wanted, into their home. I hope that this will be the realization of their desire and their viewpoint on how they want their home to look and feel. Because colors, furniture styles, all of those things are personal. KFF: That's so important because you get half of it and you think what do I put on the wall? B. SMITH: Right, something is missing, what do I understand? And its frustrating. But if you see it there and you see the way I put the rooms together, then you can decide on what elements you like about that room, maybe there's something in another vignette in that collection and you'll say “Oh, I'd like that ottoman over there in my living room,” or “I'd like the side chair you have in the living room in my bedroom.” So that's how I want people to shop. So they're not going to put the room together exactly as I have, but the colors sort of morph into and out of the different collections so you are able to really have a wide variety of choices as to how you want your room to look. KFF: Right. B. SMITH: And another thing about the vignettes—we have rugs. So it's really a completed room. KFF: And that's so useful, because a lot of us don't have the time to do the research that you did and put the collection together. B. SMITH: That's very true. My daughter is at college. She's about to graduate at the end of the year or at least in the spring, and so -- and it's true, since she's been away I've been able to work differently. And actually, she's at that point where when she comes home when the looks at the fabric swatches with me and things like that, she's able to give her opinion, too. So it's nice. I do focus groups with all my friends and family. KFF: Well you're a trailblazer once again and this time as the first African American woman to have a furniture collection presented for national distribution. And I know you're just one woman pursuing your own dreams, but do you feel as though you represent more than B. Smith when you embark upon your various ventures? B. SMITH: From the very beginning when I started as a model I hoped that I would be a role model. It wasn't a very easy business to break into, but I was a role model very early on. And for women with skin color like mine and short hair, I think it was a great time, and others came along afterward. And once I went into the restaurant business, I hoped that once again I would become a role model, and there are lots of people who have gone into restaurants and/or Bed and Breakfasts. I think that others opened the door for me. Just like you, you know, you're doing something, you're groundbreaking, and we're opening doors for other people to vent their creatively. So I think it's a beautiful thing. And with the furniture collection, there are lots and lots of decorators and designers out there. I'm not trained, but I'm a student of the University of Life, you know. I've lived as a model in beautiful locations and I’ve decorated homes… I love color and style, and so I've made it all work for me as a business and I hope that I continue to be a role model to many others. KFF: Right. And we need a lot of that, you know. And experience really is the best teacher, so we don't all get academic degrees in the area of our passion, necessarily. B. SMITH: But we live in a great time when there are many, many possibilities and sometimes I just tell young people who want to, let's say, go into the restaurant business, "Have you ever worked in a restaurant?" They're like, "No." And I'm saying, "Well, you know, maybe even if you worked there on a Saturday and a Sunday and you hosted, it would give you an idea of how that restaurant really worked." Because I worked in the business for a year, evenings and weekends while I was modeling, to learn the business. KFF: Your journey from fashion model to furniture designer—it seems charmed, but as you mentioned, I'm sure it was hard work and dedication built into the equation. B. SMITH: And sometimes heartache. KFF: What additional advice would you offer to other women who also have these big dreams that may seem too big to accomplish? B. SMITH: Well, I will always tell people that I've stood on a mountain of “no's” for one “yes.” KFF: Can you repeat that— B. SMITH: I've stood on a mountain of “no's” for one “yes.” You know, when I wanted to go into a major retailer I was turned down by many, many of them out there and it took me a while, it took us a while, because my husband and I are partners. Nothing has come easy and it wasn't handed to me. A lot of doors were closed. But you don't take it personally. I think that's the most important thing. Maybe you try to work harder, you do your homework a little better, but you never give up if that's your passion and your dream. KFF: That's awesome. You keep expanding the goals you have for yourself. What else can we expect from B. Smith? B. SMITH: Well, I'm working on a new book and TV show. And going out on book tour I always love it and I do my little focus groups in the restaurant and people are asking for the new book that I'll have out next fall, and hopefully there will be a companion TV show. KFF: Great. Do you have a title for it? B. SMITH: I can't say. KFF: Okay. B. SMITH: But I'm excited about it. KFF: Oh, that's wonderful. Well, now the holiday season is upon us and we're preparing for entertaining family and friends. Are there some tips you can share to help us reduce the stress and enjoy the holiday season from fun food to food idea tips?? B. SMITH: I'll tell you exactly what you can do. You can log-on to www.servingupsoul.com. That's a program that I have with General Mills. And what you'll get there are you'll get time-lines, you'll get a list that you can personally download on what utensils you might need, themes for parties… There are recipes there, so that maybe this year you want to change things up a little bit for the family and friends. What we're doing is we're really trying to encourage people to have supper in more often because we're so fragmented these days. So, with the holidays coming it's the perfect time for people to begin now. And you can download all of those sheets that will tell you your time line; a week, two weeks to going or two days to go, all of the things you want to do to make sure that you have a good time at any event that you're throwing at your home. KFF: And that's important, instead of being exhausted. B. SMITH: I know. But if you plan, and I think planning is vital, it will make it easy for you: Tell you when to start shopping, when to start preparing, all types of things like that. And that's at www,.servingupsoul.com. KFF: That's great. B. Smith, it's truly a pleasure speaking with you again and I thank you so much for your time and I wish you all the best in all of your endeavors. B. SMITH: Thank you. KFF
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