Pamela Anderson On Her “Redemptive” New RE/DONE Collection — EXCLUSIVE

Pamela Anderson’s new RE/DONE collaboration, out March 11, is inspired by some of her most quintessential ’90s outfits. But it isn’t just about clothes — it’s bigger than that. “It’s a strange homecoming,” she tells NYLON. “Like redemption or something.”

Anderson loves words, and “redemption,” she says, is one of her favorites. “I don’t know why,” she says over Zoom from a Calgary hotel room, a daffodil she repurposed from that morning’s plate of almond butter toast tucked behind her ear. Back in the day, it was the name of Anderson’s first production company, the place she would go to collect her Baywatch residuals. Now, she sees it as a foreshadowing of her ultimate redemption. “I knew it was going to take a while to all come around,” she says. “If it was ever going to all come around.”

There’s no better word to sum up what the last couple of years have been for Anderson. After the release of her documentary, Pamela, a Love Story, and her memoir, Love, Pamela, she has been embraced by a culture that was once undeniably cruel to her. Finally, they’re realizing that this whole time, she was ahead of the game.

“Sometimes it takes a while for people to see what you were doing, especially if you’re a little bit of a pioneer,” the 56-year-old says. “Sometimes you feel alone in the crowd, and then all of a sudden, things kind of catch up and you think, ‘Oh my God, I wish I had the confidence back then to know that in the future people might think I’m cool.’”

Throughout this joyful new chapter, Anderson has taken a victory lap in the form of memorable campaigns as the face of Proenza Schouler and Smashbox Cosmetics. Last spring, she teamed up with LA-beloved swimsuit brand Frankies Bikinis on a collection that paid homage to her iconic Baywatch one-piece, and in January, fresh off the heels of unintentionally kick-starting a phenomenon by electing to go make-up free, she joined minimalist skin care brand Sonsie as an owner and co-founder.

Now, she’s going back even further to the Pamela arsenal with a stripped-down, ’90s collaboration with RE/DONE that evokes the fresh-faced blonde Canadian on the Jumbotron who would go on to be an icon. “The first time we met to talk about the collaboration, we sat on the floor in her hotel room talking about life, kids, and her favorite jeans,” RE/DONE co-founder Sean Barron tells NYLON. “I felt like I was hanging out with an old friend. Throughout the design process, Pamela seamlessly connected with our team. The result is a collection that really exudes both RE/DONE and Pam.”

Available now on RE/DONE’s website, the capsule, almost half of which is upcycled, includes 25 pieces with a focus on denim and tees. Entirely vegan, the collection is designed with eco-conscious methods, including low-impact washed, recycled denim, California-grown regenerative cotton, apple-skin leather, and untreated organic cotton. RE/DONE’s environmentally responsible approach was important to Anderson, who, being an avid gardener herself with a passion for all living things, has long advocated for sustainability.

“I wish I had the confidence back then to know that in the future people might think I’m cool.”

The campaign for the collection was shot entirely by a team of women and pays homage to some of Anderson’s most beloved looks over the years. One shot features a shirt inspired by the crop top Anderson wore to the 1996 Video Software Dealers Association Convention. (Even before the campaign, Barron says one of RE/DONE’s most popular graphic tees was a design inspired by the “Girl” shirt.) Another standout piece from the collection is a bedazzled denim wrap skirt — Google “Pam Anderson ’90s fashion,” and you’ll see plenty of inspo for this particular style. “It looks like I took a bedazzling gun to it — I did used to take a bedazzling gun to things,” she says. “Bring back the bedazzler!”

Most notably, the collection is not rooted in Anderson’s red-carpet style, but rather what she wore on her off days running to the grocery store and caring for her then-small children. For Anderson, it was one of the happiest times of her life. “I really felt invincible,” she says. “I’ve been happy obviously along my life, but those were the golden years for me. Just in love, in love with my kids, and so happy being who I was. I was really free to be who I was until it all came crashing down … but that’s life. [This] is a celebration of that time in my life.”

Here, NYLON chats further with Anderson to discuss everything from the details of her new collection to the 2024 presidential election.

Let’s start with this campaign. The images feel like a beautiful blend of past, present, and future. Was that intentional?

It’s a strange homecoming. It’s very redemptive. It feels like a big breath of fresh air, but also a really strong message to stick to what you believe in and stay true to who you are. Those are the things that people remember.

Did you always know things would come back around for you?

When I was a little girl, probably 5 or 6 years old, I used to think, “I’m going to recognize myself when I’m older.” Now is the time I recognize myself. If I look at myself now and I look at baby pictures, I think, “OK, there she is.” In between, I don’t really know what happened. It was fun, wild, adventurous, but I feel closer to myself than I’ve ever felt and I think that took a long time and was a process.

This chapter is about embracing who I am. I wanted to strip it all back because that’s done and now it’s a fresh slate. Even though I didn’t realize I was creating a fresh slate, I was taking off the layers. In peeling back the layers and being open and being vulnerable and intimate, I created a whole authentic kind of connection with people. I lost the shield. Now I’m just an open wound … I don’t know what the next incarnation is going to be. I have lots of ideas. I’m thinking glamour.

“When I was a little girl, I used to think, ‘I’m going to recognize myself when I’m older.’ Now is the time I recognize myself.”

There is a real feeling of lightness when talking with you now.

It is funny. I can wear flowers in my hair. I can wear jewelry, as long as it’s sustainable. I feel like I can be much more playful now without trying to look like these impossible beauty standards. I wasn’t trying to make a statement with my no-makeup thing. I just didn’t want to sit in a makeup chair for three hours. Who am I trying to impress these days? I’m not in the game. I’m not some supermodel, I never have been. It just kind of hit me, and in doing so and being authentic and really doing it for me, I think it resonated with people.

The RE/DONE campaign feels so vibrant and joyful. Did it feel that way while shooting?

Oh my gosh, do you really want to know? Actually, they were really freaked out by me because I just move so fast. I know what I want to do. I want to have a good time. I don’t want any Debbie Downers. Everyone’s like, “No, wait a second.” We’ve planned 10 hours for the shoot and we’re done in an hour. I’m like, “We got it.” They put so much into this campaign, and there’s such a great creative team at RE/DONE, and I feel like I broke their heart a little bit by ending too soon, but it all worked out great. I told them, “I promise you it’s going to be great. This is Malibu family. It’s not rocket science.”

Have you always been like that on set?

I was an extremely shy young girl, and then I broke through that. It’s much more serious normally, but I wanted this to be joyful. It really is a redemptive story because I was really made fun of back then. It wasn’t like Vogue was looking at me. No one was telling me I had any kind of fashion sense or beauty or anything. I was very rock ’n’ roll and different. There was no part of me that was trying to be trendy or cool. I thought, “Well, I might as well just have fun then.”

How did you go about selecting the iconic looks you wanted to reimagine?

We did a lot of stuff by Zoom. The documentary was a callback to different things, so they just showed me a bunch of mood boards of myself, which was crazy. I was like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I wore those things.” So this is inspired by all the things I used to wear walking out of the grocery store, getting into the car with my little bodysuit, skin sticking out.

“It wasn’t like Vogue was looking at me [back then]. No one was telling me that I had any kind of fashion sense or beauty or anything. I thought, ‘Well, I might as well just have fun then.’”

What is your relationship with nostalgia?

People tell me that every photo shoot they go on, they see [me] on some of these mood boards. That’s just too much for me to comprehend. The things I used to wear to a press conference back then ... I’d be wearing a half top that said “Girl” across my chest. There was no stylist. There was no one telling me what to wear. It was a free-spirited way of being. Now, everything is very calculated, even in interviews. Matt [Anderson’s PR rep] is on this call, but he’s not going to say anything.

I will say, you are one of the most candid celebrities I’ve ever talked to.

It’s funny though, because before I do an interview, I like to write notes.

What did your notes say for this interview?

Let’s see … sustainability, the repurposed Levi’s, the paper tags, how we collaborated over Zoom, the bodysuit, how I want to pass the baton to younger people who are going to look better in it than me, and it’s all in good fun and how RE/DONE is legit. They work really hard and have an incredible creative team. I love the collection and the jeans [we made] I wear all the time.

Then I started rambling about the election, and how as a woman, I will never vote for a sexual predator. As a woman who’s gone through a lot in her life and suffered abuse, I can’t imagine anybody who cares for women who could. [Editor’s note: In both her documentary and memoir, Anderson has addressed multiple incidents of sexual abuse beginning in her childhood.] I’m kind of swooning over the elderly gentlemen that just crushed it last night at the State of the Union. We love an older gentleman who is top of his game. I think it’s a good thing. I hate to talk about politics, but anyway, there I did.

“I’m kind of swooning over the elderly gentlemen that just crushed it last night at the State of the Union. We love an older gentleman who is top of his game.”

Well, it’s certainly very relevant.

I’m a radical over here [talking about it]. I mean jeez, it’s such a simple thing. Anyway, I hope people really love the collection because there’s a lot of love that went into it and it was just friends, family, and Malibu. It came through really organically through friends and family, which is kind of my thing. I like to do things that have a story that there’s some past element that kind of connects the dots, or the stars align.

To take a page from your book, let’s end by looking forward: What are you next excited about right now?

Spring is coming. I never thought I’d be a bulb lady, but I’ve got 500 tulips, 500 daffodils, and some peonies ready to come up. It’s going to be fun: a fairy-like garden. I’m going to LA after this, so I won’t be home for another week. I hope they get some sun.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.