Interior designer Emily Adams loves to wear one of her Hermes scarves when she rides Elijah, her Arabian horse.
“Elijah is such a grand horse, I feel he deserves my best,” she says with a smile, as she shows off her new apartment on Esplanade Avenue in the French Quarter, where she recently moved after living six years in Tennessee Williams’ old home on Dumaine Street. She throws a few of her favorites scarves from her collection of more the 50 over her arm, and walks onto the balcony overlooking her courtyard and begins draping them over the banister.
“My relationship with scarves began as a young child when my mother bundled me up for school on cold winter mornings in rural Portsmouth, Ohio,” she says. ‘I remember that her tender ritual always gave me a comforting, cozy feeling, and I still have the happy association when I wear scarves today. I like the colors and various textures of each scarf as I accessorize myself.”
Emily doesn’t limit her scarves to just decorating her neck. “I love to wrap them around my hats and tie them in the back so they can flow, and sometimes I wear them around my shoulders, waist or even my head,” she explains, picking up one of her favorites and tying it around her waist.
“Scarves are not only for human adornment,” she continues. “As you can see I use them as accents on furniture.” Then she walks over to an old armoire and adds, “I like to display my scarves on the door of my open armoire or on the back of any regular door in my apartment.”
There is always room for another scarf in Emily’s home.
“You can never have too many scarves. Other women buy shoes, I buy scarves,” she smiles and adds, “They don’t take up as much space to store as shoes. I just neatly fold them in draws or hang them in my closet, and my place never looks cluttered with a few extra scarves on the bed. Too many shoes can make any room seem messy.”
Emily feels that scarves are never out of style and they fit any season of the year. “I wear them in the winter, spring, summer, and fall,” she says. “My summer scarves are usually light cotton, and they are the perfect accessory when you come inside from the heat and into air-conditioned environment.”
She enjoys sharing her memories of a special scarf. “One of my favorite scarves was a large, wool challis leopard print that I bought in Paris. I was staying in a houseboat on the River Seine and it was very cold at night, so I just wrapped myself up in my beautiful scarf and it became a perfect blanket. And a scarf is ideal to have along to cover your head when you are riding in a gondola or a water taxi in Venice, or to throw around your shoulders when visiting a chilly cathedral in Europe, and don’t forget to take along a scarf when you go for a ride on a motorcycle or in a convertible.”
“Yes, scarves have always been an integral part of my wardrobe,” she says, and then she laughs and adds, “I wear so much black that without colorful scarves I may look like I just came from a funeral. To me, they are whimsical, flirtatious, elegant and practical, and, like Smokey Bear, scarves are my friends. I love all animal prints, especially cheetah, leopard, and zebra, I even like snakeskin printed scarves. On second thought, I never met a scarf I didn’t like.”
