Blake Lively Says New Orleans The Inspiration For ‘Preserve’


Blake Lively has a clear inspiration for her new lifestyle website, Preserve. Speaking to Travel and Leisure magazine earlier this week, she spoke about the places and experiences that she wants infused through the new project.

When asked by her team what one word she would use to describe Preserve, Lively said, “family,” elaborating to T&L that she wants the site to be about what is most important to her.

“[The team] didn’t understand how family would be incorporated. If I could make this about the most important thing to me, it would be the most genuine—it would drive me the most. I want the site to be for anyone. I want to be able to sit down with my grandma and say ‘look what I found’; I want to take my niece and share things with her. I’m not trying to reach everyone at once; I’m just speaking to my passions.”

Blake, in her Preserve editor’s letter, expanded on the inspirations she finds in life and wants to incorporate into the site.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to travel. I’ve been all over the world and all over this country. There’s so much life teeming out of every pocket of this nation. There are people creating magic with their bare hands. Creating things which land at that amazing intersection between art and function.”

One place in particular that inspires her is New Orleans. As Blake told T&L, the essence of the city is tangible, and its continuing cultural life has direct relevance to the name of the site.

“There is something about New Orleans that embodies passion; I’ve never seen that before. There’s something tangible about the essence of the city. You can taste and smell it. The New York that Frank Sinatra sang about, people will never know that place. The New Orleans that Louis Armstrong sang about is the New Orleans that’s still there—it’s preserved.”

As The Inquisitr reported when Preserve was set to launch in July, the website is subject to inevitable comparisons to other celebrity lifestyle ventures, such as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop. At the time, Lively was promoting the personal touch of Preserve as its distinguishing feature.

In August, Blake responded to reports that Martha Stewart did not like Preserve, wondering why Lively would want to be her when she could be an actress. Just Jared reported Blake’s response.

“I want to have my own path professionally and even as [Martha] said, I’m an actress. I’m doing something totally different so now I sort of have two careers going on and it’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out. But really what it is, is I have two passions. And I think ultimately, I will always be doing both, but one is going to be paying the bills better than the other… Who doesn’t want to be Martha Stewart?”

Preserve combines e-commerce and philanthropy with other elements of the site.

[Blake Lively Image: Google]

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