FASHION’s October Cover Star is Icon Pamela Anderson

At 56, Anderson is having a renaissance — or “Pam- aissance,” as the internet has coined it. It started in early 2023, when she released her Netflix documentary, Pamela: A Love Story [this interview occurred before the SAG- AFTRA actors’ strike], accompanying memoir, Love, Pamela, and digital newsletter. The buzz got bigger when her name started to swirl around casting rumours about season three of The White Lotus. Then, when she started re-emerging on red carpets, the fanfare turned into a communal trip down memory lane.

Tutorials on how to achieve her messy bun from the ’90s trended. Thin eyebrows and smoky eyes were seen all over content creators’ feeds. And #pamelaandersonstyle has hit 320.4 million views (and counting!) on TikTok. “I think it’s funny,” she shares, revealing that her sons, Brandon Thomas and Dylan Jagger Lee, first brought the trend to her attention. “When you start hearing that your image is on different mood boards, it’s pretty surreal. But it also shows that I marched to the beat of my own drum.”

Today, the Anderson I’m seeing is still her own drummer, but this time she’s playing a different rhythm. She appears weightless — as if a giant designer backpack has been lifted off her shoulders. She giggles frequently, tossing her beachy waves back with reckless abandon. She moves restlessly, her body bursting with energy. And, overall, Anderson exudes an indescribable ethereal essence that makes me think she would be perfectly at home in an enchanted forest. And, in a way, she is, having moved back to her family home on Vancouver Island. Perhaps it’s the distance from L.A. or the wisdom that comes with age, but this new Pamela Anderson speaks confidently. Unlike her younger self, she is telling her own story — and it’s beautiful to behold.

“I’ve always kind of known that things would get better when I was older; I just didn’t know when that time was coming,” Anderson reflects. “It’s nice to be seen. It’s not something I’ve ever really experienced.” Anderson, who grew up in Canada, admits she wasn’t the “pretty princess” her mother probably wanted. While her mom was rocking a bouffant updo and gingham pants, Anderson was “eating” mud pies. That’s not to say that her parents didn’t influence her. Anderson recalls her mother telling her: “There’s no such thing as natural beauty — it takes at least an hour in front of a mirror. And you are more powerful if you are pretty.” When asked how this might have affected her, Anderson reflects on the implications of it but can’t quite put them into words.