Mary, Mary quite contrary
Publicist Mary Symons’ Rosedale home is a ‘mishmash’ of great memories, close friends
Mary Symons is like a beacon in a crowded room. A publicist with a hugely coveted guest list, she is a force of nature, an impossibly radiant glamazon with undulating auburn hair.
Pick a crowded room and Symons will know everyone in it. Everyone gravitates to her. She is out six evenings a week.
“Until last night, I have not been home (for the evening) in 21 days,” she confesses.
Symons was a fashion model but she doesn’t advertise it.
You only find out when you see the collage of runway photos in the kitchen of her Rosedale home.
“It is a mini-gallery in the kitchen,” she allows. “It evolved naturally when I started putting up the photos of my life, surrounding myself with great moments and friends.”
She modeled for 10 years in Paris, Japan and Milan.
“I walked for Marc Bohan at Dior and Guy Laroche,” she recalls. “I loved working for Jean-Louis Scherrer — he is a genius. I was only 18. I modeled with International Top Models, now Elite. I was scouted at McGill University, where I was taking poli-sci.”
She got that degree in political science from McGill, and also studied art history and styles in art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. She fell into PR about 20 years ago.
Symons does the openings at the Bata Shoe Museum, including the acclaimed Roger Vivier event that wrapped up last month. She was behind the opening of the Veuve Clicquot and Rizzoli boutiques at Teatro Verde; the gala for God Save the Queen: The Next British Invasion at The Room at Hudson’s Bay; and the opening of the Vanity Fair Portraits show at ROM.
“I focus on luxury brands: fashion, beauty, lifestyle and culture,” she explains. “Luxury is measured by the joy it brings — it can be as little as a key chain or a glass of champagne.
“I love champagne and Veuve Clicquot is my favourite brand,” she says. “My mother’s favourite dinner is popcorn and Veuve.”
Symons’ Rosedale home is grand: 4,000 square feet over three floors. But it’s not intimidating, in part because of the cheeky throw pillows scattered throughout.
The pillow talk includes a cushion in the living room that advises “Fly first class. If not, your heirs will.”
Another pillow states: “No outfit is complete without cat hair.”
Her sprawling house — which includes dining room, living room, den, kitchen and three bedrooms upstairs, one used as an office, complete with a champagne bar — is shared with her beloved cat, Lucy.
She concedes that the house is “a bit large for one person” but she entertains a lot and isn’t afraid of bumping her head since the ceilings are 17 feet high — Symons stands 5-foot-10, without her trademark stilettos.
She and late husband Jim Good bought the house 15 years ago “because of its British sensibility and the ceiling heights,” Symons explains.
“(Designers) Powell & Bonnell did the interior. They allowed us to keep a lot of our own style and feel but their attention to architectural details, lighting, wall colour and coverings was fabulous.”
The living room is scattered with settees and the coffee table is stacked with books. “There is no TV to encourage conversation,” Symons explains. “The living room is the room I least use — I head for the kitchen and den when I come home. “But the living room is my favourite room because it is me,” Symons continues. “I feel in my element with books, art, family pieces, heirlooms and antiques — pieces I add in my life.” Symons describes her decorating style as “mishmash.” “I purchased what I wanted in furnishings and inherited a lot from my grandparents and parents. I inherited a lot I happen to love,” she says. Her family’s art collection was begun by her great-grandfather, William Perkins Bull. Her grandfather, Thomas Henry Bull Symons, is founding president of Trent University. He was chief policy adviser to the federal Conservatives in the 1960s and ’70s. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada, holder of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal and of the Canadian Centennial medal as well as many other honours. Her father, Thomas Symons, is president of Trent University and also a Companion of the Order of Canada. Awards and commendations decorate her family history. But the watercolour caricatures by U.S. artist Jeff Smith hanging in the hall outside the powder room are all hers. One depicts Symons with a pair of shoes on her head, a necklace of shoes and a belt of shoes, and reads: “What was that about not needing so many shoes when I could only wear two at a time?” An enormous painting in the dining room is by East Coast artist Gerald Squires. “It was bought in Newfoundland,” she says. “It is a summary of Newfoundland: good and bad — barren and beautiful. Jim discovered it and I love it because he did. There is a lot of him in it. We had a crate made and shipped it from Newfoundland.” She bought the incandescent peacock candy dish on a side table in the living room in India’s capital, New Delhi, where she was producing a line of pashmina clothing. “Sadly, on my last day in the market, six simultaneous bombs went off and my driver saved my life,” Symons recalls. “He grabbed me and my friend. I saw people die. I bought it because, after the bombings, a peacock would come and sit near me by the hotel pool. It was a reassuring presence and the bowl reminds me of that peacock.” The opulent Oriental screen in the living room, partitioning the dining room, was purchased on Yonge St. “I had an art restorer and as a house-warming gift, she offered to clean it for me. When she did, she discovered it was ebony and handpainted, worth 10 times more.” The plump poulet nesting on the floor beside the fireplace is another family treasure. “The obese hen is Nouveau Art from P.E.I.,” she says. “It means a lot to me. My mother bought it for me in P.E.I.”
The chicken barely scratches the surface of her farm animals: over 150 pigs are secreted in the kitchen.
“They are hidden in the cupboards,” Symons laughs. “Everything you open, there is a pig and it is a joyful surprise . . . I started collecting them 30 years ago and everyone indulges me.”
Symons spends a lot of time upstairs in her office, furnished with masculine dark leather chairs.
“It was my husband’s den/office,” she says. “Jim took great pleasure in the redesign.”
Down the hallway, hanging in front of her shoe cupboard is a Chagall print — Clown in Love — another sentimental favourite.
“Jim bought it for me,” she says. “Jim thought I was a clown for buying so many shoes.”
The master bathroom is her homage to the fabled Ritz Hotel in Paris. There is a drawing of a Ritz bathtub on the wall and she bought the golden swan sink-and-tub faucets, and the lighting fixtures, from the Ritz.
“My inspiration was from the same room I had there for years,” Symons explains.
In the adjacent master bedroom, a cushion reads “less is a bore.” On a bed pillow: “Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.”
“You can sum things up in pillows,” Symons summarizes.