IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Janet Gregg

The art of daily living with designer, artist

Designer Janet Gregg has always had a bit of a creative streak. Growing up in Virginia Beach, she made her own clothes on her sewing machine, mainly crochet belts and tube tops. 

“I’d come home for spring break from boarding school, and I would make patchwork pants,” she said. “What a loser.”

Truly though, this was the start of a lifelong passion for design that launched a career which can only be described as the epitome of cool. In school, Gregg struggled with the traditional academic model because she has dyslexia. “I don’t wear it on my sleeve,” she said, “but it’s always been a challenge. So school was not my highest achievement at all.”

She dabbled in design a bit in college and worked for a decorating outfit in Virginia.

“We sold fabrics and stuff, but it wasn’t mainstream,” she said. “I love working with textiles, but it was really when I moved to New York that I had so many sources in front of me. It was endless.”

She moved to New York from Virginia Beach when she was 29, landing her first job interview with interior designer Charlotte Moss.

“She took me practically sight unseen,” Gregg said. “I was able to be in New York, not knowing too many people and working for this nationally, if not internationally, known decorator, and fetching coffee and opening the door. But that was my foot into the door to the decorating world and having so many lovely clients.”

Before her nine-to-five, she would wake up at the crack of dawn to go to the Flower District downtown. “I did flowers for Charlotte in the office and for her events sometimes in the office,” she said, “and I had loads of clients, so it’s all word of mouth.”

After that, Gregg worked for Vaughn Lighting, which was based out of London. Charlotte Moss was the company’s largest retail client, and so when they were opening a U.S. office out of New York they approached her.

“Charlotte recommended me, and it was a fantastic job,” Gregg said. “So, I was second in command of the whole U.S. operation, next to the vice president. And then we traveled through the country and opened showrooms to trade in major cities. I designed lampshades for Charlotte Moss, and that was kind of my thing, but now I was in distribution, management and then I started traveling more and more.”

It was during these travels that Gregg fell into jewelry designing.

“Back then there were these little, tiny spots where they carried semi-precious stone beads and findings and things like that,” she said. “I remember going in there one day and I remember in line was this super attractive young girl, and she had this pile, like all the chic coral and all that stuff. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so scary.’ Her bill was like, $600. Of course, that was me two months later, so then I started my business.”

She started buying supplies, and stringing jewelry for herself. “I was literally selling it off my back to my friends,” Gregg said. “So, one thing led to another, and then I guess it was like 2004 maybe or 2003, and my dear friends in Richmond, [Va.], had a show for me, and I came back with nothing – I sold out. And so then I met with the lawyer, incorporated myself, met with an accountant and gave my 30-day resignation.”

Gregg was in New York for 14 years before moving to Charleston, S.C.

“I kept my apartment in New York, and then I moved to this fantastic landmark, this cottage in downtown Charleston,” she said.

Her house is her biggest inspiration, an incubator for her creativity, she said. It has been featured in local and national publications, including Homeworthy, House Beautiful and House & Garden.

She now oversees a whole operation for her jewelry design, including a Savannah College of Art and Design graduate who does metalwork for her, and even a source in the Philippines that makes hand-cut wood; the rest she sources from the United States.

Since her job with Charlotte Moss, Gregg has branched out to many different mediums, including needlepoint.

“In New York I really didn’t have as much time, and then I moved to Charleston, I started picking it up, and so I do all the designs and canvases,” she said. “And my 95-year-old mother does a lot of stitching, and I’ve been selling them.”

Gregg’s parents began coming to Boca Grande in the 80s when a friend of her father’s invited him to go fishing.

“He was invited to go tarpon fishing over the years, and then my mother just had no interest in coming, that sometimes she was invited, sometimes she wasn’t,” Gregg said. “And so finally, in 1984 or ‘83 dad said, ‘Listen, I want to continue to be invited, but you have to come, because if you don’t come, then I’m really off the list, and that’s not gonna suit me.’ So my mother came kicking and screaming, and of course, they drive over the bridge, and that was it. And then the next day, they bought a little piece of property.”

Right now, Gregg is pretty tightly focused on her family, spending time on the island throughout the year; however, the rest of her days are filled with her other creative endeavors.

“I’ve always done flowers, but I don’t have the sources for flowers, there’s not such a thing in Charleston, but I do these lectures at Garden Club of America meetings or Garden Club of America affiliates,” she said. “I talk about flowers and things I’ve made in my house. I paint walls. I have this art that I sell, it’s carried in a really lovely gallery in Richmond, these original color blocks, and then I do shells. I just did this massive shell installation here [on island], which is incredible. And that was super fun. And so, yeah, little bit of everything.”

When Gregg is in Charleston she likes to entertain frequently. “I love nothing more than to show off my house,” she said. “I just am so inspired by my living space. I have a huge art collection. It all has a story. Some of it, I got from Boca Bargains.”

As for her next project, Gregg has lately been inspired by the game Mahjong, which she recently picked up “Now I’m trying to think of all the things I can make with Mahjong,” she said. “I’ve got to figure that out, that’s one of my goals.”

Gregg hosts annual trunk shows at The Gasparilla Inn, sells needlepoint at The Tide bookstore and does shell installations, so even when she is back in Charleston, her creativity is well represented throughout the island.

“I’m so humbled that I’ve been able to sell things I make and design,” she said. “It’s making the effort that’s so important to me. I don’t care what it is you do; how can you expect any sort of recognition if you don’t make an effort?”