Kate Hudson on her new fashion line - and why mum Goldie Hawn is her inspiration

Kate has taken a short hiatus from making films to look after her three children, but is preparing for her return
Kate has taken a short hiatus from making films to look after her three children, but is preparing for her return Credit: Photographer: ALEXI LUBOMIRSKI; Styling: Sophie Lopez

Growing up in Hollywood, navigating high-profile break-ups and creating a happy, blended family... Kate Hudson’s life has never been conventional. She shares the lessons she’s learnt with Jane Mulkerrins

It's a Sunday afternoon in the picturesque French Quarter of New Orleans, deep into hurricane season, and the heavens have just opened. But inside the Hotel Maison de Ville, where Tennessee Williams once holed up to write A Streetcar Named Desire, I find the actor Kate Hudson, serene, and impressively bone dry, having finished a morning of outdoor photographs just as the daily downpour arrived.

‘Welcome to New Orleans,’ she cries. ‘This place is the best!’ It’s testament to her positive outlook on life that she feels this – just a week earlier, production on her new film was shut down entirely, as forecasters warned of the worst hurricane since Katrina blowing in (Hurricane Barry was, in the event, much less severe than feared).

Kate, 40 (appearance, 25), has been in the colourful, intoxicating but storm-prone city for almost a month now, filming the fantasy epic Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon – her first film project for a couple of years. ‘Yesterday, I was lying on the floor in Bourbon Street, doing a fight scene, and I thought, “Yeah, I don’t know right now if I have missed making movies all that much,”’ she laughs.

‘It’s hard. But I grew up on a movie set, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop making movies, whether in front or behind the camera. But it’s been nice to step away for a second and rediscover why I love it so much.’

The main reason for her recent film-making hiatus has been, simply: ‘Too many kids.’

Eight months ago, she gave birth to her daughter, Rani Rose, whose older brothers, Ryder and Bingham (aka Bing), are 15 and eight respectively. ‘Making a movie when you have kids is really challenging – the hours are crazy and the kids hate coming to set – but having three kids of such different ages makes it even more complicated,’ she says, tucking her wavy blonde bob behind one ear.

‘If I’m going to make a movie now, I have to schedule it so it works for my kids.’

Kate with Ryder, 15, Bingham, eight, and eight-month-old Rani Rose
Kate with Ryder, 15, Bingham, eight, and eight-month-old Rani Rose Credit: Instagram/ @katehudson

Fortunately, it’s the school holidays now, so ‘Ryder [whose father is Kate’s ex-husband, Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes, to whom she was married for six years until 2006] is in summer school in LA, staying with his grandparents [Kate’s mother, Goldie Hawn, and her long-time partner, Kurt Russell], and Bing is in England for a week with his dad [her former fiancé Matt Bellamy, of the band Muse, who she dated for four years until 2014].’ Rani, still portable, is currently asleep in her pram in an adjacent room.

Today, however, Kate is immersed not in the film, but in her side hustle, her clothing range Happy x Nature, the second collection of which is about to be launched in Selfridges, as well as online.

She is currently sporting one of the items from the 35-piece collection – a vibrant green maxi dress with fitted sleeves and a parrot print, made from recycled plastic bottles.

For while Happy x Nature is both fashion-forward (inspired heavily by Kate’s own wardrobe, there’s also an orange jumpsuit with gold brocade and power-shoulders, a sleek beige trouser suit, an elegant tweed overcoat and a seriously stylish denim jumpsuit) and affordable (prices are largely between £60 and £150), its focus is sustainability: 50 per cent of the fabric used is currently recycled (with a goal of 100 per cent soon), and 50 per cent of the other materials used are recycled from waste management, primarily plastic bottles.

Kate Hudson
Aside from returning to acting, Kate is launching her second collection with her brand Happy x Nature, which will be on sale in Selfridges Credit: Photographer: ALEXI LUBOMIRSKI; Styling: Sophie Lopez

‘I love fashion and I always have, but the more you get involved in it, the more you see how irresponsible the industry has been with waste. We’ve spent so long thinking that “more” means more luxurious, when we need to start thinking that simplicity is more beautiful. It’s time to start being more responsible.’

The door to the sitting room opens, and Kate’s nanny enters with Rani, a grinning, gurgling vision in a melon-print dress. Kate kisses her and bounces her on her knee, and, without breaking her stride, tells me that Happy x Nature’s commitment to sustainability is all-encompassing: they’ve reduced the number of tags used, and clothes are mailed out in biodegradable packaging.

It’s not Kate’s first venture in clothing – in 2013, she launched her line of workout wear, Fabletics. ‘With Fabletics it’s about how we can be healthy and empower ourselves to be active.’ Whereas Happy x Nature, she says, is her first foray into ‘real’ fashion, ‘but the intention behind it is quite similar: how we can make a positive impact on our environment?’

(Left) Kate with current partner Danny Fujikawa, who she began dating in 2016; (top right) Kate married the Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson in 2000, they split six years later; (bottom right); she was in a relationship with Muse’s Matt Bellamy from 2010 to 2014
(Left) Kate with current partner Danny Fujikawa, who she began dating in 2016; (top right) Kate married the Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson in 2000, they split six years later; (bottom right); she was in a relationship with Muse’s Matt Bellamy from 2010 to 2014 Credit: Getty Images

Rani’s father is another musician, Danny Fujikawa, 33 – an old friend who she first met 15 years ago while pregnant with Ryder, and with whom she has been in a relationship since late 2016. It was he who came up with the name for the brand.

‘He said, “That’s what people think you are, happy by nature,”’ she says with a grin. ‘And I understand why people would associate me with that idea. The reality is that contentment is a discipline. Happiness is something that we cultivate. But I like the idea that nature can make us happy, and can bring us joy. It works on lots of levels.’

Rani, meanwhile, is seeking contentment in her mother’s beaker of iced tea, grabbing cheerfully and repeatedly at the straw. ‘When she wants something, she really wants it,’ beams Kate. ‘It’s the Hawn lineage. Very demanding.’

Born into Hollywood royalty, Kate is the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Goldie Hawn and the musician Bill Hudson. The couple separated when she was just 18 months old, and she and her older brother, Oliver, were raised by their mother and Kurt Russell – spending their school holidays on set with the couple, on films such as their classic romcom Overboard. ‘To us, it was just Mom and Dad at work – it was normal,’ she has said.

Kate Hudson's breakthrough role as Penny Lane in 2000’s Almost Famous won her a Golden Globe 
Kate's breakthrough role as Penny Lane in 2000’s Almost Famous won her a Golden Globe  Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

She remembers coveting her mother’s clothes, even as a small child. ‘She wore so much Alaïa – all bodycon, very ’80s – and stonewashed jeans and tank tops. My mom was so hot,’ she sighs, proudly. ‘She’s still hot.’

In her first Happy x Nature collection, Kate named a tiered lemon yellow dress Goldie in her honour. She eagerly whips out her phone to show me a video of her mother wearing the dress on their recent holiday together in Capri.

‘She didn’t shop a lot for us kids,’ she recalls. ‘But I remember her going to Paris for work one time, and bringing me back a dress: pink, by Dior, and it spun, like a ballerina’s dress. I wore that thing until it was falling off me! She never dressed us or told us what to wear – if we wanted to wear an orange hat and cowboy boots and a puppy-print vest and a miniskirt, she’d be like, “OK.”’

It’s an attitude Kate has adopted with her own children. ‘Bing, who has just turned  eight, loves a sharp suit – it must be the Englishman in him,’ she chuckles. ‘I think it’s important to let them experiment – it’s how you discover who you are. It’s a part of how you see yourself, who you feel like being that day, the character you want to play.

Kate with her mother, Goldie Hawn, when Goldie was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame alongside her partner Kurt Russell
Kate with her mother, Goldie Hawn, when she was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame alongside her partner Kurt Russell Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage

‘When I started acting 20 years ago, we didn’t have stylists,’ she continues. ‘A lot of the clothes that you see me wearing in the Almost Famous era were mine. For the premiere at The Toronto Film Festival, I wore a Voyage dress that I bought in London. It meant that you really established your own sense of who you were and what you wanted to put out there.’

Kate first took to the stage at the Santa Monica Playhouse in LA at 11 years old, before scoring small, supporting roles in films such as 200 Cigarettes and Gossip during her teens. But it was Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone in the 1970s that really launched her career.

As the young groupie Penny Lane, Kate earned a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress, establishing her as a bonafide star at 21.

A series of romantic-comedy roles followed, including some of her best-known hits, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, opposite Matthew McConaughey, and You, Me and Dupree, with her then on-off boyfriend, Owen Wilson. Her role in Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is a major departure. ‘She’s a stripper, she’s a single mother and she’s crazy – in a great way. It’s a very different character to any I have played before,’ she enthuses.

Kate Hudson winning her Golden Globe in 2000
Kate winning her Golden Globe in 2000 Credit: Getty Images

The door opens again, this time to an assistant bearing an enormous platter of crudités – celery sticks, carrot batons, and chunks of cucumber. Kate begins hungrily and noisily munching on them. ‘My hairdresser offered me a breakfast bar this morning, and I wondered how many points it was. I looked it up – 10!’ she gasps. ‘I only get 23 points a day. I was like, OK, am I going to eat this? Or am I going to get some carrot sticks?’

A global brand ambassador for WW – formerly known as Weight Watchers – Kate clearly walks the walk when it comes to the regime. But there was some pushback when her appointment was announced late last year; Kate has never struggled with her weight, and, even after gaining 70lbs in her first pregnancy, quickly lost 60lbs of it in the three months after giving birth, in preparation for the film The Skeleton Key.

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‘People always associate WW with weight loss, but when the new CEO of the company came to me, she wanted to talk about how they were shifting the dialogue into being more about wellness,’ says Kate.

‘It’s about understanding your food and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, being part of a community, and having support. They have great recipes developed by amazing chefs.’

For Kate, it’s not about losing weight but maintaining it, and making informed choices about her food. ‘I’ve always been a very healthy eater and I’m very knowledgeable about nutrition, but I use the app to look things up that I’m not sure about all the time.’

Which is not to say that she’s into deprivation of any sort. Shortly after the crudités arrive, an assistant brings in a plate of lunch for her: Caesar salad with prawns, rice and beef short rib. Kate enthusiastically tucks in.

Kate, wearing the Goldie dress from her Happy x Nature collection
Kate, wearing the Goldie dress from her Happy x Nature collection Credit: ALEXI LUBOMIRSKI

Weight gain notwithstanding, ‘I love having babies. I love being pregnant,’ she says. Would she have more, then? ‘I’ll have to think about it,’ she grins. ‘I don’t know yet. But maybe.’

Would she get married again? ‘Probably, I think so,’ she nods. ‘We think about that a lot. Marriage is definitely not a golden ticket – it’s not going to solve any challenges in a relationship. But as someone who’s lived through... well, trial and error, I think that the symbolism of marriage, that commitment, is more important to kids than we sometimes think.’

Growing up, though, her mother and Kurt never married. ‘Kurt made it very clear that we were a unit from when we were very young. The trust I got from him in terms of his dependability was priceless for me,’ she has said. And Kate has gone on to navigate her own blended family with grace.

‘It’s all about my kids,’ she shrugs. ‘Which means I have to love their fathers, no matter what. And so I put my ego aside, I put aside any challenges that didn’t allow those relationships to last, and I love them – it doesn’t mean I have to be with them. And I think my kids feel that we’re all on the same page.’ She shrugs again and, briefly, looks baffled. ‘I don’t know how I’ve pulled that off!

‘We’re all going to die one day, so I try to look at life with that always in mind,’ she continues. ‘Am I being honest with myself? Am I being truthful? And does it matter what other people think?’ She sucks hard on her iced tea. ‘No, at the end of the day, it doesn’t. It really doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks.’

The Happy x Nature pop-up launches exclusively at Selfridges London tomorrow

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