Liv Tyler covers the digital edition of Net-A-Porter in a lovely pink mod Rochas coat. It’s the “60s chic” issue and the editorial is absolutely beautiful. Now I know why Kaiser is always raving about Net-A-Porter, they definitely have some of the best stylists and photographers. Liv is gorgeous and the photos and fashion somehow capture both her vulnerability and playfulness.

Inside, Liv gives some candid quotes about who she is what she’s struggling with. She strikes me as someone who gives few interviews, but who will open up to a journalist occasionally. I also think that she’s genuine, and that she doesn’t put on a facade or try and parse her life story. She’s not pushing an image. Here’s some of what she told the magazine:

On being raised by women
I was raised by the women in my life. That’s made me incredibly strong and resilient. I’ve always been able to support myself and my family on my own. Men are a bit of a mystery to me in a way. They are visitors. They visit my life. I am always surprised when there is one around.

On father figures Todd Rundgren and Steven Tyler
Neither father was what you would call hands-on, both being “very creative, very magical artists who were on totally different schedules to everyone. We had to do our own thing,” says Tyler. Just the other day, she and [half-sister] Mia were talking about “love and boyfriends, and Mia said, ‘Let love be like dessert. Enjoy it when it’s there, but you don’t want to eat dessert at every meal, all day long.’ I thought, yeah, yeah, that makes so much sense. And then I thought, wow, that’s so interesting: both Mia and I [have that view] of what a man in our life is like.”

On life with her son, Milo, 8
[Milo] just wants me to make him breakfast and walk him to school and read to him at night and help him with his homework – all the basic things that any child would want. He couldn’t give a rat’s ass about me being famous or a movie star or anything. I learn so much from him. To have a son was huge for me, because it’s been the most solid, healthy, consistent relationship I’ve ever had with a male in my whole life.

“He says, ‘I’m tired of the city and these people. I just want to be free, I just want to run around’.vIt pulls at my heartstrings because I would love to give him that. That’s how I grew up. I’m in a moment right now where I am trying to figure out what I want, what I want phase two to be like.|

On her career
As for acting, she went to the cinema last night to see The Hangover Part III, and there were three trailers for movies of scripts she had been sent, two of which her agent had pushed her to audition for. “I just didn’t love them. And then when I watched the trailers, I didn’t even like the movies,” she confides. “I can only follow my heart.”

[From Net-A-Porter]

Liv has some minor films coming out this year, but she wasn’t promoting any of that in this article. She was actually plugging a manners book, written by her grandmother, Dorthea Johnson, in which she’s contributed the forward! It’s called Modern Manners: Tools to Take You to the Top and Liv describes it as “basic please and thank yous, looking someone in the eye, really listening, not being distracted on your phone all the time.” I knew we were kindred spirits. I have a son who is eight too, and I try to teach him manners every day.

As for Liv’s declaration that her son is the longest relationship in her life, I can’t fault her for admitting that. That’s her experience, and to me it shows that she’s a dedicated mom and puts her son first. I can’t help but hope for lasting love for her. It doesn’t sound like she particularly wants that, given how she likened men to dessert. Maybe she just expects men to make her sick after a while, as that’s all she (and her sister) have known.

Photos by Miguel Reveriego, styling by Natalie Brewster for Net-A-Porter