Simon Doonan
Everyone Jump on the Peace Train! Simon Doonan and Barneys Pay Tribute to the 1960s
This morning, Observer columnist Simon Doonan unveiled the holiday windows at Barneys—where he toils as Creative Director by day—to the press.
"This year, I noticed that everyone was talking about the counterculture," he said, explaining his "Have a Hippie Holiday" theme via books by Sheila Weller (Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—And the Journey of a Generation) and Tom Brokaw (Boom!: Talking About the Sixties: What Happened, How It Shaped Today, Lessons for Tomorrow) and coffee-table tome Spaced-Out: Radical Environments of the Psychedelic Sixties.
Also: "I read somewhere that it's the 50th Anniversary of the peace sign!" read more »
Lineup for September 24th, 2008
Do financial reporters care what the candidates think, wonders Felix Gillette. "Few in the world of financial reporting found much to say about either Mr. McCain or Senator Barack Obama’s responses to the unfolding crisis that week. After all, should business reporters really care more about Mr. McCain’s 'commission of technicians' than, say, Henry Paulson’s plans for the largest bailout in American history or, say, the sudden, radical end of the pure investment banks on Wall Street?"
John Koblin tracks how women's magazines will be dealing with Sarah Palin. "Ladies Home Journal said it will absolutely cover Mrs. Palin—well, absolutely if she wins."
Leon Neyfakh asks, "Is it time yet to start pulling together books about last week’s catastrophe on Wall Street?" Apparently! "Publishers are uneasy about making plans too soon, but the city’s finest financial journalists—and their literary agents—are eager to get moving."
Plus: Simon Doonan Gets Married... Clay Felker's Memorial... Candace Bushnell's Latest. read more »
Reader, I Married Him
“I want to wrap him in a napkin and stomp on him.”
These words were spoken by Jonathan Adler to the startled officiant at our big fat gay Jewish wedding. Yes, on Thursday, Sept. 18, as reported in The New York Times the following Sunday, Mr. Adler and I tied the knot in San Francisco. It wasn’t really big and wasn’t what you would call fat, but it was definitely a perfect day: We laughed. We cried. We ate some cake. We threatened to stomp on each other—as opposed to stomping on a nice piece of stemware à la the Jewish tradition—all in good jest, of course. read more »
Simon Says: This Year, Give Her the Gift of Shopping Disinhibition
Fashion Roundup: Victoria Beckham's Comfy Corsets; Arlenis Sosa in at Lancome; Trovata's Magic Bus
Victoria Beckham is launching a collection of dresses featuring “comfortable and supportive” corsets and belts. [WWD]
Italian designer Mila Schon has died at the age of 91. [Reuters]
Dominican model Arlenis Sosa, who is 19, will be the new face of Lancome. [WWD]
The Observer’s own Simon Doonan thinks that Sarah Palin is more “LensCrafters Lady” than “Ms. Congeniality.” [The Cut]
Simon Says: Spring Season Videos
See More of Simon Says
Simon Says: Fall 2008Simon Says: Summer 2008
Simon Says: Spring 2008
GQ Crowns 'Men of the Year'!
John Varvatos, the Detroit-born-and-bred men’s wear designer known for both his clothes and creams, has just been named GQ’s “Designer of the Year.” Mr. Varvatos will join 19 other gents, politicos, dandies and jocks in the book’s December issue, marking its 12th annual “Men of the Year” rundown.
GQ's other 2007 honorees are listed after the jump. read more »
Style Blog Smells Fish at Barneys
In this week’s Observer, our very own Simon Doonan writes about how he was strongly encouraged by Barneys brass to lend the store’s holiday windows a “green” theme. But after style bloggers at Fashionista gave the street-facing displays the old once-over, they apparently became concerned about all the blinking lights, which, as they put it, “seem to suck energy the way we devour Skittles.”
“I don't know the specifics on how much energy the windows use," Julie Gilhart, fashion director at the store, told the blog at a Calvin Klein party last night. "But of course we use electricity, we use energy—but nobody can decide to go totally green overnight. It's a process. We're making a huge effort to be as green as possible, and to spread awareness to our community so they can start making adjustments, too. And we're really proud and excited about that... isn't the reindeer fun?"
Hollywood Babel On!
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The Double Issue: Everyone, Everything, Everywhere
First-year banking boys enjoyed their coke-snorting, hot-dog-eating summers just fine; L.A. sucks and Lindsay Lohan will go for a sister's neck; The Martignetti brothers, of the LES's Martignetti Liquors, are opening a restaurant; there are young policy wonk intellects!; and Dustin Hoffman is a playa.
There's the closing of the Stonewall bar (attracting "wrong," "urban" element say (cough! white!) neighbors. Who are those Anthropologie-shopping gals? Brian Williams, the last old man of TV news, wants you to touch his Peabody.The vaunted Trend Piece may be as dead as a dodo. Hey, we sneaked a Black Panther onto the front page! In movies, there's Half Nelson and Leopold's Ghost and 13 and Snakes and Idlewild. Simon Doonan recaps his homosexualist summer; Tortoise still post-rocks; Neil Sedaka sold off part of his apartment and Elizabeth Lindemann bought a $10-mil bachelorette pad, and there's a scheme for an idealist fantasy of New York. And what a heap of Iraq books!
There's Tennis! And tennis! And tennis! And tennis! And tennis! Do you like tennis?
There's our extremely self-referential comic strip. There's Christine Quinn and Malachy McCourt and the DNC and reports from Jerusalem and Beirut.
Don't ever forget there's someone for everyone. And two more words: Yacht Rock.
Letters
To the Editor: read more »
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Kidd Keeps Knopf Cool, Wrapping Books Gorgeously
Community Boards
The Barneys Experiment: Live Subjects Under Glass
What to Ask For for Christmas? One Word: Yamamoto
