TOME TUESDAY: ASYLUM + SIMON DOONAN BOOK SIGNING
Last Thursday (9/26) Author, bon-vivant and Barneys New York Creative Ambassador-at-Large, Simon Doonan was back in Chicago to talk all things “The Asylum: A Collage of Couture Reminiscences… and Hysteria” his new book from Blue Rider Press.
Ladies and a few gents lined up to chat, get their book signed as as well photo opportunity that surely went on INSTAGRAM/FACEBOOK right away.
Between signing and photo taking, Mr. Doonan was gracious enough to answer a few questions
Coincidentally news of the Holiday Barneys Window broke that week so we had to ask what to expect from the collaboration with Jay Z?
Unfortunately he is not the current creative director for the Barney’s window but he did hint that we can expect to have our minds BLOWN” the team has been working on it for months and months and its going to blow you away with joy and fabulosity.
The 5 fashion people he would like to be stuck in a “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” type ward with?
Micheal Kors is a racounteur
Alexander Wang he’s very sweet
Bon Qui Qui
Marc Jacobs
A fun fashionable girl is First lady Michelle Obama who is the most fabulous first lady.
What does he like to unwind with “After 5?”
Well if we had asked this maybe say 20 years ago it may have been something potent and fab but nowadays Simon no longer drinks.
As someone that’s visited Chicago numerous times, what is his favorite thing about the city?
There are so many things to love about Chicago including the architecture, the art collections and interesting people like Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chili Pepper(at the Baton) and we must agree. Chili Pepper has not aged, seriously what’s her secret?
In The Asylum, an unabashedly hilarious collection of autobiographical essays, Doonan, the creative ambassador for Barneys New York, tells the real-life stories of glamorous madness and stylish insanity.
Doonan has witnessed models unable to work for fear of ghosts, gone deep-sea fishing with a couturier pal and his jailbird companion, and watched Anna Wintour remain perfectly calm while the ceiling fell—literally—in the middle of Fashion Week. Once you start looking, he says, you’ll notice telltale signs of lunacy everywhere. Style insiders see patterns and trends in everything; they suffer from outsize personality disorders and delusions of grandeur; and of course, they have a predilection for theatrical makeup and artfully destroyed clothing. No one is more suited to the asylum than the truly die-hard fashionista—after all, eccentricity and extremism are the foundations of great style.
He said you are very shed shee in your taste and I will take that as a compliment.
*images: Barry Brecheisen
