FASHION Magazine

By Louisa McCormack

Photography by Joe Gaffney

Some know Simon Doonan as the creative director of the chic Manhattan department store Barneys New York, where he masterminds the kind of avant-garde window displays that inspire pilgrimages. Others know him from Simon Says, his ruthlessly witty style column in the New York Observer. Adored for his irrepressible Rhoda Morgenstern–meets–Oscar Wilde perspective, Doonan launches his fourth book, Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You, this spring. Reached at his holiday flat in Palm Beach, he says his timing couldn’t be better.

“The time is right for women to embrace eccentricity. Since Isabella Blow died, people are thinking, why was she the only one?” he says, referencing the relentlessly iconic couture patron. “If Janis Joplin came along now, she would never get a record deal because she doesn’t look right. Women are starting to question that. More of them are doing bouffants now, which I totally attribute to Amy Winehouse. Personal expression is an important issue for women. Anybody daring enough to look radically different influences people.”

A follow-up to Wacky Chicks: Life Lessons from Fearlessly Inappropriate and Fabulously Eccentric Women, his latest, according to Doonan, offers “cheeky, bombastic advice, mixed in with autobiographical disclosures, sprinkled over with interviews with glamorous eccentrics” (e.g., Tilda Swinton, Iman, Lucy Liu). But there’s an “underlying sincerity” to Doonan’s motives. Fearing that “porno chic is engulfing the nation,” he wants to stop us before we all become blow-up dolls and migrate en masse, sartorially, to deep Orange County. If you’re wearing bumster jeans, hair extensions, breast implants or a tanning-bed glow right now, you’d best turn the page—or listen closely.

“What is great about women is that they’re non-linear and innately eccentric. The intention is to reignite that sense of women as individuals rather than conforming to some vaguely sexy, voluptuous vision of humanity that says, ‘I’m scared, so I’m going to look interesting to men and compete with other women.’ We live at a time when there are no rules; you can dress any way you want. It’s strange that women dress so similar. The thing that bothers me is not that it’s a whorish look—but that it’s conformist.”

Eccentric glamour is not just for special occasions but is best when habitual, says Doonan, listing The Gypsy, The Socialite and The Existentialist as his style trifecta. Kate Moss flits merrily between the categories, but most women fall into one. Define yours and shopping becomes a simple matter of replenishment: style constants (Gypsy dirndl skirts, Socialite shantung coats, Existentialist black turtlenecks) mixed with surprises (red pumps for all). “Even in the smallest town, there’s a woman who takes pleasure in standing out from the crowd, who throws on a bit more lipstick, an oversized corsage, a Spanish hat,” says Doonan. “A woman who enhances the lives of others by adding an extra dollop of panache to her appearance.”

So, how is he finding Florida as a hunting ground for eccentric glamour? “The best thing about Florida is it’s not pretentious. There is a happy embrace of vulgarity, a very important ingredient to life. You realize the utter pointlessness of old notions of good taste and how outdated they are.”

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