Simon and Jonathan wouldn’t have things any.
other wayPhoto: Patrick McMullan
We mean that in the best possible way, of course. Last night at the National Design Awards at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, we asked the creative power couple if there were ever any other careers they’d considered. “Um, I am basically unemployable, and I probably would be lucky to be a barista at Starbucks,” said Adler. “That’s the honest truth. I got fired from every job I ever had, and it was pottery or bust.” Barneys creative director Doonan said that he wouldn’t mind doing a work that was a little … dirtier. “I think it would be really fun to design nightclubs, strip clubs — places that are very hedonistic, like, you know, brothels,” he said dreamily. “Oh, it would be fabulous. I’d have Swarovski-encrusted faucets in the bathroom, and everything that was high cheese. It would be couture, but it would be very over the top. With fashion and style you always are constrained slightly. But with anything like a whorehouse or a stripper bar or a pole-dancing club, you can just go bananas, and use every material you’ve ever wanted to use, like fun fur and patent leather. That would be very appealing to me, because I’m actually very demure and not that way.” —Bennett Marcus
