Only Joan Rivers could rival Barneys' creative ambassador-at-large Simon Doonan's wit and I got to experience it firsthand at a breakfast he hosted for his new book, Gay Men Don't Get Fat (a play on Mireille Guiliano's French Women Don't Get Fat).
Over a breakfast of coffee and fruit salad, Doonan read from his book and answered questions decked-out in a "$2 tie" he picked up in Brighton. "It's the only thing I'm wearing," he told me, "that's not from Barneys. I'm a messy eater and this is easy to wash!" I just read a feature on him in the New York Times in which the writer, Jeff Gordinier, wonders whether the restaurant Doonan picked for the interview (Knickerbocker Bar and Grill) had more to do with the fact that Doonan lives across the street or whether it was due to, as he claimed, Knickerbocker's balance of "gay" and "straight" food. Naturally, I asked Doonan what he thought of the writer's remark: "It's funny that he picked up on that! It was a bit of both honestly. I love that place because it has that 70s New York feel, kind of like Joe Allen."
