Simon Doonan’s Guide to Bad Taste
I don’t think of myself as a taste maker. I think of myself more as a bad taste maker. I’m very pro-bad taste. Bad taste is very important. It’s like a little dash of paprika, you know, you need it.
Good taste doesn’t really exist. It’s like a subjective concept. So I’m very pro bad taste and that’s essentially how I’ve made my career, always doing something that was counter-intuitive, always doing something that was naughty. When I got involved in window display in the 70s, I used to think what do people never ever do in windows and how can I do that? And the goal was to just keep myself interested and creatively stimulated, but it also led to a career that’s lasted quite a long time in window display.
And then from there I went into corporate retail in the 80s and 90s and had a very interesting career dealing with advertising, marketing, all aspects of retail and communication. So I wouldn’t say I was a fashion wiz, I’m more of a retail wiz, I love selling things.