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.