Simon Doonan: The Fabulosity of Maximalism

The holiday season is in full swing and boutique windows are
glittering on Rodeo Drive. So who better to talk to right now
than the famed window dresser, Simon Doonan!


When he was creative director at Barney’s, Doonan never missed an
opportunity for maximal effect with storefront displays that
transformed fashion retail into spectacle. Now he is a writer and
eminence on all things style-related – and he has released a new
book about design at full volume.


Maximalism: Bold, Bedazzled, Gold, and Tasseled Interiors,
features lavish spaces around the world: from opulent Old World
interiors to a Bel Air bedroom with no surface untouched, by
Kelly Wearstler, the candy colored Trixie Motel in Palm Springs
by Dani Dazey, and Doonan’s own bedazzling New York apartment,
designed by his husband Jonathan Adler.


Guest host Frances Anderton talks with Doonan on the
season-closer of Rodeo Drive - The Podcast about why you can
never layer on too much, and how Maximalism is right at home in
Los Angeles, dating “from Busby Berkeley to Tiny Naylor's coffee
shop,” and on to today’s spectacular concerts by Taylor Swift,
Beyoncé and Harry Styles. “We live in such a visual world that
minimal decor doesn't mean anything online or on your phone or on
TikTok” says Doonan. “Everything has to be maximal, and LA is at
the center of the culture in so many ways.”


Doonan recalls an encounter with the larger-than-life Tony
Duquette at his home Dawnridge, in Beverly Hills. Duquette, a
prolific designer whose resume includes creating costumes and
sets for Fred Astaire musicals, and making jewelry for Tom Ford
in his eighties, filled his home and garden with antiques,
chinoiserie, sunburst sculptures, gold-leafing, tapestries and
cleverly upcycled trash. It was, says Doonan, an “unhinged visual
extravaganza.”


Doonan peppers the conversation with amusing insights. When asked
if maximalism, or “maxi,” can ever become too messy, he says he
will never judge, having fond memories of a childhood vacation at
the blue collar Butlins holiday camp in the UK, which was
“drenched in the fabulosity of maximalism.” He adds, “If somebody
is happy, and their apartment looks like a good reflection of
them, you do you, boo.” As for the ultra-rich who prefer
battleship gray T-shirts over lavish displays of affluence, “one
of the most hilarious things is when somebody becomes so wealthy
that the only way they can find pleasure is to build a concrete
bunker on a Swedish Island, and go and hide in it,” says Doonan.


Finally, to those who believe minimalism is the path to
happiness, he concludes: “I just think maximalism is more life
affirming and maximalism doesn't need minimalism…Minimalism
relies on maximalism to have something to denounce, whereas
maximalism is much too big to fail.”


Season 4 of Rodeo Drive – The Podcast is presented by the Rodeo
Drive Committee with the support of The Hayman Family, Two Rodeo
Drive, Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, and the Beverly
Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau.


Season 4 Credits:


Executive Producer and Host: Lyn Winter


On behalf of the Rodeo Drive Committee: Kathy Gohari


Scriptwriter, Editorial Advisor and Guest Host: Frances Anderton


Editor and Videographer: Hans Fjellestad


Theme music by Brian Banks


Production Assistant: Isabelle Alfonso


Visit the website: https://rodeodrive-bh.com/podcast/


Join us on Instagram @rodeodrive


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