Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, June 22, 2012 Page: 32 of 80
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/L7
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Jonathan Adler's new Uptown boutique
has been open for about a week, but until
two minutes before we sit down for our
interview, he'd not seen the final set-up. He
scurries through the store for a few minutes,
soaking it all in. "I love it!" he declares.
He should. The new Jonathan Adler bou-
tique on McKinney Avenue in the Knox-Hen-
derson area is chock full of Adler's many
designs — not just the pot-
tery which launched his ca- ARNOLD WAYNE JONES
reer 18 years ago, but jones@dallasvoice.com
playing cards, embroidered
pillows, candles and clutches. If, as Steel Mag-
nolias queerly observed, what sets man apart
from the animals is his ability to accessorize,
then Adler is the manliest man out there.
Adler's products have been available in Dal-
las for years — including Barneys, where his
husband of 17 years, Simon Doonan, is creative
director ("I gave him my pretty years," Adler
jokes) — but this is his first free-standing bou-
tique in business. And, he thinks, it's about
damn time.
"Dallas is a lot of fun — I've been here a mil-
lion times and there's always something fun
going on here," he gushes. "You know the
stereotypes of Northerners [being uptight] and
Southerners having fun? That's so true. And
I've always loved it — such an incredible art
scene, and gay scene and style scene. And this
neighborhood just feels so right for me."
Indeed, it's a bit of a gay enclave now along
Knox-Henderson, with Adler's storefront fac-
ing gay-owned Mitchell Gold+Bob Williams.
"And I suspect there are quite a few more on
the block as well," Adler adds.
Adler is on a roll — he'll
I Life+Style Editor open three more boutiques
this summer because, he
says, "I'm not getting any
younger" — but in some ways, business bores
him.
"A typical day for me is spent in my New
York pottery studio, getting dirty and taking
credit for my team's creativity," he jokes. "My
goal as a designer is to ignore strategy and
branding and all that business-y stuff. Just fol-
low your heart."
I point to one piece — a bisque lamp whose
image is a repeated face, which shares an eye
with the face on either side — as one of the
stand-outs in the store.
"You picked one of those pieces I'm unbe-
lievably proud of," he beams. "When some-
thing looks right, it seems to have been
uncovered rather than created."
Still, Adler owe a lot of his business success
to some Dallas icons.
"Todd Oldham is an old sister of mine — he
gave me one of my first breaks in the business,"
he says of the Dallas fashion designer. "And he
and Simon knew each other independently. A
lot of Dallasites have been supporters of me."
He also mentions Carlos Falci, who when he
had a boutique, was one of his first customers.
Dallas, he says, appreciates quality.
"I'm a fancy gay, obsessed with quality," he
trills. "I try to find the best workshops — I
source a lot of my porcelain from China —
there's a reason we call porcelain 'china.' But it
takes a lot of work to make stuff with a sense of
joy. My main focus is making unimpeachably
chic items, but I embrace color."
That palette has helped set him apart in the
marketplace. There is a summer-in-the-Hamp-
tons vibe to his splashy designs with a strong
nod to Palm Beach, but he says it all comes
down to craft. "As a potter, I want to make
things people's heirs will fight over in the will."
And that, of course, means a detailed eye and
open idea of what works. He has some favorite
themes — counterculture icons, like peace signs,
abound — but Adler is always refining his craft.
"Simon is a writer — his latest book is fuck-
ing hilarious — and you know the cliche that
writing is rewriting? It's so true. In any creative
pursuit, it takes analysis, patience, resilience ...
whether writing or potting. It's a tortured
process."
It's at this point that Doonan, who has been
lurking around the store for a half hour, wan-
ders over, vogueing his way next to Adler to
add his two cents — although with Doonan,
it's more like five dollars.
"Our home looks like this with some vintage
thrown in," he says in that distinctive pixieish
accent. "That's the secret to Jonathan's success:
So many designers inflict their works on the
general public but don't use it themselves."
And fashion designers who come out at the
end of their runway shows in Keds and a Gap
T? Doonan hates it.
"You want us to slap down $500 for that
pant and you don't wear your own clothes?
And they all have menswear lines now, so
there's no excuse for it anymore," he says."
Adler concurs.
"I design it all for myself," he says. "The mir-
acle of my life is that I've created a job where I
get to make everything I want."
And we get to share it. ■
32 dallasvoice.com
06.22.12
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Wright, John. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 29, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, June 22, 2012, newspaper, June 22, 2012; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth308872/m1/32/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.