(Photo: Dean Kaufman)Since starting his ceramic design business over 10 years ago, Adler's style has come into its own and mutated from an organic, understated love of elegance to an over the top, funked up, in-your-face glam 50's,60's,70's idiosyncratic tour de force. In a sense, he has leveraged his early success to convince the world to go for something bolder... a lot bolder.
The question is, is there a lead here to follow? Or is this self-celebrating detour better watched from the roadside? While we love the spirit and the fun of it all, we would rather sit this one out.
Adler has gone from a universal, intuitive design sense to a hard-core niche that excites but doesn't give us anything to take home.
Or is there something else going on? Isn't there something no one is really saying? Aren't we (with our doubts) just another lilly-livered heterosexual who can't deal with Adler and Doonan's out-of-the-closet, I-am-not-doing-this-for-you-but-for-me, to-hell-with-Martha-Stewart-and-all-that-bullshit-safe-suburbany lifestyle/design?
We think this may be the rub. Adler has taken off the kid gloves and has given free reign to his "outlaw" side. He doesn't expect everyone to follow. He wants to shake things up. Hey, isn't this New York City's job? On this note, we say god bless him. We can't all be from Kansas...
Additionally, Viladas says,
Doonan and Adler's place is that it perfectly illustrates an increasingly popular approach to decorating that's all about the mix.
While not a earth shatteringly original comment and while she clearly wouldn't move into Adler and Doonan's home, we would agree with her here. Perhaps we should discount what it all LOOKS like and just take note of the MIX. That excites us.
What do you think?
I agree that while I dig the style, I wouldn't exactly live in it. But something comes to mind here that I've encountered from watching Project Runway. I wouldn't be caught dead in the clothes that most of the designers wear - and even most of the things on the runway. But seeing how the outrageous trickles down to influence the everyday consumer is interesting.
So even though the funkiness is over the top - it probably would inspire people to take some risks and mix up their design style a little more at home
My take is that there are two styles at play here-- Jonathan, the retailer (nice in doses, but that's at odds with his own tongue-in-cheek "more is more" philospohy), and the Jonathan/Doonan collaborative style, which I think takes it all so far over the top (and what's depicted here). It may be all about the mix, but this seems some extreme mixology. I think "surreal style" really works best when it has some sort of non-surreal foil for which it can contrast... But, if it works for them (AND gets them as much press as they do)...
I can never figure out whether they have great wit (which their writing and work seem to indicate, and I hope to be true) or whether it's the Emperor's new clothes, in a tragic-hipster-exclusive kind of way (that's on the A-D collaboration... I remain a fan of Adler on his own.)
And ultimately, you can't find fault with ANYONE who owns/co-owns a Norfolk terrier!!
ps-- I actually found these interiors to be tamer than what I might have expected, for them.
pps-- Liberace, their dog, is mistakenly identified as a Norwich, but he is a Norfolk-- the same breed that won Best in (Terrier) Group at the Westminster this week.
The Paul above is a different paul from myself (I'm the grumpy, has-no-bedroom paul...)
I agree with patrick (the other one), for the most part, but I just couldn't live in a place for the sake of the press it gets me... Wouldn't it be hard to comfortably walk around or fall asleep in bed? I'd be too preoccupied with the theatrics. Wouldn't you? Isn't a home supposed to be intensely personal? What is there to prove once the doors are shut each night?
You don't need to be hetero to dislike "over the top"...
Anyway, the lady with the mink bedspread tried that cute animal trick last week... and it didn't work then either!
It was a brilliant move on my part yesterday... Shifting attention from my quarters to the Adler/Doonan abode... Wow... It led to a big AT spread!
my fascination with patrick (the other one) grows every day. patrick - you follow dog shows? fascinating...
my fascination with patrick (the other one) grows every day. patrick - you follow dog shows? fascinating... by the way - i look forward to your whole apartment.
I think the fact that they have other homes allows them to be riskier with this one. I wouldn't want to look at that LOUD stuff everyday, but sometimes it would be fun.
My grandfather traded a car for all this lakefront property on Lake Champlain and the camp (cabin) my father built was copied from a picture he saw in Life magazine. The inside is a wild mix with bear and deer heads mounted on the wall next to an 8 foot long swordfish. The coffee table is an old mortuary stone. The walls in the downstairs bedrooms have the same awful panneling Dad put up in 1968. It's not my "style," but it's still my favorite place on earth.
"Anyway, the lady with the mink bedspread tried that cute animal trick last week... and it didn't work then either!"
Sheesh, mr. grumpy no-bedroom paul,
It wasn't a cute animal trick. The cute animal is in fact an integral part of my bedroom. The "mink" is there specifically because of the cute animal. And as tacky as fake fur may be, it's not nearly as tacky as REAL fur, so please watch your language. I ain't no mink-killer.
gotta keep my grumpy persona up.
...bohemian-preppy? What an oxymoron! And a load of crap. Kitsch only works when it is not deliberate. This is way too forced. Too "look at us! We're wacky old queens!"
Geez, I think Paul's nastiness is starting to rub off on me!
I actually really like their apartment. I could live there, minus some of the really kitchy personal stuff. I even like the white carpet walls -- it makes an interesting texture and its certainly more original than stucco. Then again, all the houses in my suburban childhood had off-primary wall colors, loud chintz prints and Laura Ashley/Southern Living-style living rooms, rather than polite Hamptons/Martha Stewart style. I've seen interiors I couldn't live in for the kitch factor, mostly in Nest or real life, but this one seems personal and interesting. However, I don't want to see what happens when this trickles down to us design proletariat...
I think the thing Mr. Adler would take most offense to here is the phrase "wacky old queens". Because of the "old" part.
I didn't like the apartment when I first saw it this weekend; I still don't like it - but that's because it is simply not my style - and that is what makes everyone unique - but if they both like it, what's the problem?
Don't forget any one who wakes up to a poodle table lamp
accross from their bed must think wacky is a good thing,
especially if one of them is the author of a book, Wacky Chicks.
Any way I think the Adler/Doonan apartment is inspiration not
to be too serious when we decorate our homes,decorating is fun
(apologies to Dorothy Draper).
First off, this is my first post off my awesome new Dell laptop at work as opposed to my poky old e-machine so color me a happy happy girl.
As far as Adler goes, I'm a real admirer of both his aesthetic and his business model (as I mentioned on another thread). I love kitsch although I will say I like their other places, like the spread in Elle Decor last Nov, better than this one. But I'm a great lover of kitsch (at least at this moment) so I'm grooving on the grooviness.
I agree with Paul in that there should always be people who push the envelope so everyone else might be given the space to try something a little more adventurous. I'm glad Adler/Doonan are out there doing their thing. And Mary, you can see the trickling down- just go to your neighborhood Bed Bath & Beyond and you can see Jonathan Adler's Happy Home stuff.
Really? I'll take a look next time I'm in there...
Their featured art makes me uneasy. It consists mainly of cartoonish renditions of African American icons (garish busts of Michael Jackson and Prince etc . . .). What statement are these tragically hip hipsters trying to make with these? Am I supposed to just trust that they are too hip and ironic to have questionable motives. Are images of African Americans just "interesting" and cool to have around the apartment of art? Would they ever admit that they simply dig the shock value of displaying all this negrobilia (in the NY Times no less)? Perhaps if I saw similar kitschy painting/sculpture/ art depicting other racial groups similarly I might feel differently.
Their featured art makes me uneasy. It consists mainly of cartoonish renditions of African American icons (garish busts of Michael Jackson and Prince etc . . .). What statement are these tragically hip hipsters trying to make with these? Am I supposed to just trust that they are too hip and ironic to have questionable motives. Are images of African Americans just "interesting" and cool to have around the apartment? Would they ever admit that they simply dig the shock value of displaying all this negrobilia (in the NY Times no less)? Perhaps if I saw similar kitschy painting/sculpture/ art depicting other racial groups similarly I might feel differently.
Honestly, in response to Vivian's post, I think Michael Jackson in any context is now somewhat cartoonish, because he's made himself that way. I understand your concern, but on the other hand, maybe they are just into Prince and Michael Jackson and poodles and whatever else they depicted.
I mean, my husband lived in Africa, and my family is from Africa, and we have lots of African stuff, even though we are two Caucasian people. Ours isn't cartoony, but we aren't really kitschy people.
As for the Adler/Doonan decorating style, I think they are just having fun. Heck, they can afford to change it whenever so why not play around and have a good time? Like I said, I'm not kitschy, but I can appreciate not being serious. Plus, all the two of them do all day is try to sell stuff to high-end customers, so it's probably a relief to be a little low-end.
Even though I think, yes, it's decorating, so let's have some fun, I kind of agree with Vivian... something about their "we're so fabulous, we can be oddly incorrect" when it comes to their "super-fly" art collection, is sort of weird.
Don't get me wrong, Simon's windows for Barney's are beyond artistic perfection...
The apartment is much too forced, contrived, ridiculous, look at me, let's get more press!!! Ambition over talent. At this point, it has become redundant. Enough.