Simon Doonan was born in 1952 in Reading, England. He began trimming windows on London's Savile Row before emigrating to Southern California in the late seventies. After working with Diana Vreeland at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Doonan joined Barneys New York in 1986, where he is now creative director. He is also a columnist for The New York Observer and a contributor to Harper's Bazaar and several other publications. He lives in New York with his partner, designer Jonathan Adler, and their dog, Liberace.