The fashionable Simon Doonan, author and the creative ambassador-at-large for Barney’s department stores, loves Michelle Obama. But it’s not because she sports J. Crew or glams it up in Jason Wu or Naeem Khan. Doonan thinks she’s better than that. “She’s a very accomplished person, we shouldn’t be talking about her clothes all the time, I think it’s insulting,” Doonan told Yeas & Nays. Doonan would prefer that fashion chatter be left to Hollywood types. “There’s 200 billion red carpet celebrities, there’s a hundred-thousand-trillion dumb TV actresses, we can talk about what they are wearing all day long — she’s the wife of the president of the United States, I think people’s brains are getting corroded if they can’t tell the difference between [Michelle Obama] and Bethenny Frankel,” Doonan continued.
Doonan got the pleasure of meeting the first lady when he decorated the White House for the Obamas’ first District Christmas back in 2009. He retells that story in his new book “Gay Men Don’t Get Fat,” which he’s coming to D.C. to promote this week. His decorations caused the mini-controversy “Tinselgate,” because several of the donated, recycled, decoupaged, balls hanging on the large Christmas tree in the blue room contained controversial images — something Doonan got in a public fight over with conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart.
Despite the tussle, Doonan said he hasn’t soured on Washington. “Oh I love D.C.,” he gushed. He’ll be appearing on the rooftop of the W Hotel from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday. The book signing is free, but reservations must be made online.
