Barney's Wraps Up Holiday Plans

Via Racked by Izzy Greenspan

Simon Doonan has a new obsession: The foodie universe. Last week, South Beach Food and Wine Festival founder Lee Schrager tweeted, "After meets w/ Simon Doonan+ Barneys team about Foodie Holiday windows, had vivid dreams of sugar plum fairies+pierre herme macaroons tree." We immediately got on the phone with Doonan, who confirms that "Have a Foodie Holiday!" will be the theme of next year's windows. Even better, Barneys plans to spend the whole fall celebrating food culture, with stores across the country hosting tastings, book signings, and panel discussions.
It's still early in the planning process, of course, but Doonan hopes to base the holiday windows around the cult of the celebrity chef—perhaps like this year's Saturday Night Live windows, only with Food Network stars. The foodie world is new to him, so he's talking to Lee Schrager to get a sense of who to highlight. "I feel like Margaret Mead," he said, "Like I've stumbled on a new tribe and I'm studying their habits."

So who will we see in the windows?>>

The connection between food and fashion makes sense, even if it seems contradictory on first blush. "Well, as fashion people, we barely know food exists—kidding!" Doonan said. "We're an upscale specialty store and our customers are completely immersed in the foodie world." So while former model Padma Lakshmi might be an obvious choice for the windows, we could also see Mario "orange Crocs" Batali or any number of other major chefs.

I'm a believer. xo