Doonan comes from the English town of Reading. His first retail job was a summer position at Heelas, a department store in Reading, now owned by the John Lewis Partnership. After returning to work at the same store after university, he first got involved in the art of window dressing. He later left Reading for London and dressed windows at Aquascutum before moving to Nutters of Savile Row. Invited to dress his windows by the proprietor of Maxfield, a department store in Los Angeles, Doonan moved to the United States in 1978. He joined the Barneys staff in 1986 as a window dresser. In addition to his work at Barneys, he writes a column on style for Slate. Previously, he wrote a similar column for The New York Observer. In his book, Eccentric Glamour, he decried porno chic in Western society in general. Interviewed for an article for the New York Daily News, he said, "There are two horribly worrying trends! Celebrities are becoming so gun-shy that there is no diversity, no sense of fun on the red carpet. There's no experimentation – which is incredibly important to fashion." On "porno chic," he said, "Imagine if you said to people 20 years ago that, in 2008, a significant number of women would be going around dressing like porno stars with fake hooters and butt cracks showing? No one would have believed you." In September 2008, he married his partner, designer Jonathan Adler, in California.
Appearances
Doonan has made appearances on VH1's I Love the series, offering social commentary on each decade. He has also been a guest star on America's Next Top Model seasons 2, 3, and 5 to teach the models about style. Doonan has appeared on Bravo'sFashion Hunters to authenticate an Issey Miyake piece. Doonan's memoir Beautiful People has been adapted for TV and began airing on BBC Two in the UK on 2 October 2008 as Beautiful People. For The Moth podcasts, he read "Fear of Squat" on 20 September 2006 and "Every Expense was Spared" on 9 February 2012 about his wedding to Adler. Doonan appeared as a judge on Iron Chef America for Battle Sparkling Wine. In Gossip Girl's fifth season, he escorted Blair Waldorf on Jenny Packham's show. Doonan used to dress up as the UK's Queen Elizabeth II, and impersonate her at public appearances, and has written about being born in the same year as Elizabeth's accession to the throne and his affinity with Elizabeth's pet name, "Brenda". In January 2013, Doonan made a cameo in an Alexander Wang advertisement. The advertisement takes place in Wang's flagship store in New York, where Doonan is falsely accused by Anjelah Johnson's character Bon Qui Qui for trying to steal a handbag. He is also a judge for the NBC show Making It hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman.
