Simon Doonan  "Good taste is an oppressive concept designed to
make people feel ashamed—like they're not quite passing muster.
I understand why it was something that people might have talked
about in the 1950s, when women wore white gloves, but I can't
believe anyone still subscribes to it as something real. I hold
to the Quentin Crisp belief that you should not try to keep up
with the neighbors—you should drag them down to your level. A
lot of this goes back to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. For
some reason, people thought of them as beacons of good taste.
Whereas they were really sort of wretched, self-obsessed, vain
dandies who were highly entertaining in their own way, but in
the end, they were a deranged couple that had nothing to say to
each other. They would sit in a restaurant and recite the
alphabet. I don't see what's so great about that. I'd rather be
Tammy Wynette."  —Doonan is the creative ambassador for Barneys.
Ruth Reichl  "The thing that's so interesting about taste to me
as a writer is th