‘Beautiful People’: A fashion stylist’s hilarious quest

  Beautiful people. Growing up in the down-at-the-heels part of 1950s Reading, England, Simon Doonan wanted to be among the lovely specimens he read about on the pages of the fashion magazines, lounging about in caftans, swanning with the glitteratti in Saint-Tropez or partying in London.
  Where he definitely did not want to be was home. Home was a seedy rooming house with an odd collection of lodgers, and while they provided a lot of entertainment, little Doonan knew he was meant for better things.
  Doonan embarked on a quest to find the "Beautiful People." He moved to London, eventually to Los Angeles, and went on to become creative director of Barneys New York. He has appeared as a style expert on "America’s Next Top Model" and written a style column for the New York Observer. He’s also the author of the quirky fashion guide "Eccentric Glamour" ("say no to ho") and a couple of other books.
One of those books is "Beautiful People," Doonan’s hilarious account of coming of age. First out in 2005, "Beautiful People" has just been re-released in paperback by Simon & Schuster Paperbacks and also is a comedy series on Britain’s BBC television.
   Doonan came by his love of style naturally, exposed from the moment he was born. Mother Betty was the queen of bleach, dyeing her hair, styling it into a rigorous updo and cutting a glamorous swath in spike heels in her grimy, working class neighborhood. She and easygoing husband Terry took in strays, essentially, society’s refugees — from crazy grandmother Narg to batty Uncle Ken to blind Aunt Phyllis — no relation, but a friend of Betty who needed a place to stay. Surrounded by craziness, young Simon worried that it was contagious.
   "Beautiful People" is hilarious, sweet and savvy. It’s a story of flying dentures, barricaded grandmother, homemade hooch and people determined to have a sweet life in difficult times. And it’s a quest come full circle.The beautiful people were the ones at home.