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The Chosen Ones: An Interview With Jonathan Adler

The iconic designer, potter, and author talks about his dichotomous personality, creating a line of mezuzahs, why he supports circumcision, and so much more

by
Periel Aschenbrand
September 16, 2016
Photo Maura McEvoy
Illustration by Tablet Photo Maura McEvoy
Photo Maura McEvoy
Illustration by Tablet Photo Maura McEvoy

The Chosen Ones is a weekly column by author and comedian Periel Aschenbrand, who interviews Jews doing fabulous things.

Even if you think you don’t know who Jonathan Adler is, you do. His “modern American glamour” has infused the cultural consciousness on a mass scale: From his Happy Chic collection for Target to his exclusive collection for Fischer Price, his signature pops of color and graphic patterns can be spotted from a mile away. His philosophy is simple: “Build a timelessly chic foundation, then accessorize with abandon.”

At his core, though he studied Semiotics at Brown(!), Mr. Adler is a potter. A potter who has turned his studio into a hundred million-dollar business. Whether you’re a design fetishist like I am or simply want to spruce up your life, Adler does not disappoint: a butter dish in the shape of a shoe, your pick of striped ceramic containers emblazoned with the words PROZAC or XANAX or GANJA or SECRETS, and one of my personal favorites, a cookie jar inspired by Georgia O’Keefe with breasts all over it. And that’s not even scratching the surface. There are rugs and mugs and couches and even beds for doggies.

Adler has written books, designed hotels, and is married to one of the most colorful men on the planet—Barney’s creative ambassador Simon Doonan. His pieces are colorful and smart and fun and, as I recently learned during my visit to his international headquarters in Soho, the only thing more fun than Jonathan Adler’s designs is Jonathan Adler himself.

The first thing he did when he saw me was offer me something to eat. “Actually, I don’t why I’m asking you that,” he said. “We don’t even have anything to eat. It must be my inner Jewish mother.

Periel Aschenbrand: That’s okay. It wouldn’t be cute to do an interview with food in my mouth, anyway. Tell me how your summer was. What were some highlights?

Jonathan Adler: Highlights included a trip to Capri and nonstop paddleboard boarding.

PA: Are you an avid paddleboarder?

JA: I live on my paddleboard. It kind of makes me understand why the goyim love the sea so much. Those are the highlights. The lowlight was turning 50.

PA: That’s encouraging. We should all look so good when we turn 50.

JA: That’s very kind.

PA: You look incredibly busy.

JA: I don’t even think about it that way because it’s all so organic to moi.

PA: I guess that’s one of the great things about loving what you do.

JA: It’s the pleasure and pain and tzuris and mishegas. I am a dichotomous person—an optimist and a pessimist, I’m sportif and hypochondriacal. Simon calls me Arianna Kafka because he says I am partially like 14-year-old airheaded Arianna Grande fan and partially a brooding Eastern European middle-aged pessimist, like Franz Kafka. And that’s my truth: Arianna Kafka. So I’m always that 24/7.

PA: Are you working on anything new right now?

JA: Everyday we make more new cool stuff and there are always new exciting projects. It’s all very organic. A lot of it comes from need and it’s an intensely craft focused design process that starts in the pottery studio here in Soho. Oh wait! You know what’s new? I actually just worked on a series of mezuzahs! I realized we don’t have a mezuzah on our door and I felt really bad about that. With the uptick in anti-Semitism, I’m super intent on getting mezuzah-y. I think it’s time we have a mezuzah on that door. Do you have a mezuzah?

PA: I do have a mezuzah. I’m extremely particular—like if I don’t like something, I actually can’t look at it or have it in my space—so it took me a really long time to find the right mezuzah.

JA: What did you end up with?

PA: This tone-on-tone one by the Israeli designer, Adi Sidler.

JA: How big is it?

PA: Mezuzah size.

JA: That’s funny. The kids in my pottery studio aren’t Jewish so when they asked me what size it should be, I said “mezuzah size” and they had no idea what I was talking about.

PA: Did you grow up very Jewish?

JA: I grew up in a tiny farm town in Southern New Jersey.

PA: What was that like?

JA: Weird. Very weird. I grew up certainly very culturally Jewish—Hebrew School, bar mitzvah—and Conservative, because that’s what the synagogue happened to be.

PA: Were there any other Jews in this tiny farm town?

JA: Maybe 30 families. My great grandparents had gone there as egg farmers at the turn of the last century. And actually my great-grandfather helped build this little tiny shul in the middle of a field that is still there. We would go there for high holidays.

PA: And you escaped this little farm town in New Jersey.

JA: I did. It’s so strange even though my father grew up there, he went to University of Chicago Law School and my mom lived in New York City and worked at Vogue. It was quite clear from day one that none of us were going to wind up living in my town. So now everyone lives in New York even though I grew up in the middle of nowhere.

PA: Was it a very fashion-y/design-y house?

JA: It was very aesthetically-oriented. My dad was a lawyer but he was an artiste—every second of his life was spent painting and sculpting. And my mom is interested in design. As much as I would like to claim that I am fabulously original, I am 100 percent a product of my parents.

PA: Any Jewish mother would be thrilled to hear that. Can we talk about semiotics?

JA: Ha. Sure. It’s what I studied at Brown. And even though what I do is certainly very craft-oriented and not that brainy, I try to bring a little bit of brain into it. We want everything to be smart. That’s a word we use a lot around here.

PA: It feels infused with intelligence and humor.

JA: That’s our whisper. I think everything in your life should be memorable. There are a lot of choices in the world and I feel like I need to deliver something really powerful, whether it’s in a mug or a $5000 cabinet.

PA: Are you very organized?

JA: There’s a lot of stuff. But I’m not a hoarder.

PA: No?

JA: It’s organized chaos. I only surround myself with things that give me joy.

PA: Don’t you and your husband have a Norwich Terrier named Liberace?

JA: No, sadly Liberace is no more. But we have Foxylady who is twelve pounds of apricot beauty. When we go away, Layla takes care of her and Layla is a great photographer.

PA: You say everything is very organic. Is that how the dog beds came about? From this great love of small creatures?

JA: Yes. Including Simon Doonan. Speaking of small creatures. It was Simon’s idea to name our dog Liberace and I think it was really a good idea.

PA: I love Simon and I’m obsessed with Liberace.

JA: Did you see the movie?

PA: My obsession started before the movie, with the book, Behind the Candelabra, when I learned that Liberace made his former lover, Scott Thorson, have plastic surgery to look like him.

JA : Behind the Candelabra is so incredible. And the movie was so great.

PA: I won’t see it, I’m scared it’s going to ruin it for me.

JA: I understand and I can attest that it won’t. You probably didn’t have a chance to go to the Liberace Museum.

PA: Oh, I did. Twice.

JA: Oh, thank god! Wait, I have to write Simon back. He’s telling me he’s at a store right now and there’s a pair of Thom Browne shoes and asking if he should buy them?

PA: Obviously. The answer is yes.

JA: Yes. Do you Bitmoji?

PA: Yes!

JA: I’m obsessed. I can’t send a message without my Bitmoji. My Bitmoji outfit is the best! I’m wearing my Hanukkah sweater so I can’t ever change it.

PA: Personally, my favorite is Kimoji.

JA: What’s that?

PA: Kim Kardashian’s emojis.

JA: Oh. Homie don’t play that.

PA: Okay, so the mezuzah. Do you guys make menorahs, too?

JA: Yes.

PA: You could do a needlepoint cushion—you know, the ones that they bring the baby to get circumcised on. Those would probably sell like hot cakes… Even though I’m actually really against circumcision.

JA: Oh, no. Did you not have your son circumcised?

PA: I did, but—

JA: Oh my God…

PA: I had no choice. My husband’s Israeli and they think this is a normal reasonable thing to do to boys.

JA: It is! It’s a must.

PA: No, it’s fucked up.

JA: You’re insane.

PA: Why?

JA: That’s cute for you to say but it’s a non-starter. First of all, it’s more healthy and hygienic.

PA: That was only true before we had soap and running water.

JA: It’s still true for STDs and whatever. But more importantly, it is ever so much cuter. Just aesthetically. It’s not even close. Thank God you did it.

PA: I didn’t have a choice. He had a hypospadia. But it’s not normal to have a bunch of fat, sweating Jews shoveling egg salad into their faces while they are cutting off the tip of the penis.

JA: Nothing is normal but it’s a must, visually. It’s just one of those things you shouldn’t even think about.

PA: What about female genital mutilation?

JA: They’re not comparable! At all. That’s about sexual pleasure and about destroying women’s sexual agency and subjugation of women.

PA: There have been lots studies that say sexual pleasure is more intense for men who are not circumcised.

JA: First of all, you’ll never know. And put it this way, everything has worked out. Thank God your son is circumcised so everybody wins in the end. In the meantime, the backdrop to this is me trying to figure out what size Thom Browne shoe I wear.

PA: How do you not know that?

JA: I just don’t.

PA: I would expect you to.

JA: The fact is that I’m a total non-shopper.

PA: Really?!

JA: Totally, 100 percent. I wear Uniqlo white jeans 24/7. I don’t have any other pants. Funeral, brises— white jeans. The only pants I own.

PA: How many pairs?

JA: Like 40?

PA: White?

JA: Always. Only. It’s a really good move. Everyone should follow my lead.

PA: Not everyone is quite as svelte as you are, Mr. Adler.

JA: Oh, bless you. Thank you. Last September I was walking down the street and a construction worker screamed at me, “Hey! No white after labor day,” which I thought was great. Anyway, white Uniqlo jeans, Uniqlo sweater, and a Lacoste shirt. I don’t ever buy anything.

PA: Simon buys everything?

JA: Not really.

PA: Neither one of you? No one buys anything?

JA: Not really. I mean, I try to look on fleek, but…

PA: You are certainly on fleek.

JA: Here’s the deal: Simon, who is incredibly fashionable, is very low-maintenance. If people were to think of us, they would probably have a very misguided idea of what our life and house is like. It’s really like a couple of blokes living together. Simon is writing a book about soccer right now, so there’s always a soccer game on. I’m a football fan. It sounds preposterous and I have no judgment attached to any of this, but we’re kind of just dudes.

PA: But sport dudes?

JA: I’m not proud of it, but kind of. I’m not saying this is a positive thing, but we’re sportif. And Simon looks very fashionable but we both just have uniforms and that’s one of the great things about being a guy. And…wait. I still have to tell Simon about these shoes.

PA: Quickly: What’s your favorite drink?

JA: Water.

PA: Ice?

JA: No. Room temperature. No ice.

PA: How do you eat your eggs?

JA: Scrambled.

PA: How do you drink your coffee?

JA: I have had one sip of coffee in my entire life but I drink about 95 cups of tea a day.

PA: What kind?

JA: PG Tips.

PA: Of course. What’s your favorite Jewish Holiday?

JA: Shavuos. No. I don’t even know what Shavuos is. What is Shavuos?

PA: I have no idea. You had a bar mitzvah. What did you wear?

Jonathan Adler, bar mitzvah boy. (Credit: Jonathan Adler)
Jonathan Adler, bar mitzvah boy. (Credit: Jonathan Adler)

JA: I wore… Don’t move. I think I have my album around here somewhere. I wore a Brooks Brothers suit, which I’m very sad about.

PA: Why?

JA: Because I tried to be preppy and I regret it.

PA: Gefilte fish or lox?

JA: That’s the dumbest question I’ve ever heard in my life. There is only one answer: lox. I love lox.

PA: What about gefilte fish?

JA: I’ve never put that in my mouth and I never will.

PA: What shampoo do you use?

JA: Whatever’s there.

PA: Five things in your bag right now?

JA: Purell, for sure. I’m not a fan of the germs. Tea bags, just in case. iPhone booster. Today’s gym clothes. And a robustly brimming-over pill box.

PA: Anything good?

JA: It’s all good, take your pick.

Periel Aschenbrand, a comedian at heart, is the author of On My Kneesand The Only Bush I Trust Is My Own.