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69 LOUCHE LOUNGING & SERIOUS TALK WITH JONATHAN ADLER By Rebecca Sherman. Photography Bradley Taylor. J onathan Adler, purveyor of wit and peddler of raucous color for the home, wants you in on a secret: He has a dark side. "I'm a brooder," he confessed at a UNICEF fund-raiser held at his Knox-Henderson-area boutique, where a stylish swath of the city gathered to view his newest introductions. "People probably imagine that I'm this carefree person, but I'm actually quite the opposite. I'm brooding and analytical. I know you think I'm joking, but it's true." By way of example, he picks up one of his hottest sellers: a colorful, large Lucite pill that he agonized over for months before bringing into existence. "Blood, sweat, and tears go into things like this," he says. "Like I always say, decorating isn't for sissies. Making irreverent design is hard." This day, Adler is sporting a preppy, vaguely nautical look: red gingham shirt under a navy jacket; a tie of his own design, sprinkled with red and blue anchors; pristine white jeans; and a pair of green leather Gucci sneakers appliqued with red snakes, which gives the buttoned-up outfi t edge. He's nursing a cup of Starbucks' Earl Grey tea as he moves around the store. "Steeping is the most important thing when it comes to tea," he says. "I've had exactly one sip of coffee in my life, at age 21, in Japan. That was that. I never tried it again." Adler has just driven from Houston, where he hosted a party at his boutique the night before. Four hours on I-45 has rattled his nerves. "Next time, I'll fl y," he says. After this event, he plans to ensconce himself in his room at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, where he always stays while in town. "It's my home away from home," he says. Boisterous boutique hotels are not in his repertoire. "God, I'm going to sound like such an old man, but I look for a classic hotel wherever I go." In Adler's version of his life as a long-suffering artist, most of his time is spent in his SoHo studio at the potter's wheel, where he painstakingly crafts clay models for all his designs, including a new collection of small brass, animal-shaped candleholders and bowls. "I'm really proud of these, because the lines are so resolved," he says. "They illustrate a principle of mine: When something's really well designed, it looks like it was uncovered rather than created." In the end, it's all about appearing to be more interesting than you really are, he says: the Lucite pills; Vice cookie canisters e mblazoned with the words Uppers, Quaaludes, Prozac, and Dolls; and his needlepoint pillows with a smol- dering cigarette dangling from a pair of red lips. "One of the keys to making people feel more glamorous is adding a little bit of provocative punctuation that lets the world know you're kind of louche," he says. "I'm not the least bit louche, so I channel my hedonism through my designs." Joyce Goss, Lynn McBee, Jonathan Adler, Gowri Sharma Steve Greenberg, Ron Corning Julie Fisenberg, Eddie Maestri, Ashley Bill Joanne & Charles Teichman David Hernandez Shane Allen Ree & Jason Willaford Tucker Bomar Phil Harrison Yannis Sergakis Alysa Teichman Bert Gallagher Doug Jacobson