Daphne Guinness: 'I'll Eat When I'm Dead' & Other Bon Mots From The New Yorker

We finally got around to reading the Daphne Guinness piece in this week's New Yorker (we had been previously occupied with the Jean Paul Gaultier profile) and we found a few gems.

For Daphne Guinness lovers, which we might just be, it takes a lot to shock. Between the crazy clothes, the getting dressed in store windows, the dating a married French philosopher and wearing McQueen's famous 10-inch armadillo shoes, there's not much Daphne can do or say that would surprise us.

But this line from the New Yorker made us smile:

Teresa Alfonso, Guinness's personal assistant, tried to get her to eat some of the pasta that had been prepared for the production team. "If I eat, I can't work," Guinness, who had been subsisting on Red Bull and Ensure, said. "I'll eat when I'm dead."

But of course. Why waste time doing something so mundane, so banal, so unartistic as putting food in one's mouth?

We admire Daphne's devotion to her persona (as she's said before, "It is a mindset.") Along the same lines as starvation, Daphne is willing to endure any physical discomfort for fashion and art's sake. When a stylist apologizes for any discomfort while placing a heavy collar on Guinness' neck, the heiress says simply, "Are you kidding?"

"Uncomfortable is the name of the game."

Maybe Daphne's game. We rather like food and comfy things like sweatpants.

Read more about the eccentric personality at NewYorker.com.

Comments

[headstrong]

12:20 PM on 09/24/2011

Well, that no-eating thing works well when you're young. Not so much when you get a little older tho. She'll learn the awful truth.

[ArielPennQT]

02:45 PM on 09/23/2011

Boy, I wish she didn't exist in the first place.

[traceymarie]

06:48 PM on 09/23/2011

why, how does she even have any effect on your miserable life

[ArielPennQT]

12:44 AM on 09/25/2011

None, I guess. But can't people wish people didn't exist when the latter people are harmful to society? She sets one more rotten example, there go 50,000 more anorexic girls over the edge. Hmmm...it's usually when someone is trying to defend someone utterly indefensible that they're forced to resort to the inane "your miserable life" retort. Like you know anything about me.

[Tom uws]

02:30 PM on 09/23/2011

never heard of her. sounds like she's just trying to be famous for being anorexic

[eSense]

02:22 PM on 09/23/2011

Someone should kindly rephrase that for her: No Daphne, if you don't eat, you'll be dead.

[dws51564]

01:50 PM on 09/23/2011

She won't eat when she is dead she will be eaten. No one gets out of the circle of life in one piece.

[Risky Rich]

01:44 PM on 09/23/2011

Die already, will ya. Oh, can I have that bacon cheeseburger of yours?

[MrCool]

01:37 PM on 09/23/2011

Ah, the pleasures of food. The enjoyment of having friends around and dining together. Getting together, at the old homestead, with a gathering of adults and children; the grills all fired-up, salads and dips, fresh vegetables.
How could one choose to miss out on this? Food does not always equate to fat. It depends on the diet and the exercise.

[xrlclarkx]

01:22 PM on 09/23/2011

Well Daphne, keep up that behavior (living on energy drinks and refusing to eat regular food) and death will come to you much sooner than you expect. The human body can take only a limited amount of abuse. Please consider the example you are setting for other young girls around the world.

[sartorialgirl]

01:22 PM on 09/23/2011

The New Yorker did a fabulous profile on Daphne Guinness yet the world is so hung up on this one-liner. So ridiculous. You could learn SO MUCH more from her than this tidbit about her eating habit, which by the way, was a joke. Many don't get her sense of humor and take everything too seriously... but who am I kidding... We live in world that thrives on judging a book by its cover.

[suziebisback]

01:07 PM on 09/23/2011

Ok... the video was useless. And ummm... does this freak actually DO anything? I mean.. besides spout utter stupidity? And what exactly is STYLE anyway? Shoes you can't walk in? Clothes you can't breathe in? Hair styles you can't see through or that pokes anyone who comes within of foot of you like a dagger?

[frankieboy26]

12:42 PM on 09/23/2011

Daphne Guiness? Who is she? Who was she? Who does she hope to be?

[grishj]

12:35 PM on 09/23/2011

I would say that when she dies I would dance on here grave but I think in this for instance I will just eat a huge down home southern fried meal on her grave!!!! Oh and I won't forget the biscuits and gravy either!!!

[pixgirl922]

12:29 PM on 09/23/2011

If she keeps up on the Ensure and Red Bull she won't have long to wait for that meal.

[longwinds34]

12:28 PM on 09/23/2011

I would turn down pasta too if I were trying to lose weight or maintain my current weight. Pasta is one of the worst things you can eat if you are concerned about your weight.

[candyazzbb]

12:23 PM on 09/23/2011

shes really not intelligent is she.. once someone dies they no longer can eat or need to.