Feats of clay.

With his whimsical pottery, playful design stores, and celebrity clientele, Jonathan Adler makes ceramics chic

Even by New York City standards Jonathan Adler is one of a kind. As a potter--not a children's book character but a guy who makes pottery--Adler shouldn't rate high on the glamour meter. But the 30-something designer has become a media darling, garnering praise from such style, arbiters as the ultrahip Wallpaper to the classic House & Garden.

Meeting Adler, it's not hard to understand why. Like his art, he's impish, sexy, and witty. But bring all this to his attention-plus his recent London gallop/show called "I Never Thought! I'd Be a Fucking Potter" and his celebrity clients such as Todd Oldham and Catherine Deneuve--and he'll quickly demur. "Not to diminish my accomplishments, but some degree it's who you know," Adler says from his East Hampton gateway, where he recently opened a Jonathan Adler shop, the sister store to his original eponymous SoHo digs. "I'm lucky enough to know a lot of journalists!"

Still, most people who see Adler's work trace his success to talent, not connections. "I was very lucky also," Iii, adds, "because when I first started [making ceramics] in '93 my aesthetic seemed to resonate with what was about to go on in fashion and interior design." His sensuous pieces did anticipate the return of the Modernist and Contemporary movements of the '50s through the '70s. For instance, one line of vases pays homage to George Nelson's classic bubble lamps, while another line cops the elongated, twisted soft-drink bottles popular in '70s novelty shops.

But Adler's biggest influence is fashion, as evidenced by the names of his "labels"--the Couture collection, which he does by hand, and the Pot-a-Porter selections, which are produced by artisans to whom he's taught his craft.

"Fashion's always been the great inspiration throughout my life," Adler explains. Fashion and its superstars, Coco Channel in particular, have been so influential that Adler's earliest pieces were inspired by Chanel's quilted handbags, There was even a pink pottery teapot, complete with the trademark interlocking C's.

"It was so good! I wish I had gone on with ii," Adler exclaims, explaining that an unappreciative and critical pottery professor told him to "bag it." As it happens, Adler got the last laugh, He bumped into his old instructor on a New York street the same day Adler was featured in a cover story in the Style section of The, New York Times. He still calls the moment a triumph. "In retrospect, I'm glad to have had that experience," he says of his teacher's attempts to squash his dreams. "It enabled me to make exactly [the designs that] I wanted and to ignore expectations."

It was this attitude--mid the of a hated day job in a talent agency mail room--that ultimately led Adler to succeed. In the mid '90s, after top-drawer New York department stores Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman first fell in love with his work, Adler logged "80 hours a week" at the wheel. Driven to the brink of creative and physical collapse, he hooked up with Aid to Artisans, a nonprofit organization that helps craftspeople in developing countries make products for the U.S. market. Through his connection to ATA, Adler says proudly, he's helped create "over 70 jobs in Peru."

With more than 300 stores carrying his work in the United States and around the world, Adler can now concentrate on enjoying life with partner Simon Doonan, the wry and witty author of Confessions of a Window Dresser, and their adopted Norwich terrier, Liberace, whom they call "king of our house."

Adler mid Doonan met over live years ago ("It was a blind date!" says a still-bemused Adler) and have been together ever since. When asked! whether their two talents produce any gaspable interiors, Adler laughs: "Our home can range from gaspable to insane, because both of us use it as a laboratory, and it's constantly changing."

As Doonan's Confessions head for the big screen with New Line Cinema thanks to Madonna's Maverick Films, Adler is gearing up to introduce even more lines, including more textiles, next year. "My goal is to expand the whole collection to everything for the house," he says enthusiastically.

Given his fashion instincts, it's easy to imagine Adler introducing his own line of clothing. And when he hears the idea, Adler mulls it for a moment. Then he shakes his head. "No!" he says, laughing. "It would be too insane!"