His store has been compared to a musem (and copied by MoMA's design galleries), a theater with live performance, and heaven, but design tastemaker Murray Moss just wants shoppers to be ready for an experience--an invigorating one. "This is why we keep the temperature freezing cold," he told Vanity Fair last spring. "I don't want it to be comfortable. I want you to be awake. If you want to just find out where the candlesticks are, the store doesn't work."

Just back from Miami, Moss took a break from minding the store to answer our seven questions. An extra special shout-out of gratitude to Moss Special Projects Guru Bret Pittman for helping to make this UnBeige Seven Questions dream a reality. We're off to send them both a thank you fruitcake!

1. What's the first thing(s) you read in the morning?
First: the exchange rate (Euro/Dollar) in the Financial Times, and then the NY Times.

2. Last movie you saw?
No Country for Old Men

3. Last book you read?
The Edifice Complex (How the Rich and Powerful - and their Architects - Shape the World), by Deyan Sudjic

4. Best/most memorable design-related encounter?
Visiting with the late, GREAT Achille Castiglioni in his studio in Milan, where he gave me a private tour and we talked for a very long time.

5. Proudest design moment?
The first day I opened Moss, on Sept. 20, 1994, and my two sisters gave me a 'signed' dollar bill to put 'over the register'.

6. This holiday season, I'm giving...
The Political Candidate Finger Puppets we especially commissioned: a set of five Presidential Election '08 Candidates finger puppets: on the Left: Hillary and Obama; on the Right: Thompson and Giuliani. In the middle, in a Dunce hat: Bush. An attached label reads: "Have your own debates!"

7. This holiday season, I'm hoping to get...
Believe it or not, my favorite food item of all time: the dark, gorgeous Fruitcake - made by (drunken?) monks, that my sister sends me each year...