"Make it work." With these three little words Timothy M. Gunn was launched into his allotted 15 minutes of fame. That 15 minutes, though, has considerably expanded thanks to Gunn's TV and real-life persona that won over the viewers of Bravo's breakout 2004 reality show, Project Runway. Now Gunn is promoting his very own 'how-to' book, simply named Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style and is featured in his own reality-based television spin-off of the book.
Rows of women, all dressed to relatively impress - one wore a top hat - filled the Literary Salon tent this Sunday at the Baltimore Book Festival. Before them stood the seemingly austere headmaster of fashion dressed in his usual crisp suit, hands folded, ready to address his loyal followers.
Gunn, if anything, is matter of fact. The Washington, D.C. native, whose father worked in the F.B.I., found his critical voice at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.D. where he studied sculpture. In 1982, he was hired in the Admissions Office at the Parson's School of Design in New York where he later became the chair of Fashion Design. It was in this position that he learned his gift of analytical thought to the students there.
Now, as the chief creative officer of Liz Claiborne (a fashion company that manages brand names like Juicy Couture, Lucky Jeans and Kate Spade), Gunn is expected to bring the company out of its slump and into a world where fashion is the third largest industry in New York (behind finance and health care).
So to recap, Gunn is promoting a book and two shows (while still being heavily involved in the development of both), he's started a new and daunting job at Liz Claiborne, become a spokesperson for Macy's and made cameos on shows like Ugly Betty, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the industry. If the pressure is getting to him, Tim Gunn sure isn't showing it.
At his speech this weekend, Gunn spent part of his time detailing the philosophy behind his book. In a nutshell, he believes that every woman, no matter what size, shape, color or height, can look fabulous if given the right tools. Some women understand style intuitively but Gunn is quick not to idolize; instead he presses that with patience and an analytical view of the self, one can find the perfect fit for them. Once that understanding is reached, he gives women a checklist of 10 items they should all have in their wardrobe, including pieces like a little black dress, a pair of tailored pants and a "sweatsuit alternative."
This isn't your average make-over though, this is, in his words, "an enhancement." It is very much a pared-down guide to dressing your best, disregarding unflattering trends. It's minimalism, ladies and when it comes to clothes most of us shy away from this idea.
Gunn told one anecdote about a segment he did for Oprah's television show. The producers asked him to "enhance" a group of women they had chosen for the show. When he got there he found that a stylist had already picked out outfits for all of the women, styles that those women did not seem too pleased with. Not being one to compromise his own taste and design, Gunn took matters into his own hands by taking the women shopping. Much to everyone's relief, the women were ecstatic and the results were better than expected.
However the producers of Oprah insisted that one woman, a horse trainer from Texas, be put in a dress. Quickly realizing that the woman "looked like a fool" in all the dresses, Gunn had the inspired idea to work with what she was comfortable in: Jeans. The producers protested, saying that they needed her to be in a dress to complete the "awe" factor of the "enhancement." "So I made this woman my accomplice," Gunn said. He put her in a pair of dark-wash jeans and showed her what top to wear and then presented her triumphantly to the producers. doing (designing a menswear line), what was Austen doing (designing wedding dresses for Amsale) and what about Santino (marching to the beat of his own drum)?
He spoke briefly of his tiff with season one winner Jay McCarroll by blaming his own impatience for the riff.
Then the tent fell silent as he began to divulge the secrets of Project Runway's fourth season. "When you see the show," he said with a smile, "You'll ask yourself, 'what are those judges smoking?''
According to Gunn, the fourth season is filled with shocking disappointments (the first image that comes to mind is Allison's premature elimination in season three), and some really fantastic fashion. He said that the caliber of this year's designers are by far the best he has ever seen.
Once he was through spilling as much as he was contractually allowed to, he began fielding actual fashion questions from concerned audience members.
"I'm five feet, two inches, and curvy," the woman in front of me said, "what do I wear to elongate myself," she ended with a downward sweeping hand gesture. Tim's advice? "Pants that end just in front of your toes."
Another woman spoke on the behalf of her 14-year-old daughter who was seeking to find clothes that were more mature than the ones that her petite size are offered. "Don't shop in kid's sizes," he said, "and don't run to the negative-zero section either."
Instead he instructed her to the petite section and even dropped a few designers who specialize in smaller women.
The question-and-answer session ended with a man in the back, dressed much like Gunn was, who asked when the men were going to get their shot at enhancement. "Next season on Tim Gunn's Guide to Style," he said. And with a smile he gracefully accepted the roaring applause.
