Project Runway’s Tim Gunn ’makes it work’
Some changes are afoot with the new season of Lifetime’s Project Runway, beginning with a longer running time (up to 90 minutes from 60). But mentor Tim Gunn thinks that won’t make much of a difference to diehard fans. Instead, he sees it as an opportunity to include a lot of the footage of the designers and work room antics that usually end up on the cutting room floor.
Gunn recently talked with reporters (including EDGE’s Jim Halterman) about the new season, where his famous catchphrase came from and how he handled one upcoming designer who viewers will see disrespects the keen eye and advice for fashion and design that has made Tim Gunn highly respected both on the show and in the fashion world.
Cool, calm and collected
EDGE: When I watch the show, I get frustrated when people don’t take your advice or your suggestions, but you always seem to remain pretty cool. How do you do that?
Tim Gunn: Well, it comes through 29 years of teaching and knowing that with some degree of frequency, I’ll leave the classroom just to give the students a little bit of breathing space and I figure that they’re probably trash talking about me. And I will tell you this, there is a designer this season- And my refrain during these 30 minutes is going to be I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know how it’s going to play out.
There’s a designer this season who takes it upon him- or herself, I don’t want to reveal a gender, to walk around to the designers after I’ve done my critique to add comments about this designer’s viewpoint of whether I gave each designer good advice or bad advice and what this particular designer would advise them to do. And I reached a point where I will say I became rather frustrated by it because I thought I don’t want this individual to be undermining what I say. So at one point when I’m leaving the workroom, I declare it to the entire room, "Listen to your own voice. You may have someone coming up to you suggesting that that individual knows better than you what you should be doing with your work, but that individual’s not responsible for your presentation of your work on the runway. So, in fact, if you’re recalibrating your thinking based on what this person’s telling you, I would advise against it."
EDGE: You’re affiliated with the psoriasis cause including a contest benefiting it. Can you talk about that?
TG: Oh, I am so thrilled to be working with Amgen and Pfizer on this. I’m thrilled to be working for a second year with some people who have moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis because, in fact, it really does affect how they present themselves to the world.
My message, along with Dr. Susan Taylor, who’s a renowned dermatologist, is to manage your condition and get to a dermatologist. There are so many new treatments that have evolved and developed, and then together, these individuals and I are working on how to make their fashion work for them because there’s an inclination to never wear dark colors because of flaking and to not wear wools. It can be very, very limiting. In fact, my sister has psoriasis, so I know how limiting it can be. In fact, there are things that one can do.
Also, people don’t realize that it’s a disease of the immune system and that there’s no cure for it. I will also add that one of our Project Runway designers in season eight has psoriasis, so it’s something that that individual and I have talked about with some frequency.
