The sanest man in reality TV

As the in-house design mentor on the hit Bravo reality show Project Runway, Tim Gunn is the fairy godfather we all wish we could have—nurturing but no-nonsense, seasoned but not over it, frank but fair. The out TV personality, whose day job is Chair of the Department of Fashion Design at Parsons The New School for Design, built on the good will he garnered in Season One to become a full-fledged fan favorite in Season Two. It’s impossible now to imagine the show without him. Advocate.com caught up with Gunn on the morning after the Season Two finale, which saw Laos-born, Houston-raised designer Chloe Dao triumph over her two talented gay boy cofinalists: the shaggy-haired, fresh-out-of-college whippersnapper Daniel Vosovic and the I-didn’t-come-here-to-make-friends hothead Santino Rice.

“Thank you for your interest in even talking to me,” says Gunn humbly. “I’m really flattered. I love The Advocate.” The feeling’s mutual.

TIM GUNN: I’ll start. What did you think of last night’s show?

DENNIS HENSLEY: I loved it. Right up until the end, I had no idea who would take it.
Sitting in the judging room I was the same way. One moment I thought it was going to be Daniel…oop, now it’s going to be Santino…oop, now it’s going to be Chloe. I was on pins and needles and just thrilled and also relieved when they finally made a decision.

So you were pleased that Chloe won?
I was absolutely ecstatic about it.

For what reasons?
Well, I’ll give you my unbridled take on it.

Good. We love your unbridled take.
(Laughs) Well, thank you. I was absolutely blown away by Santino’s collection. I didn’t know this guy had this level of sophistication in him. But I have to tell you, I thought, Santino can’t win this. I mean we’ve got Jay for Season One and Santino for Season Two? Every circus sideshow is going to show up for Season Three. So I thought it just can’t be Santino for the larger show reasons, though I loved his collection.

I feel like Santino’s personality changed a bit between making the final three and showing his collection. It’s like he went back to L.A., watched the show, realized he wasn’t coming off that great, and calmed down.
I agree. I’ll share with you very candidly that by the time we wrapped the filming in June, no one was happier to see Santino go than I was. I was so fed up with him. When I visited him in Los Angeles in December, I was expecting the same Santino. Flying there I thought, Oh God, here we go again. When I saw him and saw the collection, I was blown away. I saw this very different guy, and in a weird way he was kind of loveable.

I was ready for Santino to go every week until he started doing his hilarious imitation of you. Then I wanted him to stick around and keep doing it. How did you feel about him mimicking you?
I loved it. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. I knew it wasn’t mean-spirited. There’s a little clip on the BravoTV.com website where I walk into the studio imitating Santino imitating me.

Then there’s the young and yummy Daniel Vosovic.
I had big concerns about him, but by fashion week, I thought he was in excellent shape. I really believe that that 13th look we made them do really bailed him out and helped unify that collection. I felt great about him, but he’s so young. And I’m not referring to his age, though he is young, but he’s very inexperienced in the industry. To win Project Runway you’ve got to be able to hit the ground running, and he just doesn’t have enough background to do what it would have taken to put a collection into production. Chloe, among all of them, is the seasoned experienced professional. If I were just investing—collection sight unseen—I’d go with Chloe in a heartbeat because she knows what to do.

I got the feeling that guest judge Debra Messing really liked Chloe’s collection.
[Elle Magazine editor] Nina [Garcia] was also very vocal about it. I have to tell you, I adore Debra Messing. She really knows fashion and really knows how to talk about it. It was wonderful to hear her hold her own with Nina.

You weren’t a fan of Daniel’s handbags. I thought when they went missing, that they’d cut to you tossing them in a dumpster.
I may have even uttered, “If I’d known where they were, I would have taken them.” Someone just asked me what I liked most and disliked most about each collection and I said about Daniel’s, “It’s those handbags.” I didn’t understand them.

Watching the show I get the feeling that these designers could call you for advice in two years and you’d take the call. You’re their mentor for life.
Thank you. That’s how I see myself. I’m here for them. I had a reporter from The New York Times say to me, “I don’t want to talk to you, you’re so mean.”

Mean? Was she high?
My response was, “I could think of a lot of negative words to use about me but ‘mean’ isn’t one of them.” And she said, “Oh well, you’re so brutal with the designers.” It’s truth-telling but it’s not done in a mean-spirited way because in my experiences, if you’re mean, then you’re discredited. The person listening will shut down.

I admire the way you’re able to be both brutally honest with the designers and empathetic. It’s obvious you want them all to do well. Were you concerned with how much to critique the designers without being unfair or playing favorites?
Most definitely. Part of it has to do with how open they are to me. Some people didn’t want to hear a single, solitary word from me. Zulema being at the top of that list. Others were needier and wanted me to tell them what to do when I just couldn’t. That’s disallowed by the producers. It can’t look as though I made these decisions. What I can do is probe and query them, “Well, what are you thinking about? What options do you see?” What became so obvious about halfway through Season Two was how almost everything having to do with their success was determined when we were shopping at Mood [fabric store]. If they came back with the wrong ingredients they were simply washed up or it was a case of, “Now, we really have to make this work because you have the wrong stuff.” So I became more watchful at Mood as we moved to the end of Season Two but even then I couldn’t tell them, “Don’t do it!” I remember for the 13th look challenge, we went to Mood, and there Daniel is with swatches of all the fabrics from the collection, and he’s looking at these colors that just completely baffled me. I just looked at him and said, “What are you doing? Daniel, look at these colors. What resonates to you with these colors?” And he picked the camel, and I just said, “That’s it, I’m going.” It was his decision. I just believe in telling them the truth because I just want them all to succeed. I really do. The further we get into the show, the more painful it is for me to see one of them go. Anyway, shut up, Tim.