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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.
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