1) Tim Gunn discusses his new book "Gunn's Golden Rules" which provides candid accounts of uncouth behavior in the fashion world, though some media coverage focused only on a few salacious anecdotes. 2) Gunn speaks openly about his own past suicide attempt as a bullied gay youth and was an early advocate for the "It Gets Better" campaign. 3) While telling the truth in his book came at a cost like his mother no longer speaking to him, Gunn believes fashion is a serious industry that reflects society and must change over time to remain relevant.

1. The Smoking (Tim) Gunn
The Project Runway host shares his thoughts on civility, fashion and the
Wintour of our discontent.
By Charlie Gill
Gunn‟s first-hand accounts of some of the
more uncouth behavior in the fashion world
drew a ton of early interest in his book, but the
attention skewed its perception—the slim
volume could be titled Gunn‟s Guide to Being
a Rational and Decent Human Being, but the
way the tabloids picked up and harped on a
couple of anecdotes, someone who hadn‟t read
it might assume it‟s more “Manol-oh-no-she-
didn‟t.”
“I have been concerned about it,” Gunn says.
“The reasons these stories are so potent for me
is because they are aberrant—this isn‟t the
way most people behave.” For example, the
now-infamous story of Anna Wintour having
bodyguards carry her down five flights of
stairs after a fashion event was included for the
what-not-to-do lesson of what happened
afterward (Gunn made a joke about the
incident that found its way into print; Wintour
tried to bully him into retracting it and
apologizing).
It‟s hard to see how Tim Gunn makes his life
work without the benefit of time travel. The
Still, his brief turn as scourge of the Wintour-
ever-dapper Project Runway mentor and chief
net doesn‟t seem to be of much concern to
creative officer of Liz Claiborne recently
him. “What‟s the worst that could happen, she
finished the show‟s eighth season, logged
doesn‟t invite me to a party?” he says. “I‟m
several guest TV spots, ran the attendant
not invited to her parties now, and don‟t care
publicity gauntlet for his second book, Gunn‟s
to be.”
Golden Rules, and has been on tour as
something of fashion's ambassador to the real
When asked how he would reframe the book,
world.
Gunn says that perception is already changing
“now that we‟ve had this horrible outbreak of
Gunn, on one recent such visit to the King of
teenage suicides.” He speaks with unusual
Prussia Mall, was kind enough to discuss the
candor in his book about his own suicide
book, reality shows, “It Gets Better” and being
attempt as an isolated gay youth, and was
seen as the voice of reason in a notoriously
among the earliest and most affecting figures
unreasonable industry.

2. to record an “It Gets Better” video, sharing his particularly in Europe) is its accessibility—
experience and a message of hope for bullied how “we look at fashion through the lens of
LGBTQ kids. It‟s clearly an important one to commerce.”
him, and he seems grateful that “people are
now talking about that aspect and the Anna But Gunn acknowledges that even the
Wintour stuff has more or less gone away.” accessible American fashion industry can still
be alienating to many consumers—after all, it
Of course, telling it like it is comes with is still de rigueur for runway shows to feature
personal as well as professional risks. prohibitively expensive clothes on “girls who
haven‟t even hit puberty.”
“I‟ll be perfectly honest—my mother isn‟t
speaking to me,” Gunn says, sounding as “It‟s just not realistic,” he asserts. “A lot of
upbeat as one can given the topic. Those people don‟t have either the money or the
who‟ve read the book might have their inclination for that, and they want real, solid
suspicions as to why (a little too close a peek advice about how to present themselves. I like
into Hoover‟s drawers, perhaps?), but he isn‟t women who are real shapes; nothing makes
interested in speculating. “She has read the me happier than working with real women in
book and she‟s not speaking to me. So I don‟t the real world and helping them get their
know the specifics of what she‟s so cobbled fashion right. I‟m always saying „If getting
by—I can guess, but I honestly don‟t know.” your fashion right were easy, everyone would
He gives the impression that he expects it will always look great‟—and, you know, they
be all right and it‟s difficult to doubt that don‟t.”
unspoken appraisal; after all, this is the man
who‟s built his fame on doing the best he can But at King of Prussia and malls across
with what he‟s got. America, Gunn‟s happy to help them make it
work.
When asked about the tensions around semi-
outcast Michael Costello on the most recent
season of Project Runway, Gunn shoots from
the hip: “I‟ll tell you what troubled me,” he
says without hesitation, “and I‟m making an
assumption that it troubled the other designers,
too. It‟s that Michael, for each challenge,
would create two, three, sometimes four looks
... I have not seen anything quite like that in
the history of the show.” The designers'
response to the judges‟ praise of these hastily
constructed garments was, Gunn assumes,
“Good god, he did that in the last three hours.”
In his seven years at Parsons, Gunn says, he
tried to make it clear to his students that
fashion is, counter-intuitively, a very serious
industry that is bigger than just pretty things
and petty sniping. Fashion “is a sociological
gauge—it happens in a context that is societal
and cultural and historical and economic and
political,” he says. “Clothes don‟t need to
change, but fashion, by definition, must.”
Gunn is passionate about the connections
between what we wear and the environments
we live in—one thing he loves about the
American fashion industry (and it‟s a point
that‟s not always seen as a positive,