Tim Gunn Makes It Work!

I had the plea­sure yes­ter­day of spend­ing the after­noon with Tim Gunn.

For those of you that don’t know him, Tim Gunn appears on Project Run­way as men­tor to the design­ers and basi­cally the glue that holds the show together. If you don’t know what Project Run­way is.…well, this post will mean noth­ing to you.

Yes, Tim Gunn is a cel­e­brated and loved TV per­son­al­ity, but to me he is so much more. As many of you know, I grad­u­ated from F.I.T. with a degree in Fash­ion Design. Tim Gunn was an Asso­ciate Dean and Depart­ment Chair at our rival fash­ion school, Parson’s.

Hav­ing lived in New York City  and worked in the fash­ion indus­try for 13 years, I can tell you that Tim Gunn rep­re­sents all the best of the rag trade (gar­ment indus­try); Class, sophis­ti­ca­tion, knowl­edge, elo­quence, grace and, most impor­tantly, he can dish the dirt with­out get­ting his hands dirty.

I wish I could tell you it was a long con­ver­sa­tion over tea or cock­tails, but, alas, I had to share his com­pany with a few hun­dred oth­ers at the Geor­gia State Uni­ver­sity Audi­to­rium. How­ever, Tim is so engag­ing, I did feel that it was a much more per­sonal encounter.

In fact, I was the first one to pop out of my chair to ask a ques­tion at the end of his talk. You may have seen me on CNN. Not really, but it was that mon­u­men­tal to me.

I asked a sim­ple tech­ni­cal ques­tion about whether the design­ers were allowed to use slop­ers (a very basic pat­tern or tem­plate for the shape of a sleeve or pant) or if they had to rely solely on their drap­ing skills to pro­vide pat­terns. His answer was no that the design­ers had to rely on their drap­ing and innate pattern-making skills to con­struct their gar­ment. He then elab­o­rated on the process.

I don’t expect you to under­stand the rel­e­vance of this ques­tion or the answer. What I will tell you is that right after I asked my ques­tion, the mere fact that TIM GUNN was lis­ten­ing to me, said it was an excel­lent ques­tion and addressed me directly when answering..well what can I say, it was a rush. Yes, I’m a nerd. This fact has been pre­vi­ously established.

Since I left New York, there are times I feel a lit­tle lost and dis­con­nected from the heart of my pas­sion which is design. Design in and of itself. The cre­ative process and being around those who are in the same world who can appre­ci­ate and share the headache, heartache and reward it brings. I thor­oughly wal­low in the rare moments  when it all comes rush­ing all back. Thanks Tim.

Although Tim was there to speak about his book, Tim Gunn’s Guide to Qual­ity, Taste and Style, we also learned he has a new book com­ing out this fall called Gunn’s Golden Rules: Life’s Lit­tle Lessons for Mak­ing It Work.