I expected nothing less than for fashion expert Tim Gunn to be wearing his trademark suit and tie, even on a zoom call. He admitted this strayed from his usual attire of a cotton bathrobe and sweats (but I bet even then he looks fantastic). This was the first of four meetings in the Marketing Communication Speaker Series at Emerson College, and I wanted to share a snippet of our ‘Conversation with Tim Gunn’.
Most will associate Gunn with Project Runway, the fashion competition television series that’s now in its 18th season. However, I recognize Gunn most from a 2011 film called Teen Spirit. It’s a cheesy yet heartfelt story that I ate up when I was twelve years old. He plays the mentor in Limbo for a dead high school mean girl and guides her to redemption instead of banishing her to Hell. If you don’t know him from either, I’d say his unique, spirited voice has surely come across your ears at some point.
The call spanned for over an hour with professors and students alike, listening in to hear about his life, his career, and everything he’s learned along the way. He has an intimidating resting face, but the moment he opens his mouth it all melts away. He is a lively, affable man, and it was a pleasure to be in his company (even just over zoom). Not to mention extremely humble, he started most sentences off with “I didn’t imagine I would get to do this..”, or “Never did I imagine this would happen but..” When asked what his greatest failures and successes were, he stated after a long pause, “How long do we have for the failures part?”
He confessed his first two years at Project Runway were unpaid. The seasons were filmed at the Parsons School of Design, where Gunn was a professor at the time. As a designers consultant on the show, receiving compensation wasn’t on his radar since he merely saw himself as a helping hand. His now-agent approached him at an award gala and asked about his representation, and he recalls asking, “Representation for what?” From that moment on, he’s been Gunn’s agent for the past 15 years and helped straighten out his compensation where it was due. “If I had to do it all over again, would I do those first two seasons for nothing,” Gunn said, “Yes definitely, look where it led to!” As students deal with the reality of unpaid internships, he reassured the group that your time would be worth it. If an opportunity seems to be percolating something positive, seize it. Do everything at 1,000 percent, whether you’re paid or unpaid, because people will take notice.
He spoke in depth about curiosity and how it can be the best characteristic a person can possess. Not only in your career, by doing something you haven’t done before or applying for a new position, but also in life. It’s never too late to do something new, whether it’s painting, boxing, surfing, or Gunn’s example: fencing. At 62, he’s become enthralled with fencing and the benefits it’s had on his body and mind. In turn, he also talked about how failures happen when assumptions are made. “I really believe in never assuming,” he said, “It’s assumptions that led me down a path I regretted.” He praised that being yourself is the ultimate victory, and any assumptions or excuses you used to feed yourself begin to fade away.
Gunn referred back to his casual wear and how fashion has changed due to the pandemic. We all live in our pjs, it’s a thing now. I’m guilty of buying more comfy clothes because that’s all I wear. But loungewear does not, and should not, break the bank. He referred to a recent fashion article about loungewear promoting thousands of dollars worth of sweatshirts and sweatpants. There was clear disdain on his face, and thought it was absurd to spend no more than $30 on a pair. The changing times have not altered his three staple fashion pieces: dark wash jeans, a turtleneck, and a blazer.
Good choices, don’t you think?
-S
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