If you're a fan of Bravo's hit reality show Project Runway, you're familiar with Tim Gunn, the show's resident fashion guru. Tim recently published his first book, a self-help style fashion aide entitled A Guide To Quality, Taste and Style.
Perhaps you might be thinking, who’s this guy and why should I care how he thinks I should dress? Here’s why:
Firstly, he’s NOT a fashion designer. Someone like Alexander McQueen or Vivienne Westwood might toss you two or three of their latest haute couture pieces and say “What more do you need?”. Tim Gunn understands what designers are thinking and can help you translate what they make into what you need to make you look good.
Secondly, while he does want every woman in the world to look her absolute best, he does NOT want to tell them exactly what to wear and what not to wear. Tim Gunn understands how impossible a task that would be and besides as he writes in the introduction: "You are who you are for a reason."
Thirdly, he's NOT a stylist. Stylists are a dime a dozen these days - even mid-level department stores have them, and while they'll help you to look good, they are being paid and they have a specific agenda in mind. How badly do you want to be told what to wear?
Project Runway is ripe with potential spin-off stars. There's the often-pregnant, uber-supermodel host and judge Heidi Klum and the acid-tongued judges, fashion designer Micheal Kors and ELLE editor/fashionista Nina Garcia, not to mention one of the charismatic, outrageous and talented fashion designer contestants, so it's a bit of a surprise that the level-headed and good-hearted Tim Gunn has gained the most attention.
Tim Gunn is the former chair of the fashion design program at the prestigious Parsons New School For Design and current chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne. On Project Runway, he’s the mentor to the show’s fashion designer contestants, offering them advice and guidance. He even has his own catchphrases (“Make it work.” and “Carry on.”) and bobble head! His astute, genuine words of advice for the contestants and clearly impeccable sense of aesthetics have made him stand out to such a degree that he has his own reality television series in the works (Tim Gunn's Guide to Style) which his book is a preview for.
Written in the same genuine, reassuring, straightforward manner with which he dispenses design advice on the show, A Guide To Quality, Style & Taste offers such advice as how to diagnose your closet, how to choose your fashion mentor(s) and how to say no to the “it” bag. But perhaps the most important message Tim Gunn has for us is in the chapter entitled “Shoulders Back: Style From the Inside Out”. While it would be easy and truthful for him to say simply that the clothes will look better if you stand up straighter, it is clear that he is concerned more about the confidence and elegance you will exude by taking time to improve your posture and shorten your strides. And this is what elevates A Guide To Quality, Style & Taste far beyond an average self-help book. As Tim writes:”Style is not just about clothes, nor is something bestowed upon you if you are the correct shape or size. Style is about the way you hold yourself and move through the world.”
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