tim gunn's guide to style

I had a bad feeling about this show from the promos. Everytime I heard Tim Gunn bellow out-- in that pompous and patronizing tone of voice of his--that we were going to have to follow "My Rules!" my gut response was always: "fuck you." Whenever someone tells me that I am going to have to follow their rules (especially in that pissant manner) I immediately want to break every one of their goddamn rules just on principle.

I never believed the hype about this being all that different from any other fashion makeover show. As it turns out, what makes this one different is that it is twice as long and ten times as dull. They turned a guilty pleasure (basically a Cinderella story that dumps the prince and adds in a shopping spree) into a condescending over-serious lecture on self-improvement full of commonplace "rules" and new age platitudes.

Tim is funny on Project Runway because we just get short doses of his professor-manque posturing and pissy little quips. He becomes tiresome very quickly when you have to put up with him for a longer period of time.

I didn't think it was going to be very good but I also didn't expect it to be this bad. The reviews are uneven. Here are two that best sum up how I feel about it. Even Tom and Lorenzo, tow of Tim Gunn's biggest fans, are not impressed:

Project Rungay's "Oh for God's sake will you people LIGHTEN UP?"

Jesus Christ, was that a makeover show or a hostage situation? Could this show be any more devoid of lightness and humor of any kind? One word kept repeating itself in our heads last night over and over as we watched this thing: dreary.

Troy Patterson's "Fashion Don't" review on Slate.com

Thus, it was disappointing, when watching this new makeover fantasy, to discover a new superciliousness in his tone and a noxious haughtiness in his demeanor. Downer! And it was off-putting that Guide to Style takes a soporific hour to reform the dress sense of one single lass. Drag!

The underwear drawer humiliation ritual on the most recent episode was truly appalling. It is bad enough when Trini and Suzannah do it (on BBC's What Not to Wear) but they are much more bawdy. Plus they are able to convey--and this is essential--a comfort in and an appreciation of women's bodies. Tim "zaftig debacle" Gunn does not possess these particular gifts. Going through a woman's underwear drawer is the last thing he should be tasked with doing. It was an unmitigated horror for everyone.

It isn't enough just to like clothes. You also have to like bodies. Imperfect bodies. I don't mean this sexually. I don't think Tim has it in him to really "get" the beauty in the ordinary, flawed, messy, lives and bodies of real women. You just can't get away from his standoffishness -- at times it is more like squeamishness -- toward these people and the lives they lead. There's just too much of a disconnect. It is all too forced: nothing in this show really fits.

all tim all the time

updated 07.19.07

Let's talk overexposure.

He's everywhere. Magazines, television, web. He's on red carpets. He's on Oprah. He's on Kathy Griffin introducing Paula Abdul as the greatest woman on the face of fashion. He's selling the book. He's selling the new show. He's selling the new company. He's selling cars. He's selling salad dressing for chrissakes! (WTF?)


Everything he does is breathlessly discussed and repromoted online and in talk show and infotainment interviews.

He has an opinion on everything ... and I mean everything.



(Including a few things he may want to keep to himself ... but whatever. He sounds like an expert and that's what counts... and we're only talking about women's body images here -- so no big deal, right?)

For the Gunnophiles all this is great.

For the rest of us (or maybe it's just me) . . . not so much.

I am actually not all that interested in the new Tim Gunn show. He keeps claiming his show is going to be "different" from other fashion makeover shows but I have yet to see anything that convinces me of that.

I am interested in fashion design. I liked Project Runway because it showed the creative practice of innovative new fashion designers at work. At this point, I think that Project Runway could indeed exist without Tim Gunn. Yeah Tim is great in that role but deep down inside haven't we all heard "make it work" just one too many times?

Wouldn't it be fun to see Laura Bennett's droll eyerolls and wicked "Bad Mommy" comments? And she is someone who actually knows how things work. She is someone who has serious training in the history of design as well as technique. Or what about Uncle Nick?

I'm just saying that Tim Gunn isn't totally irreplaceable. I think Bravo is making a mistake if they think that he is the reason people watch Project Runway. Call me crazy but I think the work of the designers is more interesting than the personality of Gunn or Klum or Kors.

Gunn's priorities are obviously with himself. Fair enough. I just hope that he -- with Bravo's assistance -- doesn't crush Project Runway in pursuit of them.

His makeover show may be a "lead-in" for Project Runway for some people but fashion makeover shows are a completely different genre. And they are really depressing. They ultimately end up being infantilizing and condescending. (With Tim in charge I can't imagine this will improve -- I mean he is the personification of haughty. That's partly what makes him such a hoot.)


I got hooked on watching Project Runway (and Top Design, etc) because it was creative and challenging. If I wanted to I could watch this other kind of programming on E! or Lifetime (celebrity, run-of-the-mill reality, women's daytime programming). I think that by focusing on promoting Tim as a star rather than on the actual creative work done on Project Runway Bravo is risking the very audience it gained from its innovative programming.

On the other hand, Bravo could always go in this direction (click image for link):

two questions about project runway

1. Why was it delayed? Why did they skip a season? Was it because of the Tim Gunn negotiations? Was it because they couldn't find enough good contestants?

2. Inevitably there is some energy lost by the show being off for this long in between seasons. Do you think it will be able to recover or do you think it is not going to be quite the same hit that it was by the end of the third season?

kiss my capris

deposing the rules of fashion

When Tim Gunn was a guest on the "Oprah" show, he provided six fashion rules for "mature" women (mature = over-40). Older women should never wear:

1. Pleated pants
2. Low-rise jeans
3. Horizontal stripes
4. Jackets that hit at mid-thigh
5. Double-breasted blazers
6. Capri-length pants

I call bullshit.

First of all, since when did being old start at 40? Jeez! This puts some women who are having their first child into the same age category as great grandmothers. This isn't the 1950s. Age groupings for women have changed considerably. Women are very active -- working, athletic, travelling -- well into their seventies today. In some fields women are just getting their careers going in their 40s.

I confess that I have always hated any sort of these lists of rules. Dos and don'ts. Like most of these kinds of dictates I have an innate tendency to see them primarily as there to be broken. They are a mainstay for hack copy in fashion magazines but there is nothing original or fresh about them.

These specific six rules are about what is flattering to body shape as well as what is in fashion at present. Pleated pants and double breasted blazers are not overly youthful. They are just not especially flattering or currently fashionable. Horizontal stripes are widening. Based on the assumption that no woman under age 40 buys clothes from Liz Claiborne, I will use summer fashions from Tim's new employer to demonstrate the problems with these rules.

1. Pleated pants - no one should wear these. Ever.

mo pleats mo fugly

2. Low-rise jeans : women under 22 shouldn't wear these--and not very many of them can get away with it either. I'm not convinced that they are a particularly attractive look for even the best of figures. It is just a cut that can't quite get away from the idea of "cheap and slutty":

On the other hand, Liz Claiborne is well known for perpetrating the style crime of mom jeans and those are just as bad.



3. Horizontal stripes -- This rule is ridiculous. The principle is one based on body shape not age.
Here is the thing with fashion rules: even the people who make them don't follow them. Tim's very own Oprah makeover selected a dress with a horizontal stripe pattern for a woman who had just given birth to twins:
And a striped top can look fine on a larger body:

Omygod! Is she wearing capri length pants?!

In fact, it would seem that this season's Liz Claiborne plus size collection breaks every one of Tim Gunn's rules.

4. Jackets that hit at mid-thigh : Frankly I don't even understand what this rule is about. The look would depend on the particular outfit and the cut of the jacket:


Here is an example from LC's plus size collection:
This is a fine casual or light exercise outfit but the problem I see with the LC collection is that it is dowdy and it hides women's curves rather than highlights them.

It will be interesting to see how Gunn will approach this area at Liz Claiborne given Tim's well-known "issues" with the bodies of zaftig women (i.e., any woman over a size 4 and/or any woman with fleshy curves).

And that place needs some help. After a while the LC collection started to really depress me. The idea that they wanted women to dress this way. I think they got some of their fabric ideas from somebody's great grandmother's old davenport:

Yes, it's metallic too!

If you must have a rule how about this one: don't wear fabric that might be used to upholster furniture at a funeral home. But I digress . . .

5. Double-breasted blazers: these aren't in fashion now. Just as with pleated pants, the "rules" don't have to do with age. There is nothing overly youthful about a double-breasted blazer, mid-thigh jackets or horizontal stripes. They have to do with style, cut, and shape and what is in fashion.

6. Capri-length pants : This is the one that really gets me. I thought about naming this post: "kiss my capri wearing ass." Sure capris are not the best for short legs. But capris are a fashion staple -- there's no getting away from them either at the gym or in the summer (especially at the beach). Even with short legs capri-length works especially if you are wearing the same color on the top. So shoot me.

Here are LC's cropped pants selections.

I don't care what age you are.

These pants are fugly!

On the other hand, here are Eileen Fisher's:

To die for... and they come in petite.

Eileen Fisher targets the same age group as LC and is similar in price range (slightly higher but not by much). Nonetheless, Eileen Fisher has a much more youthful and fashionable and versatile look.

It is one that is not beset by the kind of mindset that has fashion "rules" about what you can and can't wear at a certain age. In fact the company is based on thinking about women and fashion in a manner that is opposed to these kinds of restrictions.

Frankly, if Tim Gunn really wants to reinvigorate LC he is going to have to change the way that he thinks about fashion... and women.


two posts from 02.05.07:

• tg on how runway models should look (after the tyra banks discussion):
• continued commentary on the preference for heroin chic / boyish body type in fashion

fashion rules that never change

"Boys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses!"

From Tim Gunn's makeover sessions on Oprah:

What makes this particularly pathetic is that
Liz Claiborne has its own line of eyewear:

Tim Gunn, the great shillmeister, missed a perfect
chance to promote a product from his new employer!

tim gunn : emperor of his domain

from the Journal of Grown Men in Silly Costumes, aka House and Garden.

"Welcome to my opium den."

The mandarin in his dragon robe.

(I could swear this is a character from one of
E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia novels. )

It has been a while since I've checked in over at Blogging Project Runway but I'm glad I went to the site today because now can't stop giggling.

It all makes sense now. Tim Gunn has adopted the anglophilic mannerisms of the upperclass English; it is only natural that he would also have a longing for a return to the Age of Empire.

He's sort of a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Dorian Grey. They were both aesthetes with a sharp eye and an unsparing tongue. They were also characters "coded" as homosexual although not "out" per se. (Both of them also had a penchant for opium.)

At any rate, that photograph is awesome: is that not the expression of a man who is "pleased as punch"?? His smiling pink face is like the little occidental cherry on top of the layers and layers of orientalist cake.

And the pièce de résistance: the bow tie.

Oh, Tim. You slay me.

NOTES
1. Click here to go to the House and Garden online article.
2. To see the large color pages of the article click here: page 1 and page 2
3. His robe is vintage Miao (Hmong). These are still affordable to more modest collectors (in the hundreds of dollars rather than hundreds of thousands dollars). However, as with most folk artists and native peoples the Hmong have been exploited by dealers and collectors. So if you do purchase their textiles, purchase from the Hmong themselves or ask the dealer if the profits have been shared with the Hmong people.
4. I'm fascinated by this (at right) 19th century Chinese portrait in Tim's apartment. It's stunning. I think that a closer examination would reveal an interesting interplay between western and eastern styles of dress and needlework (I'm especially interested in the millinary) but it is hard to tell from the photograph.
5. Further recommended reading: Sarah Cheang. "Selling China: Class, Gender and Orientalism and the Department Store." Journal of Design History Vol 20. No 1. 2007. 1-16. (If I have a chance I'll put it with my material in the art/design/fashion department.)

wayne's world

and other ideas for Top Design improvements and spinoffs

They are down to three designers: Andrea, Matt and Carisa.

This is actual dialogue:

Matt: We’re Charlie’s Angels.
[They are entering the PDC.[
Matt: I’m Farrah.
Andrea: Yes. Yes you are.

Priceless.

The Angels head to the PDC to get their orders.

Charlie/Todd: Pick an Elle Décor cover. Design a room like this cover but not like this cover.

Make it for $7,500. That shouldn’t be a problem after you’ve had the PDC discounts and budgets of 40K. You have all of Los Angeles to shop in. Oh? You don’t know the city? No problem – here’s a computer. You can enter the names of the shops you don’t know into the computer and get their addresses here.

It’s another damned PDC pod assignment. What? They couldn’t find three rooms in all of Los Angeles that they could use?

Andrea goes straight to an architectural shop. She’s going to focus on how she is an architect rather than a designer. That is what the judges are looking for in her right? She is also looking for “natural looking” furnishings. I guess because her style is so natural—very crunchy and earthy.

Carisa – god love her – is having a fabulous time shopping. One thing I admire about Carisa is that when she isn’t stressed she is incredibly cheerful about what she is doing.

That does look like a fun shop.

Andrea is being very smug about how she has the advantage since she’s from Los Angeles. Uh-oh.

Then there is Matt. He is freaking out. This was painful but it was also entertaining. I did not realize that he was THAT much of a decorator prima donna.

Now I have not jumped on the whole Matt-is-gay bandwagon. I've been amused by it, sure. But I've not insisted that it must be so. I’ve a penchant for those lean intellectual guys. (And of course there is the whole “Jesus-is-My-Boyfriend- um, let’s call it an “unresolved issue”.”)

Anyhoo, I can go with the whole Charlies Angels / Farrah thing – that was a self-conscious joke - however, THIS was one of the gayest things I’ve heard:

“Like, bargain shopping – that’s not what I do.”

Of course he may have momentarily been possessed by Cher from Clueless.

Anyway, there is more fun to be had with Matt -- lots more -- when we meet his tailor Wayne Yazzie, who, guessing from his hat and glasses, appears to have been in the midst of a poker game.

I would like to find a picture of Wayne to use here.
If anyone has a screen cap I can use let me know.

The enigmatic Wayne inspired the sidebar below:

NOTE TO PRODUCERS:

1. wayne

I have this to say about the sudden introduction of Wayne:

WHAT THE HELL?!!

Where has HE been? We are just NOW meeting this character?!!! Are there more of them in the PDC upholstery center? Has Bravo been hiding some treasure trove of nutcases from viewers?

I feel completely cheated. It is like there was this whole other show that I missed -- the fun, entertaining version of Top Design -- the show that included kooks like Wayne.

2. todd

Speaking of which, that show would also have included a lot more of Todd. Could Todd be more wonderful? I think not.

Todd is completely and utterly the Voice of Reason. And you need that if you have a show populated by people who are increasingly becoming more and more insane.

Todd has a similar role to Tim Gunn but he plays it in a very different way. Todd is very understated. He’s much kinder, gentler. Tim Gunn seems more informed because he acts the role of the expert: imperious and opinionated. It is hilarious and theatrical; it is perfect for the world of fashion which has so much to do with performance.

Todd is actually much more informed; he has far more experience in the field and unlike Gunn he provides real hands-on instructions – tips and tricks -- on how to do things. Frankly we did not get enough Todd time. We could even use a little Todd segment each episode. Like on how to do that little upholstery trick he showed Matt.

3. the carpenters

The carpenters should be standing up there with the designers. They do a hell of a lot of work. I mean Goil had Sarah make a lot of aesthetic decisions for him. Carl sees himself as an artisan and that may lead to a lot of arguing with Carisa but it is also why she succeeds. Plus, from the start Carisa’s designs have had a lot of built-ins so – although she would never admit it – her work is very much a team effort. Some of those carpenters are craftsmen (and women) and as a potter you’d think Jonathan Adler would realize that the ones that are doing that level of work deserve a little more of the credit.

4. the weasel

Get rid of that sick little mofo “The Assistant.” Bravo should be ashamed of itself for encouraging this by letting it continue. You would never have someone write things in the name of Bravo that were that homophobic or racist. Why is it okay to be that virulently misogynist?

. . . AND WE’RE BACK

Matt says he has Margaret in the back of his head.

Kelly claims that Matt confessed "a distracting crush on Margaret."

Oh, that will go over well back at home.

Through the NSA we've been able to get excerpts from Matt's phone calls following this revelation.

Wife: Who is this Margaret? Where does this whore live? I swear to god I'll cut her.

Daughter: Daddy what's a switchblade?

Wife: I'm coming to get your skinny-ass. I'll kill you and your whore-bitch girlfriend.

Daughter: Mommy went on a trip. Uncles Hoboy and Kilo are here. They make sugar and they said I can try some if I'm good.

Wife: You bastard. I liked it better when you were gay.

Well, I'm sure they've patched things up by now.


Unfortunately either Margaret isn't talking to Carisa or the voices in Carisa's head are bickering so much that she can't hear what Margaret is saying this week. Because what Margaret is saying is that there is no way in hell that Elle Décor would publish any of her designs, which is what Margaret says at the judging.

This is why it is bizarre that they kicked Andrea off. Carisa’s room was basically the best room. If it wasn’t going to win because it was not up to Elle Décor ’s standards then you might as well kick Carisa off now. Why have her go on to the finals if in the finals Margaret is just going to say the same thing: this isn't Elle Décor 's style.

Part of this is Carisa's fault. It was like she was trying to irk Margaret. She knew what Margaret's pet peeve was -- and so that was what she did.

Oh Carisa -- pillows on the Jacobson chair? WhyWhyWhy?

If you have listened to anything Margaret has said to you then why in gods name do you have pillows everywhere?

Maybe she has the wrong Margaret voice in her head. Maybe she has the voice of Marge Simpson.

"I say there should be more pillows and knick-knacks!"

ANDI 'N' CARI : COMING TO YOUR TOWN SOON!

Andrea and Carisa are such opposites that they are like a comedy team. Andrea is so understated that she seems morose. Her statements are often unintentionally droll. Carisa can be very funny and of course she is also comically awful at times.



Carisa (sharing her unsolicited opinion with Andrea): "I’m not sure why you painted it at all . . . Nothing says happy like grey.”

Andrea is pissed off at Carisa for saying this and yet in the next scene she realizes that her grey room is depressing. To brighten it up and make it happy she paints it taupe. That’s the spirit Andrea.

Andrea: “Carisa is different from me in thinking and vocalizing” which is a rather quaint way of saying that Carisa is a bitch.

Andrea: “I love hearing other people freak out.“ For Andrea “vocalizing” (a primitive animal act) or any sort of expression of emotion would involve a massive surgical procedure. She can’t help it. Let us not forget that Andrea is Swiss and emotions are for ethnic people.


If that comedy team doesn’t work out perhaps there could be a sitcom with Carl and Carisa. I think we all cheered when Carl finally snapped at Carisa. I also thought it was hilarious that Carisa didn’t miss a beat. Neither one of them did. The two of them just kept on working and bickering. It is amazing that they can concentrate. It is amazing that someone hasn’t lost a finger.

Or a head.

Even so, I thought Carisa was going to win.

Carisa's room really captured the cover of Elle magazine -- so I don't know how you can then say it isn't Elle's style or standard. If it isn't up to that level of luxury maybe that is because the budget was $7500.

It says a lot about how much Margaret hates Carisa’s style. Or something. It almost seems like there is some class snobbery going on that makes Margaret biased against Carisa.

Jonathan, on the other hand, is clearly charmed by her. He likes her style but he also likes that "be happy" part of Clarisa.


However, Margaret was dressed in a silver silk satin dress in the style of a 1930s film goddess so you know her word was the final word.

As if it ever isn’t.

Kelly, by the way, had gotten rid of her bad perm this week. That's the good news.

The bad news is that she had plates hanging from her ears -- not dinner or salad plates, more like bread plates.

The look was sort of Apocalypto by way of Fort Lauderdale.

It was understated for her.

back matter

( images added 02/08)

In women and beauty news: tyra banks thinks the media's promotion of unrealistic physical ideals are bad for women and tim gunn says no fat chicks, or two people who should try not talking for once.

1. turning the other cheek

I think the most hilarious tv moment last week was Tyra Banks' outburst when she was screaming and crying about how she's being called fat. This is Schadenfreude at its best. She's hit the age when it is getting harder and harder to keep the weight off. Welcome to the world of real women, Tyra. And cry me a fuckin' river. She's made millions being the image for an industry that promotes an unrealistic body ideal. Now that she's having trouble living up to it she's realized it is an outrage.

(image added 02/08)

Well before you tell the media to kiss your ass, I think it is time for you to turn the other cheek, Tyra. She should be kissing the fat asses of all the women who have grown up having her as their beauty ideal.

It is great if she wants to start working on women's body image issues (and will that be part of America's Next Top Model as well?) but first she needs to acknowlege that her success has depended entirely upon the very thing she is now claiming is unfair.

By the way, the best place to see Tyra in all of her insane glory is on fourfour. (Oh Rich. You rule.)

(image added 02/08)

2. more with the zaftig

NPR asked Tim Gunn to comment on the increasingly thin models on the runway and the problems with anorexia. Here are his remarks, in italics:

I don't want to sit and watch a runway show and wince and recoil because that model on the runway looks like she should be in the hospital bed. It's really unsettling and worse yet it's a distraction from the clothes. You really want to see the clothes, you don't want to see the elbow and knee joints.

Yes that is worse. The most annoying thing about looking at a woman who is suffering from a disease that may kill her is that it distracts from the clothes.

Still clothes do look more elegant on lithe figures than those with bulging bellies or double-wide backsides.

I am struck by his description of "bulging bellies and double wide backsides". It suggests that anything that isn't lithe -- is grotesque: women's curves are bulges spreading out across their bodies. You get this hint of a kind of revulsion towards women's flesh.

This reminded me of the"zaftig" debacle during last season's Project Runway which also suggested problems with with women's body size and standards of beauty. These types of offhanded comments about larger size contribute to a culture that is quite damaging to many girls and women. In a way they are the worst because they are so subtle, we hardly notice them.

Now I'm sure that TG didn't didn't intend to offend anyone and that he didn't consciously realize what he was saying. Nonetheless, and here is my first point: he's very good at giving advice, the question is, can he refrain from giving it? Because maybe this is one area where he may just want to not comment.

Moreover can he take advice? Because contrary to popular opinion, there are a few subjects where others may have more sensitive, informed and nuanced views than he does. I'd suggest that this is one of them.

In fact, there has actually been a lot of energy -- not just emotional and political but intellectual, statistical and theoretical -- that has been devoted to the subject of women's body image, including a considerable history of thought on its connection to fashion. Just an fyi.

More on body image: the best woman's body is a man's

(the third text section was moved to its own 02/08 -- this was was not the part that was commented upon -- in fact it was something of a tangent which was why it made sense to move it -- also I added images and expanded the idea)

town | gown

I saw it coming.

I was just wondering when -- and how -- the bow was going to break.

One of his dearest moments was when Tim Gunn asserted with intensely sober conviction that:

"Project Runway is nothing without its integrity."

God love him but this statement was utterly preposterous. Commercial television is not about integrity. Reality television even less so. He finally had to realize that in doing Project Runway he was working for Bravo and not for Parsons.

Having a current professor from a highly respected university in a primary role for a reality television program was a radical idea to say the least. Frankly, I'm sure that Gunn's involvement with the show raised some eyebrows if not some hackles at Parsons. At least I would hope so. An institution is really in trouble when everyone goes along without objecting.

There would be some who'd think that Project Runway did not reflect the academic level or pedagogy or basic philosophy of the institution. It would raise questions about conflict of interest; standards of excellence; and institutional image. These are not trivial matters.

I'm not saying that Tim Gunn presented anything less than an image of excellence. I'm just saying that despite his calm exterior and debonair manner he was actually treading through a minefield. It was inevitable that something had to go.

He wasn't going to give up the opportunities that he was now being offered, and why should he? Furthermore, his move into corporate world will now allow him to give back to Parsons. For one, he is going to be raising a lot of money for them. Not just because he will have a substantially higher income. He will also be establishing ties to people who earn the really big bucks. The development office must be giddy.

It seems impossible, but, yes, Tim Gunn is going to be loved even more than he is already. After all, which is better:

A. for Tim to be the department chair who is flitting about doing interviews on inane infotainment tv shows, earning buckets more cash than everyone else, regularly seen gushing over the kind of design work that is not respected by at least some of his colleagues (hypothetically speaking of course . . . not that academia is petty and jealous or anything)

OR

B. for Tim to have a important position in the fashion industry that allows him to provide student internships, hire graduates and raise funds for the institution?

At any rate, I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do for Liz Claiborne. I mean, it has fallen into the style pit of mom-jeans. And did anyone catch the reference to shopping at the Liz Claiborne Outlet on The Office?


Dwight: There is a Liz Claiborne outlet. I know you like that store. Go inside and shop until I can meet you.
Jan: How do you know I like that store?
Dwight: Many of your blouses are Claibornes.
Jan: How do you know that?
Dwight: It’s part of my job.
Jan: No, it’s not. It’s officially not.
Dwight: Noted.

The Office 3.3 The Coup