Project Runway's Tim Gunn: An Arc from Near tragedy to Triumph

Most of us are familiar with the hit show, Project Runway, now in it’s 17th season. One of the co-hosts, along with Heidi Klum, is the affable and memorable Tim Gunn. Gunn, now 65, started hosting "Project Runway" in an act of serendipity that still leaves him “pinching” himself. A Washington D.C. native Gunn got a degree in English from Yale and then another bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Corcoran College in his hometown of D.C.. He was destined to be a sculptor before he received an invitation by the Dean to teach a course at Corcoran in “Three Dimensional Drawing”. This led to a position in the administration at Corcoran that lasted for 4 years before he was offered a position in the Admissions department at the presitigious Parsons School of Design in NYC. It was at Parsons that he taught for 25 years, ascending to be Associate Dean of the School before his final position as Chair of the Fashion School of Design at Parsons. It was from this perch that his reputation as an educator and keen observer of fashion “do’s and don’ts” caught the attention of the Producers of an upcoming show about the rigors and machinery of Fashion—Project Runway. Gunn was asked to be a consultant on the show and reluctantly agreed, never thinking that it would succeed or that he would appear on TV. Well, we now know the rest of that story as Gunn proved to be the perfect blend of what the producers were looking for: Articulate, charismatic, compassionate, a devoted educator who knew the fashion business inside and out. Gunn was perfect for the task but not before being terrorized with anxiety over the responsibility of holding up on TV. To see his poised and relaxed manner now you would never know the demons that he had been fighting since childhood.

Tim Gunn grew up in a normal family setting. His father worked for the FBI, the public relations liaison for the notorious FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, during the 40’s 50’s and 60’s. Gunn had one sister, a beloved family dog, and a loving mother; all the ingredients for a normal childhood for a young boy in the 50’s. Unfortunately, Gunn’s childhood was far from normal. As Gunn would describe it he was “an absolute mess”. He had no friends. He was bullied mercilessly for having a crippling stutter that made him want to hide in his room. He feigned sickness to avoid going to school as much as he could even though he was an exceptional student. He dreaded any social interaction. Gunn attempted suicide at 16 and was sent to a psychiatric hospital. On his first night in the facility he attempted another suicide. He remained in the facility under close monitoring and psychiatric evaluation for 2 years and 3 months. He didn’t speak with counselors and therapists for the first several months. He only came around when assigned to a new psychiatric resident who knew how to outlast Gunn’s stubbornness.

Gunn finally left the facility at 19 after gaining some control over the debilitating manifestations of his social anxiety. A two time failure at ending his own life, Gunn now set out to face college away from home. Gunn received his degree in English from Yale, thinking he would be a writer, but he soon decided he hated the subject. His last semester at Yale he was allowed to take an Art course in Drawing. This is where Gunn found his voice, deciding to enroll the following year at Corcoran College where he could get yet another degree, this time in Fine Arts. Gunn’s mentor there asked him to fill a teaching vacancy and teach a course to a freshman class. At first excited, Gunn turned apoplectic at what would be the burden of leading a classroom of 16 students. He would have to speak to the class. Gunn didn’t sleep or eat for the days leading up to his dreaded teaching debut. By his own account he threw up everyday for a week in the parking lot before the start of class. He had to lean on the wall when he spoke to brace himself against the jarring trembling of his legs. His stutter returned. He felt doomed. He told his teaching mentor about his terror to which she replied, “it’s either going to kill you or cure you. I hope it will do the latter.” Gunn courageously endured the assault until he became comfortable enough to harbor much of his anxiety; his career as an unlikely educator was underway.

Gunn settled into the academic scene as part of the faculty at Corcoran college, working his way to a high position in the Admissions department. He was, as he describes it, “content”, even with his personal life. His sexuality had always been a mystery to those around him and even to himself. He considered himself to be asexual. He had no interest in girls and his social fears had left him completely unable to entertain any close relationships at all. This changed, at least for awhile, sometime after he started his tenure as faculty at Corcoran college. Tim began a romantic relationship with a man while at Corcoran that gave him some contentment. They lived together for several years until Gunn’s partner told him, abruptly one day, that he was tired of him. He wanted out and, besides, he had been sleeping with every man he could find. Gunn was paralyzed with devastation and a feeling of betrayal. The announcement came as a total surprise to Gunn. The devastation was followed by anger at the thought that he could have been exposed to the HIV virus. This was the early 80’s, the height of the AIDS epidemic. He realized that his life could be in jeopardy. He tested for the HIV virus regularly for 14 years. This proved to be Gunn’s first and only romantic relationship. He has remained celibate since 1983 claiming that he doesn’t have the time to give to a romantic relationship. He loves his solitude and coming home to an empty house.

As a result of this traumatic act of rejection Gunn decided to accept the second solicitation by Parsons to recruit him to New York to work in the Admissions department. He would stay at Parsons School of Design in NYC for the next 25 years, working in Admissions, as a teacher, and eventually as Associate Dean. Perhaps the most enduring of all the courageous chapters in Gunn’s life is the one that took place just a few years before being approached by the Producers of “Project Runway”. It was the year 1999 and Gunn, acting as Associate Dean, was asked by the Dean of Parsons to temporarily fill the vacated position left as Chair of the Fashion Design School until a replacement could be found. Gunn was already part of the recruiting team and had been an integral part of the school for almost 20 years so his appointment to head the department for a year seemed logical. Gunn decided to study closely how the Fashion School at Parsons worked. He interviewed everyone with fingerprints in the department, from faculty, to present and former students, etc.. He thoroughly examined the curriculum and the established designers who had been part of the “Designer Mentoring Program” at the Fashion School at Parsons. It was a full autopsy. This designer/student program was a hallmark of the senior year and the Designers involved were household names: Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, and many other high profile authorities on American couture.

Gunn’s exhaustive examination of the Fashion School of Design curriculum and culture revealed that the program had not changed since 1948, a full 50 years of entrenchment. It came as a total surprise. The contradiction and irony of any school whose curriculum doesn’t change for 50 years is disturbing enough but for a Fashion school to remain stagnant is a betrayal of the fundamental tenets of Fashion: It must change and evolve.

Gunn noticed more than an ossified curriculum. He noted a very low morale among the students and faculty. He observed that the “Designer Mentoring Program left students in a state of “infantilization” as he described it. He felt that the program, and the entire curriculum, didn’t empower the students to answer the questions of design themselves but instead it allowed the elite set of designer/mentors to make all the design decisions for the students. The students merely followed the directives. They were not allowed to find their own voices as designers. Gunn proposed to scrap the whole program and replace it with a program that empowered the students to come up with their own designs; he wanted them succeed or fail on their own and to leave the program with a point of view that they had a thorough opportunity to express and develop themselves--no more subordination to designer elites. As the newly appointed Chair of the Fashion Design school Gunn decided unilaterally to not renew the Designer/mentorship program and he didn’t sent out invitations to the 8 designers who normally mentor the program. He went to the students with his plan for change and they greeted him with a standing ovation. They felt unshackled. It was like throwing water on the wicked witch of the east. The problem for Gunn that awaited was that the Designer/Mentors (and some former alumni were mounting a strong resistance to the proposed changes. They saw Gunn as person trying to uproot an iconic institution. They wanted him fired. Editorials were written in the Fashion magazines stating that Gunn had to be stopped as he was ruining the fashion industry. Gunn found out what we know all too well about American institutions: they don’t like change. They can be as dogmatic and stagnant as any religion. No new ideas get a platform because it offends the status quo. To Gunn’s surprise the Dean of Parsons decided to back him 100% in the face of strong opposition. Gunn thought he was going to lose his job over this battle but he was insistent that it had to be fought. People who challenge the status quo are rare in our society. Change is difficult to initiate. Gunn found out that longstanding bad ideas and policy often go unchallenged.

In light of all that Tim Gunn had been through as a child and adolescent there was no hint that he would survive and evolve to become a prominent educator and to lead the course correction of a powerful iconic institution against strong resistance. A bullied child with a debilitating stutter is sent to a psychiatric ward in his teens as a result of a suicide attempt. He remains there for 2 years where he makes another attempt on his life. A few short years after he leaves the facility he is teaching college courses. He then becomes head of Admissions at Corcoran College. He then is recruited to Parsons School of design where he is teacher, then associate dean, and then head of the Fashion School of Design. In his first year as Head of that department he sets out to abandon the entire curriculum that has been in place for a half century, at the outrage of many former alums and teachers. He wins this battle and a few years later, at the age of 50, becomes a television host (and star) and wins an Emmy. He has now been host of Project Runway for 16 years. It’s an amazing and highly unlikely Arc. The Project Runway star has a back story that begged to be told. It’s an account of rising from the ruins, the ashes; a story of embracing new challenges, new opportunities, conquering fears, at any stage in life.