Tim Gunn has always been an American icon. Most of us know him from the TV show “Project Runway,” where he serves as the designers’ much-needed mentor. And as anyone who’s ever watched the show knows, he’s not afraid to tell them exactly what he’s thinking. Needless to say, he’s an absolute gem of a human being.
Recently, he’s been in the news for saying what everyone’s thinking, namely criticizing fashion designers for ignoring the majority of women when creating their designs (a.k.a. not designing for plus-size women) and absolutely dragging Kayne West’s most recent fashion show, which he called “basically stretch undergarments.” He also roasted everyone who’s enamored with West’s clothing and throws money away on his line, saying “I think the only thing dumber than these clothes would be the people who buy these clothes.”
Whoa. Tim. Tell us what you really think.
As always, he’s absolutely right about both situations. Frankly, the treatment of plus-size women in the media has been talked to death—and rightfully so—because plus-size women are so often ignored and underrepresented in the media, or told that they need to lose weight, and, of course, labeled as “plus-size.” To the best of my knowledge though, Tim Gunn is one of the first people who’s actually in the fashion industry to call out designers for ignoring plus-size women in their fashion lines: “But many designers — dripping with disdain, lacking imagination or simply too cowardly to take a risk — still refuse to make clothes for them,” wrote Gunn in his “Washington Post” article.
Gunn also went on to attack the winner of “Project Runway” season 14 in the article, Ashley Tipton, who won with a collection designed for, and modeled by, plus-size women: “I’ve never seen such hideous clothes in my life: bare midriffs; skirts over crinoline, which give the clothes, and the wearer, more volume; see-through skirts that reveal panties; pastels, which tend to make the wearer look juvenile; and large-scale floral embellishments that shout ‘prom.’ Her victory reeked of tokenism.”
Though I was excited when Tipton won, after being a removed from the drama of season 14 by a year, and by realizing my growing frustration with the prevalence of crop tops and see-through clothing, Gunn’s criticism of her collection makes far more sense. If someone is insecure about her body (because let’s be real, we all are, regardless of size), why would she want to dress herself in a pastel-pink crop top, or a lacy, violet skirt that’s completely see-through? At least for me, Tipton’s clothes wouldn’t inspire confidence. I thought she put together a nice collection when I first saw it, but my immediate reaction was also that I would never wear anything she had designed.
As far as Kayne West’s fashion show goes, Gunn is also saying what the rest of us are thinking—but unlike those of us who are limited to writing Facebook posts or Odyssey articles about our feelings on the treatment of plus-size women by fashion designers, and how Kayne West’s clothes are hideous, Gunn has a much louder voice that can reach far more people.
Hence Gunn’s role as the people’s champion—or at least, the champion of real women in the fashion industry. Regardless of what size of pants you wear from Old Navy, I think we can all agree that there are hardly any designers at New York Fashion Week whose clothes any of us real-life middle-class women would wear. Which raises the ultimate question: what’s the point of having fashion designers who can’t design anything that anyone outside the 1% would wear? Tim Gunn is getting fed up with them—and we should too.
