Fashion Advice From Tim Gunn

TITLE: Fashion Advice From Tim Gunn CHANNEL: Kate Mackz DATE: 2026-01-14 ---TRANSCRIPT--- One of your ethos that you’ve talked about fashion-wise is that fashion should be expressive but also functional.

Yeah. I had a dear friend now departed. Um she was at Vogue for 37 years, the last 17 of which she was editor-in-chief um before Anna Wintour, Grace Mirabella. But I brought her in every September to meet with the new new fashion students and I and she knew why. I said I want you to do your Grace thing. And people would look at her and think, “Who’s this old lady?” Um and she wasn’t an old lady but a very chic one. She would tell them enthusiastically that they’re the future and fashion needs them. And she would add, “I have two pieces of advice. Don’t make dumb clothes and don’t make jokes.” So they’d be looking at each other. Grace, tell them what you mean. Dumb clothes. No one needs you to design a t-shirt. There are plenty of them out there. Don’t go there. Now this is Grace’s particular point of view, not necessarily mine. Jokes. She said the things that walk the runways during Paris Couture Week. She said think about what is between dumb clothes and jokes. There’s a huge playing field and there are not many people who design well for it. It’s usually dumb or a joke. And I took that to heart in my own way as a teacher in the fashion department. I would say to my students, “I don’t care what you design and I really didn’t as long as your model can get into a taxi.” It makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And I feel like there’s often times, yeah, you see a lot of outfits on the runway where I’m like, “Well, it doesn’t” But I guess runway fashion is very different cuz they’re throwing a ton of layers on them often, right? it is at the same time I have respect for the for the couture um collections, but I think fashion should be accessible. What do you think is the secret to looking effortlessly chic walking around New York City? I have a mantra about this. Has nothing to do with individual items of apparel. It’s about the following: silhouette, proportion, and fit. Silhouette, proportion, and fit pertains to anything. An evening gown, a tuxedo, um workout clothes. You want clothes that follow your natural silhouette, um that don’t cascade away from you or squeeze you like a wetsuit. Um proportion, I’m always talking about thirds and you epitomize this too. You’re 1/3 on top, 2/3 on the bottom. We don’t want to cut ourselves in half, which is why I object so vehemently to men and the untucked shirt cuz they’re cutting themselves in half and it’s not a pleasing proportion and you just look broader, wider, you look dumpier. And that pertains to fit. It’s the same thing. Clothes that that actually fit us. I’m not a fan of the baggy jeans or or baggy clothes in general. I just think we we look like an unmade bed. Um it’s not a flattering look. I do really like that the more tailored look is having a resurgence too cuz I agree like I even remember when I was at FIT and I was not at FIT when I was taking classes there as a high schooler, I took a lot of fashion design classes and my favorite eras to draw inspiration from were always the ’50s and the ’60s. I am so obsessed with that style of clothes and I always have been that it’s so fun now seeing that make a resurgence and even like a little bobbed hair and you know, the capri pants for women and loafers, like it’s amazing cuz it’s so classic and it’s so like Americana. No, it it’s you’re absolutely right. Um but it’s fashion’s pendulum. The bagginess is going to come back. going to come back, yeah. Isn’t that interesting like fashion really has a way of just re-coming back? Well, it’s the culture of retail too. They they want us to buy new things. They want us to believe that that we’re out of style if we don’t have these new things. And I really believe in finding a uniform um and just sticking with it. love that. I think also like as I’ve gotten older, it’s like when you’re younger and you want to be trendy, you want the fast fashion, the cute going out outfits and now I feel like as soon as you get to like a certain like your later ’20s, it’s like you’re an adult and it’s time to like no more crop tops, you know? [laughter and gasps] No more ripped jeans, like let’s, you know, really tailor it and it’s been fun cuz then you start buying pieces that you’ll have forever. And also you have this you’ll have this confidence because you know you you look your best. Mhm. I know you’ve talked before about things that have changed within the world of fashion. So I’m curious like what do you think has changed for the better in the world of fashion and what do you think still needs work? While I like the notion that fashion can be affordable and accessible um and I think it should be, there’s too much of it. There’s just too much stuff out there and it’s so wasteful and it’s so bad for for the environment and the last class that I taught at Emerson was a course in fashion and sustainability. And the the the premise was to help solve this dilemma. How How do we get people to stop buying so much stuff? I think people probably know what I have the most disdain for, but now it’s ubiquitous, so what do I know? How did the legging become a pant? I know. Look at me right now. You’re in workout wear. this is completely workout wear right now for me. Yes. You’re not going to the opera. No. Very much so not. Wait, I just have to call it really quickly for our listeners. Okay, Tim and I are sitting across from each other and I wish I came dressed up. I’ve this is like so embarrassing for me cuz but I running interview show I’m always in workout wear, but you guys that know me see me on Instagram, you see my posts. I love dressing cute when I can, but yeah, like my uniform because of the running interview show has become like workout wear and I’m the brand that I wear all the time is Adidas cuz that’s our partner. But we are sitting across from each other and Tim is in the most perfect, you know, you guys know how brown is the color right now. Everybody’s obsessed with chocolate brown, just all shades of brown and you were wearing the most perfect outfit. Oh, you’re too kind. got a perfect light brown turtleneck sweater on, pants that are what material is it? Like uh It’s uh tweed. Tweed pants that have like little specs of color, but they’re brown and then like the perfect loafers. So Thank you. your outfit is on and I’m not crazy about my socks. They’re way too dark, but that’s they’re the only socks I could find. That’s funny. On the topic of what I have the most disdain for, it goes back to my theory about the Well, not my theory, my my adage about the monkey house at the zoo. When you first enter the monkey house at the zoo, you shriek, “This place stinks.” And after about 20 minutes, you think, “It’s not so bad.” And after another 10 minutes, you think, “What smell?” But anyone new walking into the monkey house shrieks, “This place stinks.” You know this was the case with leggings. Someone put on a pair of leggings, walked by the mirror and said, “I can’t go out dressed like this.” 20 minutes later, they walk by and they think, “It’s not so bad.” And 10 minutes later, they walk by the mirror and they say, “I look hot.” No, leggings really are a phenomenon and I was asking one of my friends who’s a stylist in the city and I said to her, “What do you think is the style of our generation, right? Cuz you can look back to the ’80s and it’s the big hairs and big sleeves.” the ’80s were the worst. Right. The ’90s were so chic with like the, you know, the emperor um cut dresses and just so many different styles and then I said the ’60s and ’70s I loved. It’s like the tailored outfits, the pencil skirts. And I was like, “What do you think it is for us?” And she goes, “It’s athleisure.” Yeah. And I’m like, that is such a bummer. That [laughter] is athleisure. But it is. Like for our generation, it really was athleisure and I do think like Gen Z and Gen Alpha are bringing back um different styles right now. You don’t see them as frequently in athleisure, but yeah, it is interesting. It’s very street style. I and and I’ll add this about what what’s good. I’m speaking from viewpoint of of a New Yorker. You can wear anything here, absolutely anything, and no one looks askance. Um and I think that’s a very positive thing as opposed to what I said earlier about the narrow very narrowly defined aesthetic swath that America used to be. Mhm. Um if you didn’t fit into this mold, you just didn’t fit in and and here at least, I don’t know what it’s like in Kansas City, but here you can wear anything. Mhm. And and the world accepts you. Mhm. And that’s a good thing. It is just a place where everything is acceptable and nothing is looked down upon. And I’ll add this about the responsibility that each of us has for how we present ourselves to the world. It’s the semiotics of clothes and grooming. How we present ourselves to the world is how the world judges us. And when people people say to me with with frequency, “Oh, that’s so shallow. That’s so judgmental.” But it’s true. You know, when you walk into a restaurant, how do you know who works there versus who a patron is? Right. It’s by how they’re dressed.