I can die happy now. Yesterday, I spoke to Tim Gunn.
Now, it wasn’t exactly over lunch at the Da Silvano. It was at a shopping mall in Virginia surrounded by a couple hundred other people. Still, it was a magical moment for me.
Let me back up. I heard that Tim Gunn was coming as part of a post-New York Fashion Week event at a mall about 20 minutes outside of Washington DC. I LOVE Tim Gunn. Really. When I sit at my sewing machine, working on some garment and look at it in a conflicted way, I wish I had Tim there to say to me: “Kim, the work on the bodice of this dress is really stunning. But then we get down to the shape at the hip area and I get very woeful. You have a lot left to do…” Really. These are the things I imagine.
So although I don’t often venture that far out into suburbia for any reason, of COURSE I would go see Tim! I put on one of my own designs (I wanted to be standing in the same room as Tim Gunn while wearing something I designed and made with my own hands!) and headed out.
The trip was not without some road bumps. First, I went to the wrong mall. How was I supposed to know Tysons Shopping Center and Tysons Galleria were two different things?!
When I got to the correct venue, I was already running a bit late (Tim was supposed to come out at 1 p.m. and it was about 12:47 p.m. – barely enough time to elbow people out of the way to get a good vantage point). Then I take two steps on the beautifully waxed floor of the mall, which is quite fancier than the first, and my ankle twists and I stumble. I do not fall, luckily. But about three paces later the strap on my left Steve Madden Mary Jane went “Snap!” and off my shoe went. The strap was broken. The shoe was also impossible to walk in. Oh, this will not do in front of Tim Gunn, people!!
So I hobbled into a shoe store, grabbed the first pair of pumps I could find in chocolate brown, and begged for a pair in my size. Luckily they had it, and I did a quick switcheroo, handed the store clerk my Visa, and ran out as fast as I could. I still don’t know how much the new shoes cost. I will look later.
So I run over to where the first fashion show, hosted by Mr. Gunn, is being held and it is just about to get started. I find a spot right behind a bevy of photographers at one end of the runway and get ready. I feel the blisters already start to form from my new shoes. But it doesn’t matter, because Tim comes out!
(Yeah, no idea why the pictures look bad. Think my camera was on the wrong setting. I was too star-struck to notice). Tim was so cool, and graciously thanked all the people who came out (surprisingly, I counted only about 75 people in the VIP seating area, and maybe another 80 to 100 in the standing-only area with me. And about 50 more people gathered on the second floor to watch from above and he thanked them too!
He commented on the fashions in the show, exchanged witty verbal volleys with the other host (no idea who she is – wasn’t listening), knew all the models by name, and he looked impeccable as usual! I loved his gray suit with cranberry tie. I’m convinced he was born in a perfectly-tailored suit.
He was even interactive during the fashion show, helping a model off with her jacket (from her reaction, this was not rehearsed) and helping her put on some blingy jewelry and pumps to take the look from day to evening.
He did the same thing with another model, wearing what was my favorite dress in the show - a hot little Juicy Couture number.
At the end, he even did a Q & A with members of the audience. At first, I was too timid to raise my hand, so I just listened to the other questions. My favorite:
“Are you going to do your style show anymore?” one woman asked.
“I used to do a show, as some of you may know, called Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style on Bravo!” Tim said. “I loved doing the show. But Bravo!’s not speaking to me right now.”
Ok, I thought to myself, it’s now or never. I motioned to the microphone-wielding, well-dressed woman taking people’s questions and she motioned back that I’d be next. “We have time for just two more questions!” the blonde lady standing next to Tim said and a woman began another question. I’d be the last one!
When my turn arrived I remember Tim looking at me. I did not take a picture at this moment, but he looked a little like this:
And I was thinking: “OhmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodOH.My.GOD!!!”
I think I asked something like this: “I’d like to know what advice you would give someone trying to open a little fashion design business as a second career.” Yes, I know it’s, like, my fourth career, but the details aren’t important.
Tim’s first words spoken to me: “You are brave!”
He was kind, truthful, blunt, and encouraging. He told me to be prepared to work about three times harder than I expected to (I already am! But glad to know it’s not just a sign that I don’t know what I’m doing!).
Then he asked me if I am actually making garments myself. I froze for a second. Did he say something to me? OMG, Tim is asking me a question!! OMG! OMG! The microphone lady was gone, so I had to shout from my vantage point of about 20 feet away that I make all of my own stuff myself.
He told me to be a good student of fashion – know what my customers want, know my competition, and know what how to select the proper price points. And at the end, he said:
“You are brave; it’s a tough, tough time in fashion,” he said. “But I commend you, and I wish you the very best of luck.”
I was so thrilled. He didn’t comment on my dress (he commented on some other people’s outfits, all positively). But I chose not to believe that he hated it and was simply following the “if you don’t have something nice to say…” rule. Because then I’d die.Just die. Not happily. But other people who talked to me afterwards (several people said to me later that day in the mall: “Oh, you’re the designer!”) and I got lots of compliments on it.
So there you have it. I got fashion design biz advice from Tim Gunn! It was one of the coolest effin’ things to happen to me. I went home, finished a dress for one client and met with two more, excited and invigorated. I’m ready to Make. It. Work!
Awesome. Good luck indeed!