Staying Fit
After teaching a master class in innovation at Boston’s Emerson College this year, Tim Gunn, a longtime educator, is back on television for the third season of Amazon’s Making the Cut on which designers from around the world compete to impress the fashion guru and his model partner Heidi Klum and win a million dollars to invest in their business.
Like most innovators, the always impeccably put-together Gunn embraces change. Still, you won’t see him without a tie on TV anytime soon.
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In a pre-COVID world, you told us sweatpants are for workouts and that comfort isn’t king. Is that still your truth?
I understand the comfort trap. I used to have nothing but disdain for it. I get it now, and it’s been a liberation. I mean, right now I’m wearing a turtleneck and no pants! (laughing). I still like getting dressed up. It does make you feel good, but at the same time, lounging around the house in a suit doesn’t make you feel good. It’s ridiculous.
What kind of sweats does Tim Gunn wear?
There is no reason to spend a lot of money on these athleisure clothes. It’s ridiculous, a waste and inconceivable to me. Buy a Champion sweatshirt and/or a pair of sweatpants and give the balance to charity.
Can some of that at-home style stay as we reenter the office?
Absolutely. I’m not going to jettison my wardrobe. But I am modifying it, unless it’s an event where I really need to wear a suit — in which case I’m wearing the same suit in the same way that I did pre-pandemic. But I look at my wardrobe in a slightly different way. Well, not even slightly — in a very different way now.
Thinking differently leads me to your class, “Innovation for Impact.” You have a 25-year history at Parsons School of Design. What does innovation mean to you?
Taking a new path — taking a route that’s unknown, something new.
How do you flex that muscle, especially when for some, change is hard and gets harder with age?
If we don’t embrace innovation and change, we just stagnate. You have to make it happen, or at least have very sensitive radar that allows you to detect when something has potential and you can cultivate it. We would have a dull, awful existence if we just did the same thing day in and day out, even things that we happen to like or even love. It’s like what I always say about clothing: “Try it on.” Take some risks.
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