[IMG:L]Project Runway dropped off the Bravo line up for more than a year, but Tim Gunn, the show’s mentor, says he’s not worried about losing fans over the extended hiatus.
“I will say that when people tell me that they haven’t seen the show, I tell them not to,” explains Gunn, who also doubles as the Chief Creative Officer at Liz Claiborne. “I tell them the reason is it’s like television crack. Once you start watching you get addicted.”
The hit reality show returns Nov. 14 with a fresh crop of designers ready to battle it out with scissors and sewing machines for judges Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia and Michael Kors. Hollywood.com caught up with both Gunn and Klum to find out more about what’s in store for Season 4.
HW: How does this cast compare to previous seasons?
Tim Gunn: With each successive season of Project Runway, at least in my view, the group of designers has been stronger and stronger. Season 4 is our strongest group yet.
Heidi Klum: I think it had something to do with that so many people see the credibility of the show. You really have to have talent in order to succeed, to get on the television with us. So I think people see that and they go, “Okay. Wow. This could be a really big opportunity for me.” So a lot of really good designers out there are now trying to participate and to get on the show.
TG: And the fact that the designers do see the show as a positive vehicle for their careers is, at least in my view, the greatest compliment we could have.
HW: How do you keep the challenges fresh each season and who comes up with them?
HK: We all do. I’ve come up with some of the challenges and basically we all kick them around. And then, you know, whatever challenges are the best, they make it. You know, one challenge that I came up was “Clothes Off Your Back.” It was something that literally I was in the shower and I was like, “What about if, you know, they have to redesign the clothes that they’re wearing?” And so I think that’s how it happens. And everyone kind of throws in their ideas. Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not.
TG: I’ll add that it’s the one case that I know of where design by committee really works.
HW: Tim, you spend a lot of time with the designers on a daily basis. Do you get a sense early on of who will come out on top?
TG: I’m the worst judge of these things. The people that I think, “Oh, this person’s going to be a shoe in,” end up not being perhaps as strong or as I may have expected. And people I’m perhaps a little concerned about end up just taking off, having an incredible trajectory. So–and I will say with absolute impunity each of the 15 designers on this season’s show–I believe from the onset any one of them could win the entire thing, that there was no one on the show about whom I thought, “Oh, they’ll last two or three challenges and then they’re going to be gone.” But what happens is that owing to all the intangibles in a way that the exhaustion and fatigue, the fact that we don’t have any breaks, we just keep go, go, going through the entire 30 days.
[IMG:R]HW: What about the rule breaking, arguing and distrust, among the designers? How hard is it for you to sort of mediate this with adults?
TG: Well, the most important thing is to address any of those issues head on from the onset of knowing about them and to ideally just nip it in the bud. There are always aspects to every story where there’s additional information that is usually needed and necessary and that we benefit from. So we take any flavor of conflict, I’ll call it, and we treat it seriously.
HW: Heidi, what is the wow factor that you’re looking for with each challenge?
HK: For me the most spectacular moment is when [the models] come around the corner for the very first time and I see [the design] on that runway. And it’s just amazing sometimes when, you know, even if it’s a very hard challenge or sometimes it’s a matter of money. Sometimes we give [the designers] hardly any money, like a really, really small amount of money and they make something that looks like, you know, $2,000 or $3,000. That to me is like, “Wow.” Like that garment doesn’t look like it’s, you know, $20. That garment looks like its a few thousand dollars. But it always depends from challenge to challenge it’s always different. And it’s always a surprise and that’s my favorite bit of the whole show is when I see when it comes onto the runway for the first time and the model turns the corner and she comes on and looks amazing or not.
HW: Do you find that with each cast of new designers there are still common mistakes that they make?
TG: The common mistake that I see is not caring necessarily about winning a challenge, just not wanting to be out. Because there needs to be a spirit of risk taking in the successful work as far as I’m concerned. And if you’re just playing it safe, you produce work that’s pretty dull, normal and it’s going to send Heidi and Michael [Kors] and Nina [Garcia] off to their rooms for a nap. And it’s, “Yeah, okay. You’re not going to be out, but you’re also not going to win.” So what are you really saying about your work and about your future as a designer?
HW: Are you looking forward to working with Nina and Michael again?
HK: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. We’re at work again. And it is, you know, hilarious. I mean we had one episode this year that Michael started into this whole laughing fest where he was unstoppable. And then he was crying and then I was crying and laughing. Then Nina was crying of laughter. And it was hilarious.
HW: Heidi, is there any chance Seal will appear as a guest judge on the show?
HK: Well, maybe. Yeah, I mean he thinks it’s a fantastic show too. And, you know, he loves design. Before he started, you know, to become successful as a singer, he actually made clothes too. He was specialized in leather…he’s very stylish and honestly, he’s more stylish than me. He really is. I kind of dress better now that I’m with him because I try to keep up with him. But he actually, he knows how to sew.
[IMG:L]HW: How do you respond to critics who say that certain contestants are kept on the show because of their personalities?
TG: I’ll say will impunity that that’s preposterous because being part of the audition process … we bring the pool down to about 120 people. And I will say that out of those 120 people, I said this about the 15 designers on this season’s show, any one of those 120 people could have won the entire season. So when the 120 semifinalists go forward to the producers, including Heidi and to Bravo, I have total confidence in the decision making because the talent is there. The personalities become an aspect of it but the talent is there for everyone. So it’s really all about what they produce on the show and not how loud they are or what antics they’re performing.
HK: They are not actors. We don’t tell them what they should say, you know, off the show, on the show or anything like that. There are no lines being learned. You know, these people are the way they are.
HW: At this point in the life of a reality competition show the contestants really become fluent with the gamesmanship of what’s occurred in prior seasons. Is that the case with Project Runway?
HK: I think they’re all very surprised at how hard it really is. Even though they’ve seen it many times and they’ve heard other designers talk about it and moan about it, now they’re in their shoes and I think that, you know, they’re surprised on how hard it really is. And then they’ve done their designs and then we take them and we do statements with them because, you know, when you see them talk about how their day went … that’s extra work on top of it too. It’s a television show and we need to have statements from them.
TG: I think that they can only think about it abstractly before they arrive. But when they’re actually in the thick of it, it’s daunting, it’s grueling.
HW: Tim, obviously everyone’s excited about the new class. But what can you tell us about the previous winners? How are they doing these days?
TG: Well, they’re really doing well. Chloe Dao has expanded her business in Houston. And I even heard from her recently that she was talking to Neiman Marcus about the possibility of a line. She’s been on QVC three times and it sold out. She’s really doing well. Jeffrey Sebelia, I saw here in New York during Fashion Week. He has a showroom on 57th Street. And I met him there to see his line. He’d sold out. And I believe he also just participated in the Los Angeles Fashion Week. So I know that Jeffrey’s doing well, Chloe’s doing well but many of the people who didn’t win are doing well.
HK: Well, Jeffrey, for example, I was just at the Grove [in Los Angeles] shopping, you know, two days ago. And I was [at] the store Theodore … and all of sudden I thought, “Oh, that’s cool.” And I’m looking and it’s Jeffrey Sebelia.
TG: That’s thrilling.
HW: Who has been your all-time favorite villain or drama queen?
HK: Well, my favorite drama queen really was Santino, I have to say. You know, I mean he was not only a great designer but he … I mean the things that came out of his mouth sometimes were just unbelievable.
TG: And I also said I found Santino to also be very loveable. But I had a kind of a relationship with him because I was in the workroom with him all the time.
HW: Well, he was the best Tim Gunn impersonator I’ve ever seen!
TG: He was unbelievable. I have to tell you in–on the show when I hear my voice off camera, I think is that me or is it Santino? I would never be sure.
HW: What is the appeal of doing the reality show?
TG: I’ve spent most of my professional career in the classroom, I mean 29 years of it. It’s a way of working with mature designers who already have industry experience. And I work with them in a capacity that’s enhanced from the capacity in which I work with my students. And also I’m just in favor of doing anything that helps support our industry and helps move it forward in a positive way. And I will tell you, when I was first approached by the Magical Elves, the producers about the show when they were looking for a consultant at that time, my role didn’t even exist. I did say to them, “Fashion reality? This industry’s in enough trouble without that.” But when I realized that they’re the Project Greenlight producers and that they have a seriousness of purpose and a huge integrity, I thought, “Well, let’s see where this can take us.” And I was instantly placated when they said that they wanted to work with real designers not just fashion designer wannabes.
HW: Tim, now that your catch phrase “Make it work” has become such a hit, do you ever get sick of hearing it?
TG: I’m never get sick of it. You know, it actually came out of my classes at Parsons. It’s a phrase that I use with my students all the time. I didn’t know it was going to catch on the way that it does. I have people shouting it at me from moving cars. I just have to add I’m wowed and surprised by the whole phenomenon of Project Runway and the fact that it’s not just a hit show, it’s become part of our culture. I mean it’s just incredible.
[IMG:R]HW: Heidi, you were pregnant during Season 2 so we saw you in some fantastic, flattering outfits on the show that some of the designers made for you and then just a few months later you were back to your pre-baby body. How do you do that every time?
HK: I know! People always want to have, like, the perfect mixture to it, how it’s done. But, you know, I think it’s individually different. Everyone has their own metabolism and their own way of eating. And I think what works for me is that I’m a very healthy person…I try to either order a salad with chicken on it or I eat, you know, the vegetables. You know, I try to pick through the things that are good for me or I bring something from home. If I’m like for a long time on a certain set where maybe it’s not that healthy, I will just bring something from home, or I have something, you know, that I order…I am like that when I’m not pregnant, during a pregnancy, after the pregnancy. I think it’s my way of living.
HW: Will you be sporting a bump on any future seasons of Project Runway?
HK: Let’s say not on Season 4. There’s no bump there…It’s possible.
Project Runway premieres on Bravo Nov. 14 at 10 p.m. ET/PT
