Gunn, island of tranquillity.Photo: RD / Eckstein / Retna
Set your TiVos: Tonight, Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style, Gunn’s makeover show co-hosted by Veronica Webb, premieres on Bravo. Last night at the Soho Grand he celebrated with Webb and Project Runway alums Jeffrey Sebelia, Austin Scarlett, and Laura Bennett (wearing her own dress, partly because she doesn’t really “take the time to go shop”) among many others. (Entertainment Weekly co-sponsored the event.) It was an opinionated group. Carmen Marc Valvo called out celebrities who get into fashion, saying that “most of the time” they can’t even find good teams to design for them. But what about nobodies who get into fashion via TV?
Jeffrey Sebelia said he had “a bone to pick” with New York Magazine for our article on him earlier this year. “I was sort of portrayed as a failure,” he protested. “I have a lot of stuff that’s in the works, [but] I can’t really talk about it. I’m being portrayed as broke, and I have a huge loft and a house and two businesses and payroll that’s $60,000 a month. And yeah, I took out a huge loan and paid off a business, but I’m not broke.” Gunn, meanwhile, highlighted the struggle of Uli Herzner, from season three of Project Runway, who he said “ doesn’t seem willing” to relinquish the control of production that she needs to in order to meet demand — “she’s really terrified about it.” Gunn revealed a bit of his own rocky path into the fashion world, during his first year as chair of the Parsons fashion department. “I was sitting there with Diane von Furstenberg,” he told us, recalling a makeover he once gave himself. “I knew her beforehand, and I mean I adore her, but she was looking at me sort of like she smelled raw cauliflower cooking in the Grand Ballroom.” — Amy Odell
For more pictures and bitching from Project Runway alums, read Party Lines.
