Top 174 Quotes & Sayings by Tim Gunn

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American designer Tim Gunn.

Last updated on September 17, 2024.

Timothy MacKenzie Gunn is an American author, actor, and television personality. He served on the faculty of Parsons School of Design from 1982 to 2007 and was chair of fashion design at the school from August 2000 to March 2007, after which he joined Liz Claiborne as its chief creative officer. Over 16 seasons, Gunn has become well known as the on-air mentor to designers on the reality television program Project Runway. Gunn's popularity on Project Runway led to two spin-off shows; Bravo's Tim Gunn's Guide to Style and Lifetime's Under the Gunn, as well as five books. In addition to being an executive producer, Gunn has served as mentor for the teen designers on Project Runway: Junior. He also provides the voice of Baileywick, the castle steward in the Disney Junior television show Sofia the First and narrated the sitcom Mixology.

American - Designer | Born: July 29, 1953

Source: Wikipedia

I do things like hem a pair of pants, I do my own tailoring but I wouldn't attempt a jacket.

Tim Gunn

If you want to write an angry e-mail, write it but don't send it. It's based on my experience that whenever I have acted out in some manner, I have always regretted it.

Tim Gunn

On my first day teaching my own classroom, I threw up before I entered the building.

Tim Gunn

I just don't like conspicuous consumption. I find it distasteful.

Tim Gunn

I have my flaws and my issues, past and present and who knows what will happen in the future. I want people to know I'm vulnerable too and each one of us is.

Tim Gunn

I'm honest about expressing my opinions. At the same time, I'm diplomatic in how I do critique things if I have a negative response.

Tim Gunn

Whoever's designing for plus-size doesn't get it. The entire garment needs to be reconceived. You can't just take a size 8 and make it larger.

Tim Gunn

I love helping people.

Tim Gunn

I'm one of the biggest introverts you could ever meet.

Tim Gunn

Everyone has a best feature, so find clothes and accessories to accentuate those, whether it's your shoulders or your long legs!

Tim Gunn

And Brooke Elliott is a great actress.

Tim Gunn

But if fashion were easy, wouldn't everybody look great?

Tim Gunn

But if I had to choose a single destination where I'd be held captive for the rest of my time in New York, I'd choose the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Tim Gunn

I always say I have a Socratic approach to most things that I do. I pummel people with questions, because I need to know what they're thinking, what they're trying to achieve, what they believe the final outcome is going to be.

Tim Gunn

I found early on in teaching, if you're too blunt an instrument, the students discredit you and think you're just being mean. They're not interested in what you have to say.

Tim Gunn

But my manners also came from when I was in college and began participating in critiques. You have to speak with someone respectfully about their work and be honest and open, without hurting them.

Tim Gunn

I don't know why I've always been so captivated by architecture.

Tim Gunn

I have to have my coffee. I probably have three cups a day, but only before noon.

Tim Gunn

Men's wear is all about tailoring.

Tim Gunn

In a manner of speaking. I certainly never want to lose my voice as an educator.

Tim Gunn

I love HGTV. I love the Food Network.

Tim Gunn

If you told me when I was a teen that I would end up being a teacher, I would have said you're out of your mind, because quite frankly I hated school.

Tim Gunn

People put on certain clothes for certain reasons, I assume, when their closet is filled with clothes.

Tim Gunn

I wouldn't know what to do on a date. I don't have the time. To make a relationship work, I'd have to give something up, and I'm not so sure I'm willing to do that.

Tim Gunn

I learned early on in teaching how easy it is to hurt a young person and that's never my intention.

Tim Gunn

But I will add, there's one thing I will not do, ever: I will never talk to you about things you cannot change. It plants a negativity in the head of a designer or the student, and it's a distraction.

Tim Gunn

There's nothing I like better than going to my apartment, closing the door, cooking my little dinner for one and just tuning out. My apartment really is my haven. It's a nest where I go to heal.

Tim Gunn

I've never mentioned this, but when I was at Parsons teaching, the other design disciplines, they don't like fashion design. They see it as very nineteenth-century.

Tim Gunn

Fashion was in a crisis up until the mid-'90s and, when it came out of the crisis, it was a very different place. It was a place that nurtured and cultivated young entrepreneurial designers.

Tim Gunn

With fashion, you really need to understand the aspects of construction. Not just design on an iPad.

Tim Gunn

Part of what was in the ether all around me growing up, until I was between 19 and 20, was a terrible, debilitating stutter. It was part of what made me very reclusive as a kid.

Tim Gunn

Life is not a solo act. It's a huge collaboration, and we all need to assemble around us the people who care about us and support us in times of strife.

Tim Gunn

I haven't had a date in 26 years.

Tim Gunn

I had this wonderful career and thought I would retire as a teacher.

Tim Gunn

I learned quickly that if the student's perception is that you're not listening to them, and not understanding them, they discredit you.

Tim Gunn

Take the high road. No matter how much strife, and consternation, frustration and anger you might be confronted with - don't go to that level.

Tim Gunn

I have my mantra about silhouette, proportion, and fit. I believe that when they are in harmony and balance, you'll look great in anything.

Tim Gunn

Does a man need to know what a peplum is? Probably not.

Tim Gunn

I really believe things happen for a reason, and sometimes that reason isn't revealed until much much, much, much later.

Tim Gunn

Few activities are as delightful as learning new vocabulary.

Tim Gunn

Everyone has a best feature, so find clothes and accessories to accentuate those, whether it’s your shoulders or your long legs!

Tim Gunn

I have heard women complain about men holding doors for them,, as if it is inherently offensive and implies that they are weak. ... I would hold a door for anyone. ... It has to do with noticing our fellow human beings and saying, "I recognize that you're on this planet, and I don't want a door hitting you in the face.

Tim Gunn

I have my mantra about silhouette, proportion, and fit. I believe that when they are in harmony and balance, you’ll look great in anything.

Tim Gunn

Go to Lord & Taylor on Fifth Avenue, I think it's the eighth floor, and it's just a department called 'Woman.' It's rather devastating. You've never seen such hideous clothes in your entire life. I mean, it's simply appalling. Thank God there are no windows on that floor, because if I were a size 18, I'd throw myself right out the window [after seeing those clothes]. It's insulting what these designers do to these women.

Tim Gunn

Frankly, from my perspective, the bomber jacket is such a classic item you can wear it even when it's not on trend.

Tim Gunn

Just the way it never rains when you have an umbrella, you'll never run into people if you look fantastic. But go outside in pajamas, and you'll run into every ex you have.

Tim Gunn

We can wear whatever we want and get away with it. Just be confident about being who you are and dressing for that person.

Tim Gunn

If you have to ask if a clothing item is a dress or a top, it is always a top.

Tim Gunn

At all costs, avoid clothes that are too big. The more volume your clothes have, the more volume you appear to have.

Tim Gunn

You have no control over other people's taste, so focus on staying true to your own.

Tim Gunn

But if fashion were easy, wouldn't everybody look great ?

Tim Gunn

Remember, channel your inner winner.

Tim Gunn

I believe in the semiotics of clothes. They send a message about how the world perceives us. For me it goes beyond clothes, it's grooming. It's accessories. It's the whole head to toe look.

Tim Gunn

My best life advice:Take the high road.No matter how much stress, or strain, or consternation you are facing, take the high road.You will never regret it.

Tim Gunn

Exude unconditional confidence.

Tim Gunn

The clothes we wear send a message about how the world perceives us.

Tim Gunn

Most designers want to show apparel that makes the wearer look as long and lean as possible. And most people who buy clothes want to look as long and lean as possible.

Tim Gunn

You can be too rich and too thin, but you can never be too well read or too curious about the world.

Tim Gunn

As long as we have Netfix, Turner Classic Movies, Amazon, YouTube, and bookstores, there is no excuse ever to lack inspiration.

Tim Gunn

I've had my own moments in front of designers when I've actually said, 'You know, there's a market here for expanding your work, and here it is. And frankly, there are two markets: The women who are larger than the 12, and then there are women who are petite. And most designers that I talk to have absolutely no interest in addressing either of those populations, which I find repugnant.

Tim Gunn

Top 174 Quotes & Sayings by Tim Gunn

Related Authors