Tim Gunn has been making the rounds lately, and that makes me happy. Because Tim Gunn is great. I just want to hug him, and mind you, I’m not a huggy person. Anyway, he recently talked with Newsweek about fashion in politics, and simply put, the man speaks truth. Here are some key moments:
Is there any female [in politics] who pulls it off well?
I think Hillary should be taking a lesson from Nancy Pelosi, I really do. She, for me, is fashion on the Hill. She has a femininity yet a professionalism, and she has style. She’s also not afraid to be a woman, and she celebrates it. She’s not ever remotely vulgar or provocative in what she wears, but I have to say, she’s a very sexy woman.
What’s your take on the current candidates, as a group?
I look at them and I feel like they’ve stepped out of the 1980s. And what really disturbs me, deep down in my very core, is whether these candidates really think that having people talk about your clothes in a positive way could be a bad thing. To think that they might answer yes horrifies me.
I hate to keep focusing on Hillary, but is there anything she’s doing right?
[Pauses] You can say I responded with utter silence. [Laughs] But let me put it this way: her clothes fit her, she does have a polish, and she’s well groomed. Those things are all good. But it’s like she’s wearing a whole body of Kevlar and she wants to make certain as much of her is protected as possible. I just want to say to her, “Hillary, don’t be afraid to wear a dress!”
What would you say a politician should avoid wearing, at all costs?
Well, I hope no one’s going out on the campaign trail wearing a pair of Crocs.
I love you. Are you referring to the Bush photo?
Yes. And now you must ask me whether I was surprised, because the answer is no. I will summarize his entire fashion presentation in one phrase: shlumped-over and drooling. I hope I don’t end up in some Iraqi prison for saying that.
But wait — there’s more! He also stopped by The Daily Show to talk to Jon Stewart about New York Fashion Week — the “Super Bowl of fashion,” Gunn says, where people go to “get fashioned,” joked Stewart.
Gunn offered this refreshing insight into the world of fashion:
“I’m the first to encapsulate this realistically. Nobody needs it. We need clothes, do we need fashion? No. And fashion, when it’s good, comes out of a context that’s societal and cultural and historic and economic and political — so it’s of a time and a place.”
“In Virginia, a State Board of Elections spokesperson said nearly a thousand people called yesterday asking “Why aren’t my polls opened, and where do I go to vote?” Because it isn’t February 12, and nowhere, because you are a moron.
