Tim Gunn, “Project Runway” co-host and chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne, returned to his hometown Tuesday to serve as keynote speaker for the D.C. Teen Design Fair at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
Students met designers from all over the country to learn more about architecture, fashion, communications, industrial and landscape design.
“You need to have your radar up for opportunities,” Gunn told a group of students. “You need to cultivate when they feel right, you need to at least be thoughtful about whatever the opportunity may be and feel the courage to take risks.”
Gunn, a big advocate of risk-taking, originally studied architecture, then changed his focus to literature and eventually earned a degree in sculpture. His midcourse correction proved to be a good one, landing him a few sales to firms in D.C. and also a job at the Corcoran teaching 3-D design.
“I was ecstatic, but I had been a teaching assistant — I had never been in charge of a class on my own and for the first week of classes, I’ll be perfectly graphic, I threw up every morning in the school parking lot,” Gunn revealed to his audience.
Five years later Gunn headed to Parsons the New School for Design in New York. where he taught classes, worked in admissions and eventually was appointed associate dean. It was there, he said, that fashion found him.
“I was also what I like to call Mr. Fix-It — otherwise known as a pooper scooper. I would be sent into areas of the school that needed fixing and this is what led me to fashion,” he explained.
Gunn, who considers himself a career educator, left his mentees with the message — in order to truly make it work, students should focus on their studies. “Good education — good design education — can allow you to do anything,” he said.
