The genius of Tim Gunn’s snooty approach to fashion, indeed to life, is his recognition that, at its core, putting on a piece of clothing represents an emotional commitment.
Walking into a room, sitting on a chair, greeting another human, it all requires a self-confident emotional stand that says, “I am taking up space in an amazingly stunning manner.”
You can see it in his own stance: charging past self-confidence, rounding the corner to brazen, as bold and in-your-face as the most perfectly tied cravat.
He’s a pill; he’s also a fine showman.
The woman who throws on jeans and T-shirts as a defensive uniform against the world has issues that can’t be erased by putting a high-priced designer dress on her back. Tim knows this. Tim starts from the inside out, pretending to respect that woman’s feelings, to nurture and repair her so that she may experience the kind of inner glow that he exudes so naturally.
He considers her emotional vulnerabilities before tackling the subject of garments.
Then he gets mean anyway.
With his new series, “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style,” due next week, the same arch tone, raised brows, degrading comments and judgmental attitude are in play.
“Horrifying!” he gasps disapprovingly at the “before” pictures.
“A whole lotta nasty!” he hisses at the contents of a subject’s closet, pitching pants to the floor.
The subjects apparently submit to being verbally slapped around this way because they know lots of free gifts, advice and airtime are in store.
While bitchy and uncompromising on one hand, Gunn aims to build confidence and recognize the emotional journey his woefully ill-dressed subject must take before materializing – magically! – as a newly stylish specimen.
All the usual phoniness of “reality TV” is threaded into the “Guide to Style,” including the set-up scene in which the subject learns she has been chosen to meet with Gunn in a surprise phone call – that just happens to be caught by a camera crew.
The pilot episode (8 p.m. Thursday on Bravo, Comcast digital Channel 61) features the tomboyish (her description) Rebecca Pennino, whose default look is drab jeans.
After work by Gunn’s “fashion accomplice” Veronica Webb, who should talk less, and by his friends in the undergarment, cosmetics and hair industries, Rebecca is not so much transformed as refined to bring out her best attributes. In an outpouring of self-confidence-building, even the lingerie saleswoman praises the shape of Rebecca’s rear.
This hour has more sentimental moments than most unscripted makeover shows manage, including a shot of choked-up Gunn, so moved by his achievement that he cannot manage a word.
Gunn, the successful fashion author, the chief creative officer of Liz Claiborne Inc., former head of the fashion department at Parsons The New School for Design, and chief mentor and breakout star on “Project Runway,” is becoming an industry himself.
This season he is “diving into closets everywhere,” Bravo notes.
With his proudly fey temperament and tough-love school of fashion reform, this arbiter of style is an unlikely television icon who has risen to prominence on the strength of his good work.
His on-camera brittleness works in his favor. It’s so him. Unlike so many shows about losing weight, rearranging physical features, nipping and tucking or getting muscled, this one embraces the problem of average women who are not looking their best and leads them to “their signature look.”
Gunn boils it down for mere mortals. Everything in fashion can be distilled into three points, he says: silhouette, proportion and fit. Get your little black dress, your classic white shirt, a cashmere sweater and a few other starters, and you’re halfway there.
“Guide to Style” is less fun than the long-lasting “Project Runway” (which returns for a fourth season in December and a repeat of which airs at 7 p.m. leading in to Gunn’s show).
But “Guide to Style,” in this initial eight-episode run, is potentially more useful for average women in search of real advice.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
