Shopping

We loved meeting the always-dashing Tim Gunn and asking for our own make-it-work style fashion tutorial. He is as kind and lovely as we would have imagined.

You traveled to Texas to visit Houstonian Chloe Dao's home when she was a Project Runway finalist. Have you spent a lot of time here since?
Unfortunately I'm always in and out. I've visited Houston, Dallas and Austin, and they're all very, very different. But I have to say, I have never been in a rain storm quite like I experienced (when I visited Chloe). I thought, 'The car's going to float away!' 

What's the number one fashion mistake women make?

Generally speaking, it's fit. Clothes that are either too big or too small. The motivating factor is generally body image. 'I want to wear something that will hide what I wish were different.' The error is that once the clothes have more volume, you have more volume. And if it's too tight, you look like you're in a sausage casing. Either of those issues is going to make you look bigger.

Some major socialite style icons hail from Texas like Carolyn Farb and Lynn Wyatt. Tom Ford is also from here, and the list goes on. Even still, are there fashion stereotypes about people living in the South?
Of course there are. Big hair, big exuberance, dramatic ball gowns in the evening - that whole antebellum stereotype that's not correct. But Houston and Texas is very sophisticated. People are very well informed about fashion. And there's a lot of money. Money does not necessarily equate with taste, but it can certainly help! (Laughing.) It gives you access to more things.

What's the one gift a woman should buy her significant other if she wants him to dress as fabulously as you?
I have the same recommendation for men and for women - a good blazer. It's the easiest way to dress up the ubiquitous t-shirt and pair of jeans, and I'm so stunned that people don't own one. For women there are so many options. There's not a single day I don't thank my lucky stars I'm a guy -  it's so much easier!