... delivered

Quality, Taste & Style

at Georgia State University on Monday as part of the Campus Events Speaker Series to a full house of fans and fashionistas! Mr. Gunn walked out to a standing ovation and was visibly "verklempt" as he put it. Big props to Campus Events Advisor,

Cara

Dawn

Byford

, for organizing the high profile event and bigger thanks for inviting

UrbanCouture

-- it was definitely a memorable experience!

Tim Gunn

was phenomenal. He is almost a chain talker, barely finishing a story as he moves on to the next. But that was OK! because his stories were so engaging. Tim is charismatic and funny. I could listen to him for hours and enjoy every minute. Contributing to his charm is his overall sincerity - the person you see on tv is the person you see in real life.

It was incredibly interesting and inspiring to hear how he revitalized the fashion program at Parsons. And fascinating to learn how Project Runway came to be. But one of the most "hear a pin drop" moments of the lecture was his story of how he angered the devil herself,

Anna Wintour

! I couldn't possibly do Tim justice by relaying the tale as he did, but lets just say it had something to do with being carried down six flights of stairs after the

Peter Som

show by her two bodyguards because she couldn't run down fast enough in her 6" Manolo's. When the story printed in the New York Post, Wintour demanded a retraction. Tim stood firmly by his story and said "NO!"

After nearly an hour of speaking it was time for Q & A. One of the most delightful highlights came when an audience member asked Tim to say the famous "make it work" phrase. The crowd got completely quiet, Tim gave us a second to build up the anticipation and then uttered into the microphone: "Make it Work".

Gunn

dishes

Meryl Streep

: loves her, but could use a make-over...

Christian Siriano

: a "prodigy"... Project Runway wasn't sure why they were even considering someone so young for the show. Tim thought they'd meet for 30 seconds and send him on his way. "Well, it only took 30 seconds to realize this kid was a prodigy", said Tim.

Santino

: "he could suck the air out of a room"...

on Project Runway, NYC or LA:

NYC!

on his extensive vocabulary: as a teacher, Tim challenges his students in critiques to describe their work in other ways than "I like" or "I don't like"... also, and this is great... His book publisher wanted him not to use so many big words in the book. Tim said absolutely not, "people can sit down with a Miriam Webster dictionary and google!"

Immediately following the Q & A, Tim started the book signing with a line that twisted and turned like the ride lines at Disney.

Afterwards, GSU hosted a small private reception that I and my guest Jeff Glasheen were fortunate to attend and chat with Tim Gunn for a bit.

fashionado