If you’re a style guru, reality competition fan, or both, there’s a decent chance you have a soft spot for Tim Gunn. The fashion expert shot to stardom in 2004 with the premiere of Project Runway, providing deep expertise alongside co-host Heidi Klum. Fans grew to adore Gunn thanks to his sincere yet kind guidance to contestants on the show, always seeming to find a way to convey his opinions without being overly harsh or judgemental as a mentor. But now that he’s moved on from the show that made him famous, where is Tim Gunn now?
RELATED: Whatever Happened to Sandra Lee From Food Network?
For some long-time viewers, the last they may have seen of Gunn was when he and Klum announced they would be leaving Project Runway in 2018 after 16 seasons. At the time, he said both he and his co-host were willing to jump ship thanks to the launch of a new fashion competition show with Amazon called Making the Cut.
"One of the reasons Heidi and I wanted to fly and saw the opportunity of Amazon as a brand new threshold is because we were in lockstep with [Project Runway,]" Gunn told Variety in a 2018 interview. "We were stuck with the same vocabulary. We were stuck with the same sequence of events within the show."
Even at the time, Gunn admitted that the new opportunity only ever came about because of the long-running success of their initial hit competition show. "So for Heidi and me, there’s a lot of love and respect we’ll always have," he added.
Making the Cut ran for three seasons on Amazon, with the final episodes airing in 2022. But even though the show hasn’t aired in a few years, Gunn has stayed busy with other projects—and even made a few headlines.
In 2023, Gunn came to the defense of his longtime collaborator and co-host when he was pressed by an interviewer from TMZ who asked if it was true that Klum maintained a highly restrictive diet of 900 calories per day. The ever-gracious and patient fashion guru quickly set the record straight.
"Heidi consumes more than 900 calories on a snack break," he told the tabloid. "I marvel at how she's able to keep that incredible figure that she has because she doesn't hold back. I mean, she's careful about what eats, but she's certainly not someone who's counting calories. No, completely and totally false. It's mythology."
RELATED: Food Network Fans Are Fed Up: “I Miss There Being Actual Cooking Shows.”
But despite his reputation as a nice guy, Gunn isn’t completely devoid of controversy. This year, the former Parsons School of Design teacher stood out as one of the few personalities who is still banned from attending the Met Gala, putting him in company with the likes of Rachel Zoe and Tina Fey, Cosmopolitan reports. However, Gunn says he’s sure he knows why he hasn’t been invited back to what is arguably the biggest night of the year for fashion—which allegedly boils down to a long-running feud with the night’s organizer, Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
"It is a crazy story, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s a very matter-of-fact story," Gunn said of the icy relationship, per Cosmopolitan. "I was asked what is the most unforgettable thing I’ve ever seen in fashion [in an interview] and I said, ‘It’s easy. It was watching Anna Wintour being carried down five flights of stairs by two bodyguards—two big hulking men—from a fashion show.’ All hell broke loose. It was insane. We’ve had an open war ever since."
Fortunately, Gunn doesn’t appear to let this feud fully get him down. His personal Instagram account shows that she’s still very much in the public eye, making guest appearances on shows like Elsbeth and even playing for charity as a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. In a recent interview, he even opened up about being guided more by what interests him, admitting that he didn’t even consider asking for a salary for his involvement in the first season of Project Runway.
"Being a teacher is a bit like being a member of the clergy: It’s a calling, and you’re going to do it no matter what," he said on the Yahoo Finance podcast Living Not So Fabulously. "The rewarding part is the students, and that’s what always kept me in, and that was, and still is, extremely, extremely rewarding."
Even decades after becoming a household name, Gunn agrees he would still rather chase passion over profit.
"I have no complaints," he admitted on the podcast. "I have no regrets—none. And I know a lot of people professionally who won’t even have a conversation until they know what the compensation is. And that’s just not within my DNA. I want to know what it is first, because if I’m not interested, then who cares?"
