 Well, it's that time in the program again when I get to bring Tim Gunn back on stage But before I do that, I'd like to tell you a little bit about a program that we have here at the Cooper Hewitt It's called the design scholars program It's a year-long program and an intensive experience for people like you who are interested in design We have hands-on workshops We have studio visits and a lot of other great opportunities to help you prepare for a career in design So from that program, I have two young teens Layla and Woody who are going to lead our conversation today with Tim Gunn Layla and Woody would you join me up on stage? So they represent you all and they're going to ask Tim several questions After they ask their questions, I will be asking the questions that you've posted on Instagram So if you would take a seat and with this, I'd love to welcome Tim backstage So Woody and Layla, why am I so nervous? So we were just talking about you and going to education for architecture originally and I was wondering how Why you chose architecture in the first place and how you moved on from there. I Have been an architecture not my entire life. I have to tell you and as a kid you couldn't separate me from my Legos and I Have always been obsessed with floor plans architectural drawings elevation plans and My dream was to be an architect. I Was telling Woody and Layla earlier when I did go to architecture school, and I only lasted a semester It was in the olden days Before computers were even in anybody's imagination. So the presentation drawings that were required meant that you had to first sketch something in pencil and then Take an eyedropper with India ink in it and drop it into a stylus and pull the stylus across a straight edge and If you weren't 1,000% attentive That ink would bleed and if the ink led you had to start all over again And I thought this is the quickest route to a mental breakdown that I can possibly imagine So it was only one semester for me And then I completely well I stayed in a creative field, but something that was quite the antithesis I ended up studying literature and eventually Art and design and I ended up being a sculpture major Though I also told Woody and Layla that after I graduated I supported myself by building Architectural models for three three firms in Washington DC So it all came full circle on a matter of speaking and I use this by way of demonstration It's life serendipitous path. You don't know where it's going to take you and if something Truly is not working out. It's not a lifetime commitment Move on to something else. I'm not saying abandoned things At the drop of a hat if it's a matter of really Carefully and thoughtfully Considering all the possibilities and and also considering the path that you've already been on But it it's exciting to think that you're not at this juncture necessarily offering up a prescription For how you're going to spend the rest of your life your sponges you're absorbing you're synthesizing Hopefully you're asking lots of questions and you're intensely curious and the prospect of Landing somewhere that you don't anticipate for me even though it's filled with a Little bit if not a lot of fear anxiety. It's a very exciting prospect So enjoy it sort of just I guess along the line with following your path and just seeing where life takes you as in terms of a designer and What what was a challenging moment in your career that you faced and like came out stronger? I can't think of a single juncture in All the things that I've done that haven't been an incredible challenge And that haven't potentially derailed me. I mean the first well Before I became a full-time teacher. I had a taste of it I was a teaching assistant to my mentor in Art and design school and she had invited me to to a sister in an intensive summer program for high school students And I loved it. I mean I loved being in her shadow I loved working with her intensely and it was an incredible experience and two weeks after that She called me to say that she had a faculty member drop out at the last minute and would I please teach? three-dimensional design well, I wasn't going to Say no, I didn't want to disappoint her. I was thrilled by the summer experience, but That first day of teaching with that very different commitment and being alone as the teacher in the in the studio I'll be blunt Every morning that week I threw up in the school's parking lot and My knees shook so badly in the studio that I had to brace myself With my my back against the wall because if I were to step away from the wall My knees were shaking so badly. I would topple over So I thought well, I can't possibly go on like this talk about another quick route to a nervous breakdown so That Friday I made an appointment to see my mentor. Her name is Rona and I rehearsed what I was going to say which was You're going to have to find someone else to do this because I can't I can't go on like this so I was sitting opposite her at her in her office and delivered my rehearsed speech and she looked at me and said I Understand and I trust that this experience will either kill you or cure you and I'm counting on the ladder Good day So I thought oh no, I've got to come back again on Monday and do this all over again And who knew I'd become a career teacher 29 years so you work through these things it's good to have someone to put pressure on you and It's also good to feel a sense of pride In what you deliver and in in in what you do to say I need to Rise to this occasion. I can't just Shlump over and and shrink away But I that's upon reflection we we know it ended up working out sometimes things don't work out so you have to use judgment experience and At the same time Not fear of failure It's very important one question. I did want to ask is Now that you have like a successful career as an educator and as a fashion a fashion icon and everything on On project runway, do you ever get to have me time in your personal life? Do I ever get to have me time? Well, I do on I Call it a heal and repair time I'm very very lucky. I will complain about absolutely nothing I'm I thank my lucky stars every day, and I knock wood every day I Will add this I only do what I have to do I don't necessarily do what I want to do and that gives me a lot of healing and repair time And it's good to shore yourself up for the next experience because you need to be on I I said something earlier about giving a thousand percent. You don't want to sleepwalk through life You want to be fully at full attention? You want to be able to listen be able to respond be able to to participate to Build relationships and and you need to feel I'll repeat short up that you're able to do that Um It's very important. It's about being a good citizen of the world So I guess along the lines of P you having time and you're just your personal life. What is what you think? One misconception that people first have when meeting you or when they have when working with you Well, I know what the misconception people have when they first meet me They think I'm going to be judgmental about what they're wearing And nothing could be further from the truth. I I'm always talking about The importance of clothing and I but I put it in this context clothing is a form of semiotics It sends a message about how the world perceives us and Like it or not, it's simply true and all that I ask is that we each accept responsibility for how we're presenting ourselves But I will would never be judgmental If someone on the other side of the room is dressed as a circus circus clown Maybe they are You know, I believe in Pumbling people with questions to fully understand where they're coming from Don't don't make assumptions nice, um, so One question I want to ask for the teens out here is As a teen going to arts and design and wanting to have a career in design What how important do you think support was from friends family? Or from anybody else like did you ever did you guess much support and how do you how important do you think that is? Oh, I was very lucky. I received a lot of support Very lucky though, I will say my grandmother used to say when about my interest in architecture Especially when I was intent upon studying it at the college level. She used to say to me you do such nice things with your Hands. Why don't you become a surgeon? so She would have was wishing for another direction, but Life is a big collaboration. We don't go through life alone and we need people around us who help Well who help buoys up who are truth tellers? in a way that's Beneficial, I mean when it comes to truth-telling. I'm happy to talk to you about anything that you could potentially change I will never talk to you about things that you can't change ever I mean it's simply not useful We need we need a support structure, and we need people with good karma and who are Healthy in terms of the the the chemical makeup either between us or among us We don't need people who are poisonous and and will potentially poison us So it's important to surround yourself with people you can rely on but I repeat these are not Enablers these are people who can be truth tellers and can help Set you Steady and right if in fact you're going off and wrong. I would also like to ask if you've ever had a mentor somebody who's Who just was really strong and also supporting you and just I've been very very lucky throughout all of my adult life and Most of my adolescent life. I've had really wonderful supportive mentors And I'll repeat that this means people who give you tough love and our truth tellers and who won't put up with your nonsense That's a that's a good mentor a mentor isn't someone who just pats you on the head and says Layla you're the most fabulous person ever. Maybe you are we've just met But that's not especially useful People who make us confront our demons people who Allow us to look at ourselves critically and objectively While still being there in support are very important to our lives and to making us into the best people we can be and I Believe that very very strongly from my own experiences. So yes many mentors um Question what's one advice that you always give people? especially teens aspiring teens that are that wants to go into the oh This this bit of advice is not very popular But here it is The world owes you nothing That can be tough to hear you need to make your own way you need to establish your own values and accept responsibility for your actions and Where life's serendipitous serendipitous path does take you it's important not to play the victim blame others The world owes you nothing and I meet a lot of young people Including my nephew. It's can be in the family who just believes that that is simply isn't true and that eventually people will realize in my nephew's case his greatness and how They he he must work for them and I say go out and pound the payments make yourself known and You do the job of Making people feel that you are critical and indispensable. So that's my advice and and it also assumed nothing Assumed nothing. Thanks. Thanks So now that we've talked about the past I Like to talk about current stuff sure Is there any current artists current designers that you would like to speak of that you have taken interest upon lately? Well, I mean I just I want to say about all the design professionals in this room How thrilling for all of you to have this level of exposure? Because these are individuals if you were applying for a job But they're firm that you may not even see them within the first round of interviews. So I mean I'm constantly Inspired and in awe to be perfectly honest on by the creative work around us and I will add especially in this These very trying times both nationally and globally to consider what designers achieve and And and I'm going to put artists in the same category though. I have much more of a heartfelt empathy for what designers do because it's such critical problem-solving That helps the world in so many ways But it's it's really about bearing witness to the triumph of the human spirit and if that sounds rather grand it is it is about taking existing conditions and circumstances about examining through a lens that is Has everything to do with our the current Society and culture in which we live and how do you come up with solutions that work Under all these terms and conditions. It's incredibly complex Incredibly demanding and I think the most exciting and exhilarating work anyone can do ever So I'm constantly inspired What do you think is? What do you think is Currently what do you think is the differences between from when you were coming up sort of going into fashion as Young designers are currently going up and well today people are much more environmentally aware and concerned and much more Aware and concerned with social issues Sustainability issues Accessibility issues that there there's more of a societal conscience today that I absolutely applaud I mean, it's not it's not just about a pretty dress. I mean we want the dress to be pretty, but it's about so many other aspects that are critical to our moving forward as humanity and I'm thrilled with that and On that note, how do you see the world coming together in a way where? multiple different disciplines come together in some ways because I see a lot of Like globalism affects how different industry comes together and like kind of blend in a way where like Fashion designers are not just fashion designers anymore But they're using different aspects of other disciplines to design as well and and collaborating with with designers and other disciplines Oh, I couldn't be more excited about it because It it breaks the Old-world mold that we've been dealing with for so many decades and because when you consider most of these disciplines that we've been building things and making tools and putting up signage and making clothes for millennia the formal formalization of it in a manner of speaking is relatively new. I mean it's it's it's it's when you look at the Timeline of mankind. It's it's a blip. So the fact that we're on this new threshold where and it's already happening where there is a blending of Disciplines and people aren't restrained to one particular discipline Where will this take us? We don't know and that's what's thrilling and exciting and I'm envious that all of you are going to be participants in this and help lead it Very exciting All right, Tim, I have some bad news you've got to go not yet not that fast So we have some great questions from social media Does enthusiasm passion and eagerness to learn supersede experience in a job interview? Well, let me answer this way if you have job experience and you don't have enthusiasm and eagerness and What was the other word? Then forget about it. Who wants an experienced old sought What impact have you seen project runway have on the lives of the designers in the show Well, it's a project runway is given a given these designers a great opportunity on how they use it is completely up to them and It's It's a launching pad of sorts. It's a threshold. That is an opportunity and I Applaud and cheer their successes The scale of which can vary considerably according to their ambitions and their resources We all know that all the design industries are very challenging with fashion particularly in the scope of the fairly recent Economic downturn and retail calamity has was particularly hard hit and there are a lot of brand names and designers that people Look to and were inspired by for for quite a while that are now gone It's a much tougher playing field, but but I'll repeat not just for fashion I believe for all the design disciplines and that's a good thing for for all of you in each of you because This is motivation to have a voice as a designer to know who you are to know who your constituents are and to know the kind of mark that you want to make on This incredibly diverse set of disciplines It should be a motivator. How do you make the most of an internship that doesn't seem quite educational at first? Well, I would say to my own students in fashion never have just one internship because You will extrapolate from that experience that this is what the industry is like and quite frankly at least at my experience in fashion every firm has its own culture and The more of those experiences that you have and I advise having I advise having three or four The broader your understanding of the diversity of an industry within a single discipline will be And you'll also realize you can make your own mark I mean you can you will determine if you're leading something and I trust that each of you will eventually Your DNA informs that company and It's important to know you I would hope that you subscribe to wanting a Healthy work environment and one that's supportive of people still being truth-telling But that's all part of being healthy. It's it's it's about Telling it like it is and Allowing people to self-correct and rewarding those who are Doing exceptional work. So I'll repeat about the last question This should all be a motivator, but don't extrapolate from a single situation. Even if it's a fabulous one It may be a rarity Well Tim any last words of advice for this group Be tenacious in whatever it is you want to do if you need to be like a weevil if someone knocks you've got to You won't even know what weevils are If someone knocks you over you need to bounce right back up These disciplines I'm just gonna be blunt in a truth-telling way. There is no room for cry babies You can cry and on your own when you get home, but Don't whine around your classrooms or studios or your office and Take initiative be curious and I just have to say it's so easy to fall into a pattern of oh Self-admonishment and being overly critical know what you're good at and Hone those strengths and The things that you're not as strong at work on them Work on them really I have become a student recently Two years ago at age 62. I took up fencing which if any of you have Art if any of you are fencers or have engaged it in any way. It's incredibly demanding both physically and mentally and There are things that I'm Kind of good at there's nothing. I'm great at yet I'm gonna get there, but there are things. I'm really bad at and I'm working on it and I in many ways though I've taught forever being a student though I consider myself a student of the world that this is a very different experience where I have a teacher I my have to I'm answerable to and Who has certain expectations of me and has given me certain expectations of myself? You need to rise to the occasion. This is where qualities of character are so very very very important And I believe in karma. I believe that what we give out we get back and There are cases where people navigate the world With very poor Qualities of character. I believe it comes back eventually It just does and there have been some recent cases of that. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm not sorry to say necessarily I'm sorry for the for all the circumstances around it, but Be a good citizen of the world it will It will be good back to you well Tim, thank you so much for all the great or what Thank you, and Laila Woody. Thank you and best wishes to all of you here. We expect great things from you