So Tim Gunn gave me a full run-down of a feud he had with Anna Wintour. When I asked him during the “Free Association” portion of our interview, he said about Wintour: Can’t live with her, can’t live without her.”
Once we were done, he said: “Was that too horrible? It wasn’t so bad.”

When I tried to console him (who could hate Tim Gunn?), he replied: “Oh, no, she hates me.”

This is the tale that followed:
I was asked what’s the one thing in fashion I’ll never forget as long as I live. I said, that’s easy—it was Anna Wintour being carried down five flights of stairs from a fashion show. And I did. At the Metropolitan Pavilion [for the Peter Som show]. She won’t ride in an elevator with mere mortals and there’s only one freight elevator. It was the days when I was standing room and there she was in the front row. She had her bodyguards with her and I thought how is this going to happen—maybe the bodyguards are going to block the elevator. Well, they didn’t. When they got to the stairs, they got in a fireman lock and she sat on their arms. She put her arms around their necks and down they went these five flights of stairs. I still remember it vividly. I went to the window to see if they would put her down when they reached the sidewalk or if they’d take her to the car. They took her that way to the car. So the New York Post printed it on Sunday. Monday she calls.”

From there, threats of legal action ensued when Gunn refused to retract untill Gunn produced a witness.

Then, Gunn sent Anna Wintour a huge bouquet of flowers with the note:
“Dear Miss Wintour, I never intended to upset you with this story and I apologize for the fact this has disturbed you so. Sincere regards.”

Then (yes, there’s always more), when Gunn was appointed Chief Creative Officer of Liz Claiborne, it got back to him that Anna was overheard in her office: “This is brilliant! This is brilliant! They’ve made a great decision.”

Ah, all is well in the land of fashion.

Want more Gunn? In case you’ve decided it’s too snowy to go out for today’s newspaper, here’s the full story about Tim Gunn’s visit online and the full free association video.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 11:34 am and is filed under Main, Project Runway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.