It's his other job -- chief creative officer for fashion behemoth Liz Claiborne -- that's got him jetting around the country supporting the brand's partners (Isaac Mizrahi for Liz Claiborne, Dana Buchman, DKNY, Lucky Brands, Juicy Couture, Kate Spade and many, many, many more).
Gunn will be in SoFla Saturday at 1:30 p.m. promoting DKNY Jeans at Macy's in Dadeland Mall (Project Runway season four winner Christian Siriano will also meet-and-greet fans at 4 p.m. at the LG Lotus booth set up in front of The Cheesecake Factory).
"You know I'll actually be coming back to Florida mid-May," said Gunn from a stop in Chicago before flying to Miami. "I'll be doing three events for Kate Spade. I'll be at Aventura, Galleria and Town Center." When he returns to us next month, we still may not know the exact day the Project Runway will start airing on it's new network home on Lifetime, after a acrimonious court battle with Bravo-TV that kept the fashioney franchise in the headlines without a single episode being broadcast.
"You want to know what's really holding up the start date," asked Gunn. "Bravo has a new show on called The Fashion Show. And Lifetime doesn't want to start until that is over with. I guess they think people won't watch two fashion shows. I don't know why. I would." Here's more Project Runway scuttlebutt from the Gunn-meister:
What is the one thing you think will blow us away on the new season of Project Runway whenever it airs? "There is one challenge where the outcome will send the blogs reeling. It is unprecedented in Project Runway history. I am still full of incredulity about the whole thing - about who wins and who goes home. All I can tell you a certain judge says she would like to wear the winning dress. Well, you know we auction off the winning dresses at the end of the show for charity.
I am going to bid and get that dress and make her wear it. I don't care how much it costs, I'm going to get it. This challenge is spine-tingling. You will be spellbound. My jaw was in a slack state." What's it like with the series de-camping from New York to Los Angeles?
"Well, you know our whole backdrop is different. I must admit I was dubious for the first few days. But before World War II Hollywood was the center of the fashion world. Adrian, Irene Sharaff, Edith Head were the ones everyone followed.
This was back when everyone did what Europe dictated. There was no American ready-to-wear influence. And of course, it's [Los Angeles] is the home of the red carpet. I will tell you that we really use the city." What about not videotaping at Parsons The New School for Design in Manhattan, where you were department chair until 2007? You were there for 23 years.
"It's the funniest thing. We're now at FIDM [Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising] and they have been great. But they didn't have room like we did at Parsons in the auditorium for the runway. So they had to do that part in this soundstage.
Before we arrived in Los Angeles, Heidi had said to me, 'I'm really ready for something new.' So we go to this soundstage and there they had replicated the runway set from Parsons perfectly. It was very spooky. I just looked at Heidi with my Emmett Kelly face."