Santa Gunn

As you know, yesterday was the day Tim Gunn made his appearance at Emmett McCarthy's store EMc2 to sign bobbleheads, greet his legion of fans and to just be Tim Gunn (believe us, that's enough).

Emmett had set up a large white tent in the courtyard behind his store ("It's my own little Bryant Park!") and when we arrived to help with the setup, he and his Brand Director, Dimitry Chamy, had just hung the wreaths and the EMc2 logo. We immediately began criticizing. Hey. It's what we do. "No, no, no. Those gold bows look awful. You should use silver and blue, like the EMc2 colors! Get out of the way, we'll do it."

We're only half-kidding. Anyway, we wrapped fake presents and put EMc2 ribbons on the wreaths (because that's truly the meaning of Christmas: corporate branding), sprinkled some styrofoam snow all over everything and stepped back to admire how fabulous we are. Emmett and Dimitry must have done something during all this, but we were too busy loving ourselves to notice.

Anyway, Emmett's little gay Santa's village came out looking wonderful. All it needed was gay Santa himself. Tim arrived at 1 on the dot and proceeded to apologize profusely for not getting there earlier. We have to say, we fell a little in love with Tim all over again yesterday. It's not that we ever fell OUT of love with Tim; it's just that we see so little of him on Project Runway and we felt that his own show (sorry Tim!) didn't showcase his personality and talents as well as it should have. Seeing him yesterday, we got the full-on Gunn experience: warm, funny, ebullient (It's Tim. We have to use at least ONE 2-dollar word to describe him.), a little dishy, a little bitchy, and yet always, ALWAYS completely gracious to his fans.

And what fans. Butcher, baker, candlestick maker; you name a type of person and they were there yesterday. From the young women, stylishly dressed to impress him, to the older women who see in him a peer, someone who has life experiences and the opinions that come with them, to the gay teenagers who giggled nervously, to the middle-aged queens (who also giggled nervously) to the little kids who looked up at him in awe as he signed their books and bobbleheads, to the straight men, who all - to a man - claimed they were buying the bobbleheads for their wives. Tim greeted them all with equal warmth, listened to their stories, asked questions, and signed, signed, signed away.

We were Santa's Little Helpers yesterday, so we got to witness each brief conversation as we stood behind Tim, directing the line and boxing and unboxing bobbleheads to be signed and we can tell you, he never showed anything less than complete interest in each and every person that came up to him. Even better, whenever there was a lull in the crowd (which wasn't often) we got treated to the MOST DELICIOUS dish from the man. Unfortunately, we promised him that we would never reveal any of it until, and we quote "all the principals are dead and gone." Sorry, bitches. That's just one of the perks of being a PRGayBoy.

We also got to hear his impressions of all the designers this season. But because he's Tim, he was typically diplomatic. He said he loves "All of them...[pause]...most of them." when asked to elaborate, he declined. One thing that just thrilled us: we were talking about Elisa when he said "I agree with what you boys said about her first dress." And then proceeded to quote the post back to us! We don't know what made us happier, that he agreed with our opinion or that he reads our blog closely enough to remember what we said weeks later.

Which reminds us, we were busy working the crowd when what to our wondering eyes should appear but Jack Mackenroth, looking none the worse for wear. "I know who you bitches are!" he said as we went up to introduce ourselves. "It's your turn now, bitches. You're always criticizing us, so let me see what you're wearing. Hmmm." It must have passed muster because he didn't have anything bad to say about our outfits, but he immediately wanted to set the record straight about something. "We DID use pleather on those outfits. You just couldn't see it." We love that these bitches read us.

Jack was typically fun and bitchy and gay, posing for pictures with everyone. Not long after Jack arrived, Kevin and Christian showed up. Lemme tell ya, it's still weird to us when we meet the designers and they know who we are on sight. Kevin waved at us from across the room but Christian was too busy being a SUPERSTAR and working the crowd to pay us much attention. Kevin is much friendlier and laid back than he appears on the show. Christian is a legend in his own mind and you really could carry him around in a totebag. They posed with Tim and as multiple flashes went off, Christian turned to the others and said loudly "You're supposed to change your pose with each picture! Don't you know anything?"

To wrap it up (pun intended), we had a fantastic time yesterday and as much fun as it was to stand by Tim's side all day and to talk to some of the designers, it was equally as wonderful to meet the people who came up to us and introduce themselves as fans. To everyone we met and spoke to yesterday, we cannot thank you enough for your kind words and support.

By the way, Emmett tells us that there are more than a hundred autographed bobbleheads available for purchase, so if you want a little piece of the Gunn, head over to EMc2 and snap one up.

For more coverage of yesterday's fabulosity, check out BPR.

[Photos: Project RunGay]