Tim Gunn: I’m ‘conflicted’ about letting trans people be models
Tim Gunn has said he is “conflicted” about letting trans women be models because they have the “bone structure of a man”.
The Project Runway mentor was speaking earlier this week, before model Andreja Pejić revealed that she is a transgender woman this morning.
He told Huffington Post: “The fact that fashion designers would put basically adolescent-shaped boys or men in women’s clothes is head-scratching for me because, anatomically, women and men have different shapes.
“So, to be looking at women’s fashion on a tall, skinny guy with no hips, there’s no way you can project yourself into those clothes.
“[With trans models] I’m conflicted.
“On one hand, I don’t want to say that because you were a man and now you’re a woman, you can’t be in a women’s fashion show. But I feel it’s a dicey issue.
“The fact of the matter is, when you are transgender — if you go, say, male to female — you’re not having your pelvis broken and having it expanded surgically. You still have the anatomical bone structure of a man.
“One of my mantras is that it’s important to be honest; it’s important to be direct.”
Gunn has been a mentor on Project Runway for 12 seasons, and is an advocate for animal rights charity PETA.
Coming out as trans today, Pejić wrote: “I hope that by being open about this, it becomes less of an issue.
“I always dreamt of being a girl. One of my earliest memories is spinning around in my mom’s skirt trying to look like a ballerina.
“I kept my dreams and my imagination to myself and became pretty good at acting as a boy. But I was hiding who I was.”
