Tim Gunn, the fashion consultant and mentor to the contestants on Lifetime's Project Runway, was standing on the rooftop Garden of New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel recently, preparing to plant a tree in support of the New York Restoration Project, an environmental nonprofit founded by Gunn's friend Bette Midler. Not only did he dig the hole and plant the tree, he actually tidied up the stray dirt afterward. We asked the dapper Gunn what he takes with him when he travels.
“I have to take my iPhone, there's no other way of communicating with or having other people communicate with you.” We were about to debate that point—Android, Blackberry, etc.—but before we could, the affable Gunn was already onto to his next travel essential.
“I always travel wearing a suit, because you never know what may happen to a bag in the overhead or, worse, a bag that you check,” he said. “So I'm prepared for wherever I have to be. I [also] have little travel-size bottles of Labseries for Men, because if I didn't have it I'd look worse than I do now—which is a scary thought.”
Gunn travels with an iPad and uses Kindle for iPad for his e-books. The most recent book he read was Robert K. Massie's Catherine the Great: Portrait of A Woman. “I'm a Russophile, and I love all things Russian,” he said. “I knew only marginally about her, and what I learned most profoundly from reading that book is that there was a reason why everyone had 12 or 14 children—most of them died! Eeww.”
