'Project Runway' Spin-off: Tim Gunn Talks About His New Lifetime Show, 'Under the Gunn' [EXCLUSIVE]
Fashion expert and Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn spoke to Enstars about his upcoming show Under the Gunn, which will premiere on Lifetime in January 2014.
The new show has a theme similar to Project Runway All-Stars 3, in which he plays mentor to the contestants as supermodel Heidi Klum hosts. Because Klum could not commit to another season of the hit design show, it is potentially in its last season.
"We were going to do another season of Runway but Heidi wasn't available and Heidi and I have a pact, which is neither one of us will do Project Runway without the other," he explained. "So it wasn't going to happen, so the producers huddled and they came up with a new concept and it really is new."
Gunn went on to describe the premise of the new show and how, while it drew from the concept of Project Runway, it was actually pretty unique.
"To describe it, it may not sound earth shattering in terms of how it's being made. It's very fresh and very different, we of course have designers at the core of it and they are designing for challenges, and someone is a winner and someone is eliminated with each challenge and I am mentoring three mentors, three project runway designers," he said.
Gunn will oversee all that goes on in the show. His involvement will pervade from the workroom to the mentoring panel.
"My role is to assign a group of designers to each mentor and I also mentor the mentors. I am also in the work room with the designers but I have a secondary role compared to the actual mentor, we're watching the whole mentoring arc and it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of drama too!" he laughed.
Under the Gunn will feature Project Runway alumni Mondo Guerra, Anya Ayoung-Chee and Nick Verreos as mentors. They will be guiding 15 aspiring designers. The contestants will be judged by designer Rachel Roy, celebrity stylist Jen Rade, and TV fashion correspondent and Marie Claire Senior Fashion Editor Zanna Roberts Rassi.
Under the Gunn will start airing Jan. 16 on Lifetime.
