Here are some selected non-stunning facts about Project Runway's endearingly and perpetually concerned fashion coach, per Eric Wilson's Styles paean.

  • He's excited by closets. "For the first time in my life I have a grown-up apartment. There's a closet in the bedroom!"
  • But he's not in one, that's for sure. "I was the one they called the horrible slurs that ended up being prophetic. Little did I know."
  • His childhood was rough in an archetypally gay way: "He had been an unhappy child, introverted, a stutterer, spending sunny days in his room reading books, practicing the piano, playing with Legos, idolizing mad King Ludwig II, who spent his spare time designing castles. He was the last one chosen during mandatory team sports."
  • His dad was J. Edgar Hoover's ghostwriter.

Somehow it all fits. Carry on!

The Headmaster of Fashion [NYT]