“A reality show about fashion?? That sounds horrible!”

Tim Gunn shared his famous last words with a packed auditorium last night at the Corcoran, a nostalgic homecoming for this former student and administrator of the school. I’ve yet to meet a Project Runway fan who doesn’t adore Gunn and his witty mentoring of the show’s designers, and his lecture did not disappoint.

Though some listeners may have been slightly disheartened to hear very few words on the Emmy-nominated Bravo series — even with the season three finale in two weeks! — Gunn still had the audience hanging on his every word, from his poignant description of himself as an anti-social child “who wasn’t good at anything,” to his mother’s hilarious reaction when he was offered the role on Runway (“But you’re so old!”). With self-deprecation, humor, and the wisdom that comes from playing many roles in life, he described the path that led to his position as the Chair of Fashion Design at Parsons The New School for Design and his newfound celebrity.