Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn Pioneered the Reality/Fashion Genre, Now They’re Shaking It up with ‘Making the Cut’

There’s no one else on TV like Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. No one else is as stylish, for sure, and no other duo has the same crackling, quirky chemistry as Heidi and Tim. It’s also true that very few, perhaps none on-air right now, pairs of TV personalities have the chance that Klum and Gunn going into their new series Making the Cut: they got 16 years of practice in before making their big Amazon debut.

That’s what makes Prime Video’s major foray into the reality competition genre stand out from the pack. Not only does it have an iconic, Emmy-winning duo front-and-center, but it also boasts a fresh spin on the reality format borne out of over a decade of experience. Making the Cut isn’t just Project Runway Season 17 (and not just because Season 17 already exists). Making the Cut is a bold step forward for the suddenly bustling fashion TV show sub-genre. It’s bigger, bolder, more worldly, and features a major million-dollar prize. Leave it to the OGs to drop the mic.

Ahead of Making the Cut’s grand debut on Prime Video on Friday, March 27, Decider spoke with co-hosts Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn about their exciting new series, enduring partnership, and Klum’s surprising knack for fencing.

Decider: You’re launching Making the Cut after doing 16 seasons of Project Runway. What changes did you have in mind that you wanted to implement knowing you were creating a new show from the ground up?

Heidi Klum: This is no longer a strict sewing competition. We wanted to find the next big global brand, someone who understands everything about that. [We didn’t want to] just look at a person anymore as a one-day challenge kind of thing. They have to really understand what it means to have a brand, so we definitely test them on all of these things along the way and it gets, obviously, harder and harder and harder as we come towards the end of Making the Cut. That was a different process, which we thought was more of a realistic process versus before, where it was more fun and games. This is more going into the reality of it all. At the end of the day, we really want to have someone that can sustain and succeed in the real world. That was the number one priority. Obviously we still wanted to have fun and show people have fun during the process of it, but as the outcome to have a real brand.

Tim Gunn: And because of the branding dialogue that Heidi was talking about, so much more depth of understanding was available to the judges and Heidi and me, to really understand who these individuals are in terms of looking at them globally. It meant that the decisions were in many ways more difficult but also more responsible. There was so much more information to use as a point of departure.

One of the biggest differences on Making the Cut is the use of seamstresses. If you watch 16 seasons of Project Runway, you just kind of just assumed that designers make everything by hand. So how did you decide to bring in seamstresses and incorporate them into the show?

Klum: Because that is also how it is in the real world. We actually wanted to be more real this time, because a lot of the designers, they don’t sit at home sewing everything. They have help, they have seamstresses, so we wanted to give them that opportunity too. There are a lot of people who actually do have a brand already that is quite successful and they’re the vision of it, they’re the creators, but they’re actually not the hands that sew it. I mean I have—not to bring me in the mix but I’m just gonna—I have also designed for many different labels in the past and I didn’t sew any of these things myself. So you have people that help you sew, but they did exactly how I wanted the pieces to be. [Making the Cut is] like that. They, for the first time, don’t have to do everything by themselves.

Gunn: And that also presented huge challenges to many of them, and part of the judges’ evaluation process was was how well does each designer manage a production team. How well did they do it?

Klum: It’s also how they managed their money too, right? How do they manage their money that we give them to begin with? They can shop for as much fabric as they want but then they’re not gonna have much left later. So it’s like also how do they manage not only their time but also their team but also how do they manage the money that they were given.

By having the designers show two looks every challenge, Making the Cut illustrates the difference between runway fashion and accessible fashion. When did you decide to incorporate a pair of looks for every challenge?

Klum and Gunn: From the very beginning

Klum: One is more fantasy because also that is how it is in the real world. You see the most beautiful, over-the-top creations but not everyone necessarily will buy that and wear that because its not the most practical—but still we wanna see that. We wanna see the fantasy, we wanna dream, but then how does that translate to my everyday life? Like, I wanna have a piece of that so how does it translate?

Gunn: And it’s not an easy task. It’s extremely challenging—

Klum: —without it being boring, because we also don’t want our everyday piece to be boring.

Each episode also features interstitials of the two of you just hanging out in the city, like Paris in the first few episodes. What was it like having moments to hang out and do things as yourselves?

Klum: It was so much fun!

Gunn: We had a blast.

Klum: We have known each other for 17, 16 years now, Tim and I. This is the longest marriage I’ve ever been it. [Laughs] And we’re still married and I love you still. I guess when we were in New York filming all the time before, you film and then when you’re not filming you go home or I spend time with my family.

Now when we were traveling and—we were in Tokyo, for example, and instead of going to the hotel we were like, why don’t we make use of our time and we learn something? And we have some fun, and then also the people who are watching the show can see what Tim and Heidi are doing while the designers are filming? Let’s learn how to make sushi in Tokyo, let’s learn how to make croissants in Paris, or—Tim is an amazing fencer, he taught me how to fence.

Gunn: And she beat me! [Laughing] You know what else, Brett? My coach had said this to me prior. He said, “Heidi’s gonna be a great fencer because she’s a great dancer.”

Klum: Yeah I danced for 15 years. Maybe that had something to do with it. I have good coordination.

You were on this international tour with judges. I’m sure this being Amazon and you being Heidi and Tim, you had your pick of A-listers. So how did you pick this lineup of A-listers?

Gunn: Well, Heidi did it!

Klum: No, I mean—we thought that this was a good combination of different kind of people. Naomi [Campbell] is an absolute icon in the industry. She’s worn every designer on the planet. I also love that she doesn’t mince her words. She says it straight as it is and that’s my kind of girl, I do love that. Joseph [Altuzarra] is so inspiring to the designers in the sense that they all wanna do what he does. He has a great brand and he’s the kindest person. Nicole [Richie] has also been there as a designer and she brings so much humor to it. She’s kind of like a comedian a little bit, I wanna say. Carine Roitfeld is also a fashion icon and Chiara [Ferragni] is the number one fashion influencer in the world.

Why start somewhere in the middle? I just thought, let’s call everyone who’s on top and they all wanted to join us because they saw that this is a great opportunity for them to also find the next big global brand.

Like the judges, the designers come from all over the world. What were you looking for when you were handpicking designers for this new show?

Gunn: We were initially going through a very large group looking for diversity of backgrounds and diversity of point of view, and then we called people in and Heidi and I met with that final group. How many were there Heidi in the final group, 60? A lot. Maybe 75? So then we got to meet with them and engage with them and have a conversation, and then we narrowed it down further and we kept whittling. But in the end, I have to say, you don’t know. You don’t know how they’re going to react in front of the cameras.

Klum: Yeah, also it was important for us that we have a good mixture. And also because we are going into 200 territories around the world, we wanted to also really have that hat on to think about how they are designing. We’re looking at all of their pieces that they brought because this is not for one particular country. It’s different, so you have to think globally about that because we all dress differently around the world too. We really tried to pick a variety of different people from all over the world.

Do you have a favorite challenge from the season that you’re excited for people to see?

Gunn: I don’t want this to sound like a Miss America answer but I love all of them.

Klum: I love them all too and you can really see how it inspired [the designers] so much being in all these different parts of the world. You see how that trickled down into their designs. They were so influenced by that and you can really see that in the clothes that they made, and it’s so nice. So it just shows you, it’s like with artists. Any time when something happens you see that in the art.

Gunn: Designers are a barometric gauge of their society and their culture, and that includes the environment, and that had a profound effect on their work.

The first two episodes of Making the Cut premiere on Amazon’s Prime Video on Friday, March 27.

Stream Making the Cut on Prime Video