Despite confessing that he was a hair away from a psychotic breakdown not too long ago, style guru/Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn was rock-solid, poised, and sharp when he sat down for a conversation with NY1 correspondent Budd Mishkin Tuesday at New York's 92nd Street Y. Although bedecked in a dapper pinstripe suit and leather loafers, Gunn's fashion acumen wasn't at the core of what made his ever-luminous insight exceptionally radiant. Rather, it was the minutiae of his life, the threads and patches of his story, that made his insights so worthwhile. Here are ten of the most salient gems dispensed in that trademark Gunnsian style and punctuated with a self-effacing, "Oh shut up, Tim."

1. After he received a castle at Christmas as a child, Gunn's first instinct was to outfit the soldiers in custom-made uniforms.
2. Now he can dispense advice with aplomb, but Gunn used to suffer from debilitating stutters as a child.
3. Gunn's late father was an FBI agent.
4. Gunn was a championship swimmer through high school.
5. One of his earliest run-ins with drag queens involved J. Edgar Hoover cross-dressing as Vivian Vance (I Love Lucy's Ethel Mertz).
6. Gunn arrived in New York in 1983 a "stodgy old frump." The swift purchase of a black leather blazer changed all of that.
7. Before landing his gig as Department Chair at Parsons, he lived as a struggling sculptor.
8. Gunn holds firmly to the belief of looking at fashion design through the lens of commerce. In other words, he believes in clothes that not only look lovely, but are wearable too. Got that, McQueen?
9. Gunn doesn't subscribe to the What Not to Wear school of heavy-handed fashion makeovers. He believes in letting individuals make informed decisions about what looks good on them. "I don't want to attack [their] character or soul—just their wardrobe."
10. No matter what you might think, Gunn says the crew loves working with Heidi Klum. And why not? "Even her knuckles are gorgeous!"