Tan France: ‘Sexy Is a Mindset at Any Age’—How To Use Fashion To Find Your Ultimate Confidence (Exclusive)
The 42-year-old 'Queer Eye' star reveals the biggest lesson from his career—and how you can use fashion to feel powerful
As Queer Eye’s resident style expert, Tan France, 42, knows all about the transformative power of fashion, and he’s helped men and women of all ages and sizes embrace their most fabulous selves through clothing. Ahead of the beloved reality show’s 10th and final season coming to Netflix next year, France has been using his platform to promote the Changing the Thread Collection, an initiative by Lilly (the makers of the injectable prescription obesity medicine Zepbound), dedicated to fighting stigma against obesity and sparking conversation through fashion.
The Changing the Thread Collection is centered on clothing embroidered with stories from people living with obesity, and seeing their quotes helps put a personal spotlight on a health issue that’s too often misunderstood. “We need to change the conversation around this and be more careful with our words,” France says. “There are garments from people who are currently taking Zepbound, and seeing what they said about their experiences before that and how they did everything from hiding in a massive coat to only wearing black, all because they didn’t want to be seen, really hit me.”
Read on to see what Tan France has to say about how fashion can be a source of empowerment rather than stress and what he’s learned from his long tenure as one of the Fab Five on Queer Eye.
How Tan France is ‘Changing the Thread’ against weight stigma
France’s interest in fighting weight stigma is deeply connected to both his work on Queer Eye and his personal life. “On the show, I meet with all kinds of people, and many of them are living with obesity and have major hang-ups when it comes to clothing. I feel such compassion for them, and I desperately want to help,” he explains, noting that he’s also seen many of his family members struggle with their body image.
“The stories in this collection are beautiful, but also incredibly sad,” he says. “It’s such a sorry state of affairs that we got to this point where this was even necessary, but it is. We need to reframe how we talk about obesity and replace that bias with openness and understanding.”
Dr. Clare Lee, an obesity expert with Lilly, backs up France’s point: “The biggest challenge in helping my patients is that there’s pervasive bias, not only in individuals, but also in the providers who make up the health ecosystem. Many of us are stuck thinking that obesity is a personal choice or that it’s the person’s own fault and if you only eat differently or exercise more, the problem will go away, but that doesn’t always work. The science is very clear that this is a complex chronic disease that’s affected by multiple things. It doesn’t help anybody to be stuck in a biased mindset.”
“Even if you are not living with obesity, we all know somebody who is, whether it’s a family member, a friend or a colleague,” France points out. “It’s not okay anymore to just pretend that ignorance is bliss. We need to understand each other and reframe the way we speak about these issues.”
The one big question for fashion confidence
“I’ve always seen clothing as a tool for self-expression, and I know that so many people living with obesity find that clothing becomes a burden,” France says. “On Queer Eye, I always ask, ‘What do you want to express? What do you want to share with the world?’ and I work with people to find a way to communicate that through clothing.”
“I understand that some people think that wearing something big or dark is going to do the job of hiding them, but why are we hiding away?” France asks. “I don’t want people to hide, and we should all be able to express ourselves. I think that fashion is incredibly important. It can hinder us at times, but when used in the right way, it can change the way we view ourselves.”
France also shares how Queer Eye made him more empathetic. “One of the things I learned from the show is how blinkered I am in my worldview when it comes to clothing and style, because I’ve lived in a body that is easy to dress and my size is available everywhere I go,” he admits. “I think that being exposed to so many different kinds of people of all ages and experiences really opened my eyes to how privileged I am. I need to look outward and realize that I am one of the very few lucky ones, and people are going through a lot of their own personal struggles that lead them to not be able to express themselves the way they want to in their clothing.”
Tan France’s lessons learned from ‘Queer Eye’: Confidence at every age
Tan France and the rest of the Queer Eye squad may bring confidence to the people featured on the show, but the fashion pro says he’s learned just as much from working with them. He fondly recalls an episode from the last season, which took place in Las Vegas. “There was this woman, Nicole, in the second episode,” France says. “She was in her 50s, and her husband left her and she felt like she wasn’t worthy of love. She wasn’t expressing herself the way she wanted to.”
Soon enough, France put the confidence-boosting power of fashion to work: “The first thing I put her in was an outfit that I thought was sexy, and that was a word she would never have used for herself. When I said that, she said, ‘What are you talking about?’ and I was like, ‘You’re gorgeous. Why wouldn’t I consider you sexy? You are sexy!’” “Sexy is a mindset at any age, and everyone has the right to feel that way,” he says. “I’ve never seen someone behave the way she did when she got out of that fitting room, and it really reminded me just how powerful my job is. It’s not just about dressing people in whatever is trendy that season. It’s about encouraging them to view themselves the way I view them.”
Fashion isn’t just about what you wear—it’s about how you see yourself. As Tan France reminds us, every body deserves to feel confident, celebrated and seen.
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