THE NEWLY CROWNED King of Printed Shirts Tan France has become a household name since joining the Fab 5 for the Netflix reboot of Queer Eye.
The cute little Englishman had the thankless task of raiding the heroes closets for all their fashion disasters.
Tan can do a lot more than speak with an accent or colour coordinate though!
1. He used to run away from his home in England as a teenager … To New York.
Literally. Tan, who grew up in Doncaster, used to tell his parents that he was going to visit his friend in Leeds. The pair would then go to New York for a week instead. Naturally.
He told Condé Nast Traveller:
My parents never found out, and I continued to do it every six months for four years!”
2. He was asked some hard questions on season one of Queer Eye, which never made it past the cutting room floor.
Tan was born Tan Safdar to Muslim parents who arrived in Doncaster from Pakistan as children. The designer is now based in Salt Lake City, where he lives with his Mormon husband of nearly eight years, illustrator Rob France.
There were a couple of episodes in particular where the hero asked if I was a terrorist, or if I was affiliated with any sort of terrorist group. And that’s a real question that I’ve had many times—not just during filming, but in the likes of Utah or Wyoming. Tom Jackson, who was in the first episode I filmed, was also the first person [on the show] to ask me that question.
It sounds like I would be upset or angry when someone asks me that—it’s a very judgmental and hideous question—but actually, it didn’t bother me. Tom wasn’t trying to judge me for it; he was truly curious.
3. He was “discovered” on Instagram.
Speaking to the Telegraph, he explained:
I owned a few ladies apparel brands and one of my business partners is a very popular blogger in the US. I was featured on her Instagram every now and then, because we were promoting our brand. This was seen by somebody in the offices of ITV, who were casting the show, and they asked to Skype. This was the last day before auditions closed, and it was meant to be a 20 minute chat.
Two hours later, the casting director said: ‘I’ve been casting for this for six months, I’ve seen over 2,000 people and you’re my favourite.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatevs.’”
Tan went forward to the audition process saying that he “just went to make friends”.
I never expected to walk away from that audition with a major show.”
4. His in-laws almost made him castrate a herd of cows before.
A gentle reminder here that his in-laws are Mormon and live on a cattle ranch in Wyoming, because context is important.
Tan told The Times:
I cried, so I had to go back to the kitchen. But they are the most lovely people, I love them very much.”
Fair, tbh.
5. John Bon Jovi stopped him for a selfie before.
Wonder if Tan convinced him to come on the show?
