Auntie Gok

I have just finished reading Gok Wan’s biography; ‘through the thick and thin’.  It is a very good read and I highly recommend it.  I can’t help thinking, maybe hoping, that many of you reading this are just as big fans of Gok as myself and Princess.

He was not always the confident fashion queen we know and love on our TV screens now.  He went through years of trauma and bullying for being overweight, and dealt with this with theatrics and self deprecating comments, before others could beat him to a bullying punch line.  He developed anorexia and struggled greatly with self confidence, as so many of us do.

In terms of being gay, he had struggled to understand and then put a label on his feelings and desires, at the same time knew it was not accepted and hid it for years from his family – sound familiar?

My interpretation of his story is that his turning point was being approached to produce the ‘naked’ series.  As he stripped women to their core at the beginning of each show and watched them build in confidence by the end of filming, he began to realise what an important impact the show was having on these ladies.  It was also having an impact on him coming to terms with his own body issues.

Reviewing the feedback once the first series was aired, it began to dawn on him the show was delivering an important message to the public.  It started a frenzy in challenging the media perceptions of fashion and women’s body shapes.  It was promoting women accepting themselves for who they are; as you know a passionate favourite topic of mine.

Those of you who watched later series may remember the show tackled more and more challenging issues.  Gok dressed women with disabilities.  My favourite as the most moving episode, was Gok trying to ‘show’ a blind woman how she could look good.  He had to find alternative ways of communicating how colours, fabrics, body shapes etc looked.

He convinced retailers to use models in wheelchairs, he worked with the government on educating school children on how to be confident about their bodies.  Is there no end to Saint Gok’s mission?

With this in mind I have often found myself thinking he should really have done a show dressing a trans girl!  I can’t think of anything more challenging to the general public than that, can you?

So having read his book, I am not wondering if I can get in touch; ‘through his people’, and suggest it.  What do you think?  Would any of you volunteer?