For those of us lucky enough to remember the golden era of early noughties reality TV, Gok Wan is more than a man – he’s a millennial moment.
The stylist to the stars first burst onto our screens as the host of How to Look Good Naked in 2006, becoming our ‘Fairy Gokmother’ and teaching generations of women to love our bodies just as they are. But with his sharp, bespectacled eye for fashion, lace-gloved finger firmly on the pulse of what was hot, and trilby hat tipped towards the trends, he also had us millennials dutifully following his fashion commandments without question.
And when Metro catches up with the man himself, he insists he has no regrets.
‘It’s so funny because quite recently, there was somebody on TikTok that did a whole meme series of noughties TV fashion clips, and obviously I was all over it. People were going, “Oh my God, people used to do this! Oh my God!” But we’re talking about 20 years ago. It was a long time ago. Fashion, as you say, goes around and comes around, just in a different incarnation or a different colour or with even more exaggeration on it. For me, with fashion and style, I can’t hate anything.’
As Gok and any millennial can attest, there was no noughties outfit that couldn’t be pulled together by the power of an elasticated waist belt. Bonus points for a pop of colour and a chunky gold buckle for a bit of extra glam. Quiet luxury? We’d never heard of her.
And it looks like our trusty waist-cinchers could soon be making a comeback.
‘I think it’s waiting behind the door of next season. We’re already seeing huge shoulders, nipped-in waists and big skirts,’ he explains. ‘Everything is beautifully avant-garde and exaggerated. A belt is one of the first things we’d go to to accentuate those shapes. So yeah, I think the elasticated waist belt is literally on the periphery.’
Before TikTok and streaming services, millions of us still gathered on the sofa to watch the same thing at the same time, and How to Look Good Naked became proper primetime telly, turning Gok, now 52, into an instant household name. But behind the energetic confidence viewers saw on screen, Gok admits fame took some adjusting to.
‘I was sitting in a little two-bedroom flat in Vauxhall in central London, and I remember waking up and instantly feeling like the world knew who I was. I’d worked with so many celebs before that and while it was nowhere near the kind of exposure that many of my clients had, I associated fame with people wanting more information, and so I hid for quite a few days because I was trying to get my head around it.
‘Then I was out shopping with All Saints, who I was dressing at the time, and these two young girls knocked on the shop window. I kind of stood back, which is what I’d always done when I was with celebrities, but the girls came in and asked for MY autograph. That was the moment I realised my life had changed and that people weren’t trying to trip me up. They just wanted to say thank you a lot of the time.’
Every episode of How to Look Good Naked saw Gok help a woman struggling with body confidence learn to embrace her body, from understanding her proportions to finding the right bra size for their ‘bangers’.
And his infectious body-positivity has stood the test of time, with Gok – who has teamed up with lingerie brand Pour Moi to help women across the UK finally find their perfect fit and their confidence, a perfect partnership for a man who has been doing that exact thing for over 20 years – insisting he still gets stopped in the street daily.
‘The legacy of the show is something I’m really proud of. The interesting thing now that I DJ so much is I’m around a completely different generation. They’ll come up and tell me they used to watch me with their mum. And it makes me feel so incredibly proud of How to Look Good Naked, of our ethos, of what we achieved. Plus, I can still guess a woman’s bra size like a true expert. Whoever you are, I can size you on sight!’
And it’s not just us mere millennial mortals fangirling over Gok, as he tells Metro his star appeal extends to the A-list.
‘I was DJing at Pikes in Ibiza and Nick, who owns it, said, “Dua Lipa’s in tonight.” He went over to her and said, “Do you want to meet Gok Wan?” and apparently she was like, “Do I want to meet Gok Wan? Every girl wants to meet Gok Wan!”
‘I was like, “What? Dua Lipa?” But of course, she’s of that generation. Before she was Dua Lipa the megastar, she was a young girl learning about her body and her identity. I was part of that growing-up experience. Sadly, I had to go DJ so I didn’t get the chance to meet her but it was still lovely to know she was a fan!’
Gok’s big and bubbly personality not only made him a household name but also an easy target for comics to impersonate, from Kevin Bishop to Jon Culshaw.
But he tells us he always took the parodies in good humour, insisting: ‘It just made me laugh! When Horrible Histories did it, I felt really proud. And then with Kevin Bishop, I thought it was funny as hell. And I absolutely, 100 percent just took it as that. I was absolutely not offended at all, in the slightest.’
While Gok’s mission has always been to teach women to embrace their bodies in all shapes and sizes, he admits the return of the super skinny ideal amid the so-called ‘Ozempic era’ feels like a worrying step backwards.
‘I’m not shocked. I knew it was never going to go away. We definitely saw a change. We saw a movement. We campaigned to have plus-size mannequins in shop windows and ensure people were represented in campaigns and shop windows so clothing and fashion looked like the normal street you walked down. I think we need to be really honest and vocal with the next generation about it. Talk about the images they’re seeing and how they feel about them.’
Twenty years on from the first episode of How to Look Good Naked, Gok has expanded his skillset far beyond styling, releasing cookbooks and DJing in some of the world’s biggest clubs. But despite the longevity of his success, he admits people still often have the wrong impression of who he really is.
‘People think that I really genuinely care what people look like. And I don’t. I’ll only ever help people out if they’re asking for my help, and I’ll give them my opinion. But I couldn’t care if you’re wearing the latest fashion, whether you’ve got your make-up done or whatever. I care about the person that you are.
‘I think people still don’t know whether I’m real or not. Over my career, I’ve heard, “Oh, he’s not really gay. He’s definitely straight.” People also think that I live in this kind of concrete, grey expanse of minimalism. It’s not. I live in colour and textures. I don’t live the celebrity lifestyle. I don’t only go on yachts on my holidays or eat at fancy restaurants or whatever. I love garden centres with my family. There’s nowhere I’d rather be.’
Same Gok, same.
For more information on Gok Wan x Pour Moi ‘Designed to Fit’ campaign visit here.