'Project Runway' is breaking barriers in body inclusivity with new season, thanks to Tim Gunn

"Where are these clothes that women can buy?"

Tim Gunn has been asking this semi-rhetorical question about plus-size fashion for years. The longtime Project Runway mentor and former Liz Claiborne chief creative officer is on a mini-crusade to remedy the lack of body inclusivity in the industry — the lingering disparity of designer garments in sizes above a 12.

"That’s my challenge to the industry," he says. "Women want choices, they want to be able to just decide for themselves what they want to wear instead of having a limited number of items they can choose."

Gunn won a major victory with Season 16 of the Lifetime designer competition series (premiering Thursday, 8 ET/PT), which includes models who range from sizes 0 to 22 for the first time in its 13 -year history. Models are assigned to contestants by judges and the production staff, and they're rotated frequently, so all are met with a variety of body types through weekly challenges.

'Project Runway' will feature models from sizes 0-22

"I’ve been wanting to do this for quite a number of seasons," Gunn says. "To be blunt, the network has been quite nervous about it. The whole fashion industry is nervous, despite the fact that people are now talking about size inclusivity."

What, exactly, are they nervous about, when according to a study from the International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, the average American woman is a size 16?

It's hard to pinpoint.

For designers on the show, it's thinking about fit and not just a sample-size mannequin, a skill that's not easily mastered with 24 to 48 hours on the clock.

"I think the designers wanted to flee," Gunn says. "We didn’t tell them in advance."

Some struggled, including contestant Brandon Kee, who has a background in menswear and was visibly nervous as the model assignments were made. But Kee and his fellow designers largely succeed in their first assignment, creating a red carpet-ready look.

And, the dreaded "real women" episode, a perennial challenge that tasks designers with creating pieces for non-models, took on a different tone. 

"The work was the best it had ever been," Gunn says. "They learned something that is so beneficial to their future, and that’s invaluable."

That's certainly the case with Runway's most notable alum, Christian Siriano, who has seamlessly included models of various sizes in his recent runway shows, and answered a call from Leslie Jones for a red-carpet gown after the Ghostbusters actress said no designers would dress her 6-foot frame.

But Jones' plight didn't shock Gunn, who recalls plus-size women asking him at Liz Claiborne why the industry was turning its back on them.

"I'd take this back to design directors at the brands," he says, and "they would say, 'I’m not interested in her.' I was just astounded by it."

But he hopes that as designers such asSiriano show greater body diversity on runways and in fashion spreads, a sea change will come.

On Project Runway, the variety in models is, for now, a one-time deal.

"I believe that this step is very profound, and it’s rather revolutionary," Gunn says. "And I believe we just have to keep doing it. I think one season only, and it’ll be forgotten pretty quickly and beg the question why aren’t you still doing it? And we need just to keep at it."